There are so many ways to get around these days; planes, trains, automobiles, buses, taxi cabs, uber, lyft, you name it. I love the accessibility to travel anywhere, anytime, any day. I especially love trains and planes. In my last article, I talked about planes a lot. Now I want to talk about trains. When my dad used to take me to the airport in Burbank, CA at Bob Hope Airport, there were train tracks by the airport and Amtrak, Metrolink and Union Pacific come through. Every time the bells and whistles would go off, I would get so excited to watch the train come through.
When I was 8 years old, my dad took me and my brother to Traveltown, a train museum at Griffith Park, near Toluca Lake and Burbank, CA. It is one of the largest parks where there are hiking trails, horseback riding, bike trails and an observatory. This train museum features steam engines, locomotives, passenger cars, cabooses, boxcars and even has a miniature train that takes you around the park and gives you a tour. There are also model trains inside the museum and in the gift shop where you can take one home with you.
Growing up, my family and I would always decorate the house for Christmas and around the tree, we would have a train set going. One of them was the Union Pacific replica and another one was a gift from my uncle; the North Pole express train that when it went on the track it was able to flip one of the tracks. For my 7th birthday, I received my first train set; a Lionel train set that came with the steam engine, coal car, passenger car and caboose. It also had the tracks to set it up, animals around the train and a volcano sculpture to make it look like the train was in a safari.
Every year my dad used to take me to the Los Angeles and Orange County fairs. Inside the fair, they would have a building that had a model train exhibit which I loved exploring and I also got to play with the trains. They also had a model railroad outdoors where you can walk through and see how the trains are built. At the end of the tour, they have a side track with controls A, B, and C track and you get to operate your own toy train.
I should also mention that I loved watching Thomas the Tank Engine growing up and reading one of my favorite children's book The Little Engine that Could. I used to watch Thomas when it would come on PBS and my dad even got me a video of Thomas and Friends. I also used to rent movies from the library all the time.
When I got to college, the enjoyment of trains never faded away. In Huntington, IN near a restaurant called Pizza Junction, there is a train that comes through town almost every hour every day. You can always hear it at night when it blows its horn. I used to watch trains with my friend. In fact, one night we were bored, got a pumpkin pie with whipped cream and it was freezing cold and luckily, we got to see a train come through.
If you ever want to go to one of the largest model train industries in the midwest, you have to go to Entertrainment Junction in Mason, OH. It is one of the largest train exhibits and it is incredible. It is a timeline of events that show trains back in the 1800s into the Roaring 20s and up to present day. I took a friend there for her birthday and she loved it. I love trains, planes, and automobiles. Be sure to check out my article next week on cars.
