Catch-up: Weekend of Firsts, Part 2

I'd forgotten to finish this.

We went to the miniature trains on Sunday.

The trains were pretty amazing. I'd never heard of this sort of thing before, but it turns out to be a real hobby, with clubs all over the country and probably the world. This was a free event that the local club, the Wausahkum Live Steamers, were throwing for the public; they do four or five of them a year, in good weather.

The trains vary in height from about six inches tall to perhaps two and a half feet. There are two different types, which run on different kinds of tracks; the larger ones run on tracks set on the ground, and the smaller ones run on tracks which are raised about three feet into the air on concrete pylons. You ride the raised-track trains by sitting sideways on the tiny passenger cars and letting your feet dangle down to the ground, far below the level of the tracks themselves. From what I saw, only two or three people at most could ride on a raised train at a time. But they went pretty fast.

The ground-level trains have coaches to scale. The tops of the coaches are padded, and passenger sit on them. They're only about two feet tall at most, and there's nothing to hold on to with your hands, so you clench the coach with your legs are hard as you can. It's a little scary at first; the trains probably go at least 15-20 miles per hour, and I worried about falling off. The bridges are built to scale as well, so I often had to duck to avoid being brained. Still, it was a lot of fun.

Many of the engines are real working scale models of steam engines, with amazing blasts of heat coming from the fireboxes (which are fueled with real coal). They have whistles, steam, the works. Some of the engines were scale models of Diesel trains, and mostly seemed to be fueled with lighter fluid. A few low-end trains were simply powered with a couple of car batteries. Some of the larger and more detailed steam locomotives, we were told, cost $25,000.00!

The club grounds themselves were themselves pretty neat. They were far off in the woods in Holliston, Massachusetts; the directions to get there were quite complicated. The main staging area had a large (miniature) turntable, with a hydraulic lift built in. It fascinated Sebastian, who was in heaven.

The club members all seemed to be tinkerers as much as rail enthusiasts, constantly working on their engines.

The tracks were incredibly intricate, snaking through the woods in all sorts of complex loops and interconnections. There was a long tunnel, a couple of covered bridges, and some scale buildings, including a water tower. The raised track looped in among the ground track quite neatly.

Rides were free, as was admission. Engineers stopped their trains on the passenger track, and people just climbed on. So we got on a train with Sebastian.

As I said, it was exhilarating but a bit scary, too - those trains aren't really designed for the comfort of taller people (lthough I later rode on one that had seat-backs and was much more comfortable)

Sebastian liked the ride, but when it was over he decided that he was too scared to do it again. We pressured him into giving it another try, and suddenly he decided that he loved the trains - and rode ten more times, on a number of different ones.

We had a great time. We'll be going to the next one if at all possible.

On the way to the trains we had spotted a carnival, so we stopped there on the way home even though the sky was getting quite cloudy. Sebastian rode the Ferris wheel with me (his first ride on a Ferris wheel ever), and showed no fear at all of heights; I was delighted, since I like Ferris wheels and Teri can't ride on them (she has agoraphobia). Not only was Sebastian fearless, but he waved at Teri and her mother when we were at the very top of wheel, making the seat tilt alarmingly. He giggled.

Teri later told me that she'd wished she had the camera, because the look on his face as we rode was priceless. All I can say is that sitting high up in the sky with Sebastian is an experience I'll treasure forever.

"The people and rides and cars look like toys!", he said.

All three of us went on the bumper cars (Teri's mother sat out of that one) and had a great time. That was also a first for him. Then he took a solo ride on a kid's roller coaster as well, and loved it. It was surprisingly fast for a kid's ride, but he chortled the whole time and raised his arms on the fast curves.

Just when we were all getting tired, the sky opened up and the rain started to come down hard. Sebastian was sad, but we ran for the car and went home.

That's about it.

Catch-up: Weekend of Firsts, Part 2

I'd forgotten to finish this.

We went to the miniature trains on Sunday.

The trains were pretty amazing. I'd never heard of this sort of thing before, but it turns out to be a real hobby, with clubs all over the country and probably the world. This was a free event that the local club, the Wausahkum Live Steamers, were throwing for the public; they do four or five of them a year, in good weather.

The trains vary in height from about six inches tall to perhaps two and a half feet. There are two different types, which run on different kinds of tracks; the larger ones run on tracks set on the ground, and the smaller ones run on tracks which are raised about three feet into the air on concrete pylons. You ride the raised-track trains by sitting sideways on the tiny passenger cars and letting your feet dangle down to the ground, far below the level of the tracks themselves. From what I saw, only two or three people at most could ride on a raised train at a time. But they went pretty fast.

The ground-level trains have coaches to scale. The tops of the coaches are padded, and passenger sit on them. They're only about two feet tall at most, and there's nothing to hold on to with your hands, so you clench the coach with your legs are hard as you can. It's a little scary at first; the trains probably go at least 15-20 miles per hour, and I worried about falling off. The bridges are built to scale as well, so I often had to duck to avoid being brained. Still, it was a lot of fun.

Many of the engines are real working scale models of steam engines, with amazing blasts of heat coming from the fireboxes (which are fueled with real coal). They have whistles, steam, the works. Some of the engines were scale models of Diesel trains, and mostly seemed to be fueled with lighter fluid. A few low-end trains were simply powered with a couple of car batteries. Some of the larger and more detailed steam locomotives, we were told, cost $25,000.00!

The club grounds themselves were themselves pretty neat. They were far off in the woods in Holliston, Massachusetts; the directions to get there were quite complicated. The main staging area had a large (miniature) turntable, with a hydraulic lift built in. It fascinated Sebastian, who was in heaven.

The club members all seemed to be tinkerers as much as rail enthusiasts, constantly working on their engines.

The tracks were incredibly intricate, snaking through the woods in all sorts of complex loops and interconnections. There was a long tunnel, a couple of covered bridges, and some scale buildings, including a water tower. The raised track looped in among the ground track quite neatly.

Rides were free, as was admission. Engineers stopped their trains on the passenger track, and people just climbed on. So we got on a train with Sebastian.

As I said, it was exhilarating but a bit scary, too - those trains aren't really designed for the comfort of taller people (lthough I later rode on one that had seat-backs and was much more comfortable)

Sebastian liked the ride, but when it was over he decided that he was too scared to do it again. We pressured him into giving it another try, and suddenly he decided that he loved the trains - and rode ten more times, on a number of different ones.

We had a great time. We'll be going to the next one if at all possible.

On the way to the trains we had spotted a carnival, so we stopped there on the way home even though the sky was getting quite cloudy. Sebastian rode the Ferris wheel with me (his first ride on a Ferris wheel ever), and showed no fear at all of heights; I was delighted, since I like Ferris wheels and Teri can't ride on them (she has agoraphobia). Not only was Sebastian fearless, but he waved at Teri and her mother when we were at the very top of wheel, making the seat tilt alarmingly. He giggled.

Teri later told me that she'd wished she had the camera, because the look on his face as we rode was priceless. All I can say is that sitting high up in the sky with Sebastian is an experience I'll treasure forever.

"The people and rides and cars look like toys!", he said.

All three of us went on the bumper cars (Teri's mother sat out of that one) and had a great time. That was also a first for him. Then he took a solo ride on a kid's roller coaster as well, and loved it. It was surprisingly fast for a kid's ride, but he chortled the whole time and raised his arms on the fast curves.

Just when we were all getting tired, the sky opened up and the rain started to come down hard. Sebastian was sad, but we ran for the car and went home.

That's about it.