TrainDad

Today our lit­tle guy, Jonathan, turned three years old. The biggest adven­ture cen­tered around “Day Out With Thomas” at the North Car­olina Trans­porta­tion Museum. This event hosted the “real” Thomas — the live steam Porter-conversion brought in from the Strass­burg (In case you don’t know, the major­ity of these events use non-powered ver­sions that rely on local power). I’ve not planned on par­tic­i­pat­ing in one of these events, because the price is crazy for some­thing that you don’t even really get to expe­ri­ence. I mean, if you could actu­ally ride on Thomas him­self, that would be some­thing spe­cial; but rid­ing in a pas­sen­ger car behind Thomas is no dif­fer­ent than rid­ing in the same car behind any other loco­mo­tive. And doing it with 400 other scream­ing tod­dlers isn’t exactly my idea of a “day out” — a day out of my mind, more like it. In any case, a lov­ing uncle bought tick­ets, so there we were.

The ride was about what I expected; Jonathan enjoyed it, though, and I’m glad we had the oppor­tu­nity. We got much more excite­ment out of watch­ing Thomas drive. If you go to one of these events, I rec­om­mend ask­ing right up front where the best view­ing loca­tion is to see Thomas start up. That’s the excit­ing moment, as he belches smoke and steam and the dri­ving wheels slip. We also watched him from above, stand­ing on a bridge. He tooted his tinny Eng­lish whis­tle once as he went under, his engi­neer lean­ing out the win­dow and waving.

One of the things Jonathan enjoyed most was the Norfolk-Southern engine on a side track. They allowed vis­i­tors into the cab, let them sit in the driver’s seat and han­dle the con­trols. With the engine run­ning, it was a great expe­ri­ence to push the throt­tle and hear the diesel roar. And it’s always a delight to blow the horn!

Other high­lights included rides on a “caboose train” and a large HO-scale model rail­road set up by a local club.

Finally, Jonathan received a Geo­T­rax Grand Cen­tral Sta­tion set as a birth­day gift. This is the “expanded set” with extra cars and a DVD. JB was so excited he just didn’t know how to express it. Aero is his new favorite — he asked if he could sleep with Aero tonight.

Lots to talk about over the next few days… notes on Thomas and Geo­t­rax and Track­Mas­ter and more. Stay tuned!

We vis­ited the NC Trans­porta­tion Museum this week­end, and were delighted with the spec­tac­u­lar facil­ity, impres­sive col­lec­tion, and the low cost to expe­ri­ence it all.

Nes­tled on main street in this lit­tle town out­side of Char­lotte, the NC Trans­porta­tion Museum is a hid­den gem with the goal of becom­ing a pre­mier des­ti­na­tion. It is located in the for­mer South­ern Rail­way loco­mo­tive repair facil­i­ties, and their dis­plays are cen­tered around a won­der­ful round­house and turntable. The first happy sur­prise is that there is no cost to enter the museum: it is free. Yup, F-R-double-E. Gotta like that.

Most peo­ple start their visit with a ride on the train. Prices are bet­ter than rea­son­able: $6 for adults, $5 for kids and seniors, and kids under three are free. Their col­lec­tion of loco­mo­tives is large enough that they rotate their motive power monthly; check their web site to see what will be dri­ving at the time of your visit. Of par­tic­u­lar note is that you can take a ride in the cab for only $10, first come-first served. That sin­gle thing might be the most impres­sive ele­ment of the whole place.

The train departs from their (beau­ti­ful) depot to the round­house. It stops to let peo­ple unload, then heads back. Tick­ets are needed for this out­go­ing leg of the ride, but not for the trip back. Thus, clever plan­ning can get you sev­eral rides for one low cost. I’d sug­gest rid­ing out, tour­ing the round­house, then rid­ing back; then, take a walk­ing tour through the gift shop and var­i­ous dis­plays in mechanic’s build­ings, which will drop you out right back at the round­house; hop on the train again for a free ride back.

The round­house is home to an impres­sive col­lec­tion of heavy metal. On the steam side there is a Shay, two 2–8-0 Con­sol­i­da­tions, a 4–6-0 “ten-wheeler,” a 2–10-0 deca­pod, a cou­ple Porters, a saddle-tanker, and a fire­less. All are in good con­di­tion, and sev­eral are (more or less) oper­a­tional. The diesel side has too many to list, includ­ing an E-3, E-8, FP-7, Amtrak F-40, GP-9, GP-30, Fairbanks-Morse H-12–44, and a Bald­win AS-416. Notable inclu­sions are three major pas­sen­ger engines: two of the clas­sic South­ern green-and-white E– and F– series, and the unmis­tak­able pur­ple and white of the Atlantic Coast Line. The South­ern engines are reg­u­larly used to run the pas­sen­ger routes, along with sev­eral other diesels. Sadly, no steam is cur­rently used.

Also inside the round­house are the museum work­shops. At any given time there will be a dozen engines and cars in the shop being worked on. Easy access lets you watch the work happen.

While at the round­house, hop onto the turntable for a ride. It does cost an extra buck, but they give you quite a few spins.

Between the round­house and the sta­tion are long work­shop build­ings that house nice col­lec­tions of auto­mo­biles, a few planes, and a gift shop. We ran out of time to see more than a glimpse of the main auto collection.

A major devel­op­ment is in the works as they con­vert the enor­mous back­shop into a new dis­play space. It looks good so far, but has a long way to go.

There is much more to see and expe­ri­ence. The entire col­lec­tion of equip­ment is enor­mous: 13 pages long, in the lat­est list. Much of it is in fine cos­metic con­di­tion. There are many nor­mal pieces — box­cars and the like — but there are also some unique items. One par­tic­u­larly fas­ci­nat­ing exam­ple is a one-of-a-kind mon­ster machine built by the Nor­folk South­ern to drive the tracks while scoop­ing up bal­last, clean­ing it, and spread­ing it back out.

Across the street is a great model rail­road shop and a small restau­rant with good burg­ers, dogs, and ice cream.

Give it a try. This is a museum that won’t disappoint!