Visiting Princeton New Jersey anything to look for?
My wife is giving a presentation on NASA data at the college there in 2 weeks and I get to play with the baby for a few days. Is there anything I might miss in a quick Google search that I would kick myself if I missed?
Besides train things (He loves trolleys and calls “Dang! Dang!” for the bell) can you think of anything a 16 month old would like to see here?
Thanks.
A couple of miles outside of town is Princeton Junction, a stop on Amtrak’s corridor. You would see some NJ Transit as well as Amtrak trains pass with some frequency… Nassau Hobbies used to be downtown - don’t know if it still is there or not.
Don’t miss the Dinky!
A perfect train ride for you and your boy. Just walk across campus to the train station and ride the “dinky” from Princeton to Princeton Junction and back. There’s bathrooms and snacks available at either end of the 10 minute ride. You could hang at PJ for a few minutes and catch some action on the NEC. You’ll see an Acela at speed if you’re there at the right time. Lot’s of NJ Transit trains to see.
Have fun!
The closest train store worth seeing is Trains and Things on Scotch Rd. near the Mercer airport. They have a nice little operating layout and a bunch of Lionel, MTH, and Williams product on display. Small, but well stocked. Even a circle of MTH standard gauge. It’s about 6 miles from Princeton. I can give directions if needed.
Thanks for all the good advice. I like the idea of the dinkey to watch the Acela. I’m sure we will give that a go. It is nice to hear that there is still such a huge difference in passenger offerings in these days of cutbacks. This seems about baby speed too. Thanks.
When I lived back east I was steps from the Northeast Corridor through Providence. I was there as a they where preparing for high speed service. Hanging lines super-elevating curves and placeing concrete ties. Unfortunately I left before the trains made thier debut so I have yet to see the Acela running. I remember seeing the local Providence and Worcester train shifting paper cars at the newspaper plant on Harris Ave. Then go through the new curves at switcher speed and the engineer was struggling to stay in his seat as the engine tilted. Super elevation is great for speed but seems tricky to the slow freight.
Thanks again to the best travel agency on the web.
Its a quick train ride into Philadelphia, as well, so if you want to ride the train and check out some of those sights, that is a quick and easy day trip.
Go see the Pacific Southern Railroad in Rocky Hill, N.J. Its less than 20 minutes from the Priceton University gates. The PS is an HO scale layout that is magnificant. The layout is often used for background by Mantua to photograph their catalogs. The layout is only open to the public during the Christmas Season, but you can contact them via their website: pacificsouthern.org. Hopefully you can make arrangements to see it.
Thanks very much. These both sound like good possibities.