All Aboard!

I hear those trains a comin'
comin' 'round the bend.
I rode so many of 'em I've reshapen my rear end…

The English teachers in my high school used to tell me "write what you know." Of course that didn't help much because I didn't know anything. I was a high school student for Heaven's sake!

But at this stage of my life I can definitely see their point. And, since I'm becoming an expert on scale trains in Northern California, I feel like maybe i should start reviewing them.

And you wouldn't believe how many of them there are out there! Traintown, the Oakland Zoo, the San Francisco Zoo, Fairyland, Tilden Park, Happy Hollow in San Jose. And a coworker just turned me on to a place called Pixieland out in Concord that really looks like a blast. The train goes around a duck pond. When you're 4, that is some serious excitement.

Before my nephew came along and invented what appears to be his own train-themed religion, I never knew these things existed.

I took some photos of him on the Tilden Park Steam train, operated by the Redwood Valley Railway. David loves this train. Well, David loves all trains. David loves BART, but this train is cheaper, more reliable and infinitely more hygienic.

Kurt "big daddy" True
12 january 2004