Re: I wanta be an Engineer for a day.

Personally, I don't think any "engineer or fireman for a day" program is a good idea. Here's why, and I speak from some experience:
A number of years ago (pre-Friends of C&TS), I spent the better part of a week as a student fireman and switchman on the C&TS--just in the yard mind you, no road work. I was picked for this duty partly because I had a fair working knowledge of the General Code of Operating Rules. I was lucky to fire for several very knowledgeable (and patient) engineers. (I have tremendous respect for "good steam hands", and I believe the C&TS, for one, has a number of them.) What I found out was that firing was a very complex job. More importantly, the safety of the locomotive (everything from water level to watching the fireman's side of the train during switching moves) requires constant attention. It's NOT railfanning! After nearly a week of firing in the yard, I was minimally competent as a fireman and I could do one thing essential to survival pretty well: prime and run the injector. As far as firing on the road, well I wasn't ready to try that--that's at a whole 'nother level.
Notice here that I have said nothing about running a locomotive. I would think that a least a couple of weeks of training (and a thorough knowledge of the rules) would be necessary before anyone should be permitted to barely open the throttle on a steam engine. (They're a helluva lot different than a diesel, and I--frankly--wouldn't want an experienced diesel engineer opening the throttle on steam engine without plenty of instruction.)
I don't blame anybody for wanting to run a steam locomotive. But it's not something someone can do with 10 minutes of instruction--and the C&TS (or any other railroad) would be foolish to permit it, in my opinion. Now if someone wants to train as a fireman just like a regular employee would do, and is willing to invest the time to do so, well, maybe that's another story.
Flame away, but we should remember that this is not 12" to the foot model railroading. It's the real thing.