Train Museum

On Father's Day we toured a train museum in Green Bay. Personally I gained a new grasp on train travel. The movies portray it so romantically, but in reality it must have been uncomfortable and annoying. I think all us gained an appreciation for the engineers who operated those "beasts". Some of them were HUGE and confusing!! The next few pictures are of one of the bigger trains there. Blase is standing by the opening where they put the coal. It was a massive chamber. I couldn't imagine trying to keep up with the shovelling and dealing with the amount of heat coming out of there. Cormac and Stephen are on the left hand side of the cab. There were knobs everywhere, at least 50 if not closer to 100. I should have taken a picture of the diagram. Then Rex and Stephen (obviously thinking he could run both sides?) are on the right hand side. Stephen is attempting to brake I think. The last picture in this group is Blase standing in front of the train. That is just the engine and the coal tender attached.

The next couple of pictures are of the boys and Darren inside the snow plow. Then Rex is standing in front the snowplow.

This last picture is of the boys and I inside the caboose. It was roomy and actually looked very functional. There was a table for eating and a couple of benches for sitting. There was a story about that particular caboose that said it was involved in a train wreck. As it happened, the caboose fell into an icy pond with someone inside of it. It remained underwater for 6 hours and yet the man came out of the caboose without injury. Personally - I wouldn't want to be stuck underwater in the caboose, but it must have been sturdy enough at one time.

After the museum we went out to eat and then home by scenic route. That was not fun as the van's AC is not working and it was hot outside. The drive itself was nice and we enjoyed seeing something different. We gave Darren his presents later that night. It turned out to be a wonderful day for all of us, not just Darren.