Monday, August 30, 2010

All Aboard!

The engineer showing Sophie how to toot the horn.

















On our next to last day in Kansas, we took a ride on the little train that runs at the park next to the zoo. It only runs about 8 hours a week and is operated by retired trainmen. Men who know a thing or two about trains, whose lives were spent on the full size versions of this delightful ride.

The train was a major part of life in my hometown. At one time, the railroad employed a good number of people there, but times have changed, so much is automated these days, and most operations have moved to Kansas City and other larger cities. But there are still the tracks that run through the middle of my small town. Every day, just as has been happening for over a hundred years, trains rumble through on their way to far off destinations. At each crossing they blow their horn, and at night, when everyone is quiet, you can hear the trains from just about any house in town.

The trains don't stop for passengers in my town anymore, but that charming little train at the zoo gives our children a chance to taste a little bit of that nostalgia. Tickets cost 50 cents for a couple trips around the winding tree-covered quarter mile track. Does anything cost 50 cents anymore? I would pay a hundred times that and still call it a bargain.

14 comments:

  1. Things like that are so nice aren't they? We visit a carousel every year that costs a nickel!

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  2. At quacker Square in Ackron they have such a train parked there it was part of the Euclid Beach park ride.

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  3. Oh, my train-obsessed son would be in heaven!

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  4. I haven't been there, but I was told (and saw pictures) of something similar in Baltimore. It's in... let me see... here. Leakin Park. My boy came back with a train whistle. Very proud and happy.

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  5. Looks like fun! And what a steal for 50 cent!!! I'm all about deals these days! Sometimes I wish I could have lived in a simpler time when things weren't so automated.

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  6. Looks like fun and for 50 cents you can't go wrong.

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  7. That looks like a great time! Bet Sophie loved it! I know Gabe would!

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  8. That is so cute! We have a little train like that at our zoo. I remember it was a quarter when I was a kid. The last time I took my kids? It was like $4 or $5 bucks. That's crazy.

    Looks like Sophie had a blast!

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  9. 50 cents?? WHAT?!?! I think I'm gonna go to Kansas just to let Henry ride that thing until his head explodes.

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  10. There is something deeply comforting of a train whistle blowing. We can hear the one that rolls through White Marsh and I love it. I will miss it terribly when we move.
    As for the kiddie train, I love simple inexpensive treasures that let our kids peek into an older simpler time. Wish we had more of that.

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  11. Choo choo! Nothing like a train ride for the two year-old set. I can totally seeing bringing ten bucks to that train and having a nice little morning outing.

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  12. We have a train in our town, and the best part is hearing the whistle blow where ever you are!

    Love it!

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  13. This is a big RR town... Chattanooga Choo-Choo and all that.

    There are tracks a few miles away from my house. In fact, I can hear a train whistle right now!

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  14. I like the way your town preserved history through that small train. My daughter will definitely demand unlimited ride tickets. lol!

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Give me some sugar, baby!