Backing out of the roundhouse

JAMESTOWN, Calif.--For 115 years, this small Gold Country town has been home to a steam locomotive repair and maintenance facility loved by tourists and Hollywood alike.

Featured in more than 200 movies and TV shows, and a favorite of train aficionados, Railtown 1897 State Historic Park here offers the opportunity to see how steam locomotives have worked for more than a century -- and even to take a ride in a passenger car pulled by one of the venerable engines.

As part of Road Trip 2012, CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman visited Railtown and got an up-close look at how hostlers -- the hard-working people that move steam locomotives around railyards -- handle the intense heat of their job.