My twin grandchildren got their first close-up look at big-time railroading as BNSF ES44AC 6031 leads a southbound coal drag through Castle Rock, Colorado.
They loved it, of course.
I took my (now 31 year old) son out to watch BN trains on the Chicago “racetrack” back in 1982 when he was about this age and he only cried when the “big bad loud train” went by. He has never become interested in railroads like I am since. Oh well.
Matt was that little once.trainwatching is something we do together. he tells me what power is on the train.
stay safe
Joe
My only (for the season) grandson is turning five next month. I have yet to be able to keep him long enough for an honest-to-goodness train-watching trip. Last time he was over, he brought a train book along with him. I think he wanted me to read it to him, but I didn’t–instead we looked at and talked about the pictures (some very informed-looking paintings, suitable for a children’s book but pretty accurate). I think he learned more that way, and it held his interest.
After we went out to supper and their family headed home, he thanked me for sharing the book with him (neither parent had prompted him…his mother didn’t even know we were doing that). He really does seem to like trains, and probably knows more than the average five-year-old about them. I’ll lobby for a good session with him sometime this summer (now that he’s become a little more coherent).
The O.P.'s photo is nice; I hope their interest holds for a few more years yet.
Keep at it gentlemen! Corrupting the youth is a dirty job but someone has to do it!
Kids like trains. My grandchildren love the narrow guage steam in Maine as well as the Downeaster to Boston…Steamtown…and the cab ride I was able to sneak in for one of them. Its up to us grandpas to keep getting them aboard!
I was two years old the first time I rode a train; my mother, many years later, told me that I screamed from Plant City to Lakeland.; I had gotten over my terror, enjoying my next trip, by the time I was five years old.
Corrupt I did! My youngest son, who could never get up in time for school, would set the alarm clock on the weekends assuring to be up in time for me to take him to the local Amtrak station to see the train come in. This was usually around 4AM as we do not have daytime Amtrak trains, no hesitation on his part to get up and dressed, then waking me. This corruption never waned, today he’s an engineer with NS.
Here’s a joke about not getting up for school…
Mom walks into her sons’ bedroom. “Come on son, get up, you’re gonna be late for school!” “I’m NOT going to school! The kids all hate me, the teachers all hate me, I tell you I’m not going!”
“Yes you are! You’re 45 years old and you’re the principal!”