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It’ll be “all aboard” today at Charles Wilson Park in Torrance as members of the Southern California Live Steamers give free and unlimited train rides with scale-model locomotives that capture the nostalgia of America’s railroad history. Four or five different locomotives are brought to the park on the first Sunday of each month. Depending on which trains are circling the park’s track today, people will be transported by Civil War-era steam engines with cowcatchers and diamond-shaped smokestacks, or by streamlined diesels from the 1940s. Passengers ride in cars pulled by the locomotives during the five- to seven-minute excursions, which will take place between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. The park is at 2200 Crenshaw Blvd.

Model locomotives are built to a one-eighth scale of the original trains, said Wolfgang Fengler, president of the 50-member Live Steamers railroad club based in Lomita. Club members serve as engineers. “A lot of people are quite amazed,” Fengler said. “Many have never seen a steam engine, heard it, felt it or smelled it.” Not surprisingly, children are the biggest enthusiasts. “Some stick around for hours,” Fengler said.