Train fans
by rebecca ~ March 8th, 2007. Filed under: Uncategorized.
Last Saturday our small family dedicated ourselves to trains, trains, and then more trains. We first headed to Bandana Square, which back in my childhood had been quite the fancy shopping mall (inside restored train yard buildings), but today the area has dwindled down to a hotel, empty warehouse space, and, most pertinently, the Twin City Model Railroad Museum.
Our son was thrilled to be amongst other Thomas the Train fans pushing trains over bridges and tunnels at the play tables, but he also spent a good amount of time racing around to explore the expansive model train set, which replicates the Twin Cities glory days of the 30’s-50’s in train transportation.
I think our son enjoyed most the tiny button he could press to get the Northern Pacific train to kick into another journey through the 3000 square feet space.
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An aside: My mother just told me a story of her trip through Cree country in Canada, where Cree people would stand in small groups near the tracks, even at night, and the trains would stop to pick them up. The stopping to pick up folks in Indian country also happened when my grandfather was a child in the Blackduck/Bemidji area, where Anishinaabe people would flag down trains for rides through their tribal lands.
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After the model museum, we decided to head to the Jackson Street Roundhouse, built in 1907, where trains were brought for servicing. The buildings had that smell of tar from the railroad ties, and above you see the little man very intently taking his first ride inside a diesel engine, a Northern Pacific 105, 1200 horsepower Diesel Switcher. Sigh, perhaps you can sense that I am beginning to turn into a train fan myself; yet, let it be known that my husband succumbed even earlier to our son’s passion for the train.