# Took the kid train huntin'



## smokey (Mar 6, 2008)

Doing the bills here, I had to take a break....

Wanted to share with my train friends, I took my 6yo son Nick to the Houston Train Museum last weekend. It happens to be spittin' distance from UP's Englewood Yard  A hump yard, at that :thumbsup:

He really liked the museum. You walk thru about 6~7 coupled passenger cars before exiting that part. They have all sorts of old memorabilia, videos going here and there, display cases. Most of the cars are still in need of restoration, but it still way-cool to see the old accommodations, the sleeping areas, etc., especially for a kid ("they're so small!!"). They also had a new arrival, a passenger coach, almost in better shape than the rest but missing trucks, sitting on a flat car. Three switcher locos, a really cool helium-tank car, a few other items... a little speeder-like thing...really cool. And I was told they had two cabooses sitting on a siding off site because they couldn't get their switch to work or something. We'll have to go back 

They also have an HO layout (with the museum and it's cars modeled, of course) in a passenger car, off by itself. Thomas and the crew are there for the youngins'... It wasn't running too well, but still cool. 

Then off to Englewood... man, that place is freaking HUGE!!! A sign of the poor state of railroad business (tho I hear it's picking up) were thirty-something UP locos, looking coupled, sitting off in the back, unused. It looked pretty cool to see such a lash-up!!! We watched the hump in action- too cool for a little dude. He thought it was great. We saw three or four of the new ultra-low emissions GenSets... funny looking, but in a cool way.

Anyway, things weren't hopping as much as I hoped, he was starting to get bored, I guess, so we decided to make one more stop for a couple minutes and if nothing happened, we'd leave.

We ended up staying another hour or so  It was kinda funny. Then out of nowhere, one of the guys from the museum pops up  We end up running around chasing trains, checking old crossings and towers, a dismantled yard, a point where three main lines come together to head into town and the yard... (I think that's right, he was a little tough to understand at times.) Saw one of the trains we saw leave the yard (we had been watching him all day and actually gave up on him) coming and chased him a bit. 

A good boys-day-out :thumbsup:

Anyway... I gotta get back to work here :lol_hitting: You know how it is... I could go on all day :laugh: 

I'd been to the museum once before (oh yeah, we even got freebies when leaving!!), but been to the yard countless times before with my wife and daughter, but that was 10 or so years ago.

Cool, now me and the boy can do it...

Yeah, yeah... pics!! The doggone camera was in the car and we ended up taking the truck. Next time  So much to see... it'd be a hundred pics+ !!!!

Welp, y'all have a good one  I'm going back to crying on the kitchen table, er, I mean, doing the bills!! Whaaaa!!!!

L8R


(sheesh... did a preview post... sorry, guys!!! Like I said... could go on all day !!!)


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## Boston&Maine (Dec 19, 2007)

That sounds like quite the day there Smokey! I am sure that your son really enjoyed everything... Watching a hump yard must be fun in real life, I have only seen one in action on TV... That is too bad about all of the UP locomotives, maybe I can make and offer on one :laugh:



smokey said:


> Yeah, yeah... pics!! The doggone camera was in the car and we ended up taking the truck. Next time  So much to see... it'd be a hundred pics+ !!!!


LOL, you knew that we were going to ask, and I was going to, until I saw this 

PS: I went train hunting today too and scored more than planned; check out the Prototype section on the forum!


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## smokey (Mar 6, 2008)

Boston&Maine said:


> smokey said:
> 
> 
> > Yeah, yeah... pics!! The doggone camera was in the car and we ended up taking the truck. Next time  So much to see... it'd be a hundred pics+ !!!!
> ...


After seeing my words posted, the first thing I thought was- oh crap, I'm a tease :laugh:!!!



Boston&Maine said:


> PS: I went train hunting today too and scored more than planned; check out the Prototype section on the forum!


Saw your pics- nice :thumbsup: I tell ya, some of those pics remind of that saying, the prototype imitating the models!!! Some of those pics could be right off a really well done model layout!!




Somewhere is that thread of our recent additions... I'm gonna add a couple things to that in a bit  I guess my line of choice has been chosen... :thumbsup:





Oh, and SP, I tried to do a multi-quote but it wouldn't do it. I had to do it manually  Ehhh... I guess y'all are worth it


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## Boston&Maine (Dec 19, 2007)

smokey said:


> Oh, and SP, I tried to do a multi-quote but it wouldn't do it. I had to do it manually  Ehhh... I guess y'all are worth it :


Yes, this forum has multi-quoting disabled, which is actually not a bad thing... When it is allowed, people just keep quoting and quoting, not realizing that they should take the old stuff out, causing the page to become like 100 feet long, all of the same stuff over and over


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## smokey (Mar 6, 2008)

Yeah, I've seen that and it can get ridiculous... 

With great power comes great responsibility   !!!!!!! 


Used wisely(!), it can be fun at times. Ehh, it's not hard to do it manually and as rare as it is that I do multi-quotes, that's fine with me!!!


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## sptrains.com (Mar 18, 2008)

:ttiwwop:

It sounds like a great day out with your son. I love taking my son out on adventures too.


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## Lownen (Mar 28, 2008)

smokey said:


> . . . I tell ya, some of those pics remind of that saying, the prototype imitating the models!!! Some of those pics could be right off a really well done model layout!!


You mean like this?










Or this?

http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=231017


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## smokey (Mar 6, 2008)

WTF?! I ain't ever seen no crap like that  !!!!!!!! That is crazy looking!!!! You got any info on either, Lownan? Where/what? The second one looks like a mine off to the bottom (duh, I read a bit more and found it's info), the top looks almost like a sanding/fueling area... but not.... Wow. Very funny.

SP, me and the boy hang out quite a bit. You gotta raise them right and in order to do so... you gotta spend the time with them... heh... that's my bud 

Anyway, we're going back, not this weekend but next. I'll be picking-up one of my co-workers and his kid (about the same age as my boy). Go back to the museum, hang out at the yard a while....


...AND I'LL TAKE MY CAMERA :knock_teeth_out:!!!!!!!


Hey, SP, is there a particular place to put weird, unusual train pics? Maybe train accidents? I was searching for some Santa Fe F-unit pics (can not believe how hard it was to find a shot I liked of the most recognizable train in history ), and found a few goodies: a van getting hit by a train on a double line, then getting punted and exploding by a second train coming the other way, a few crunched train cars... stuff like that?


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## Boston&Maine (Dec 19, 2007)

smokey said:


> AND I'LL TAKE MY CAMERA :knock_teeth_out:!!!!!!!


Hahahaha, that smilie could not have put it better :cheeky4:



smokey said:


> Hey, SP, is there a particular place to put weird, unusual train pics? Maybe train accidents?


I would probably create a thread about it in either the "Model Train Photo Gallery" or right here in the "General Model Train Discussion"...


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