TrainDad

My son saw a photo of the Rope ‘N Ride Ranch and imme­di­ately said, “where’s the smokestack?”

Quick to be help­ful, I answered, “It’s right over h… uh… where’s the smokestack?”

That’s right. Geo­t­rax, well known for their great detail (check out the horse­shoe prints on the hill), for­got to put a smoke­stack on this steamer.

This is an engine rem­i­nis­cent of the clas­sic 4–4-0 Amer­i­can. But it doesn’t have a ten­der, either; that only leaves three options.

1. Maybe it’s a sad­dle tanker (just being obvi­ous here, since it has sad­dle tanks on the sides). But a sad­dle tanker needs a smoke­stack, so this really isn’t an option after all.
2. Maybe it’s a “fire­less.” That’s the only kind of steam engine with­out a smoke­stack; it’s just a big tank that would be charged with steam. But then it doesn’t need the sad­dle tanks, so what’s up?
3. Maybe it’s a fake — a gas or diesel or elec­tric engine that just has a steam-like facade built around it. We fre­quently take rides on a sim­i­lar “steam engine” locally. Unlikely, though, since they are plac­ing this in the era of the Old West. The great irony of this pos­si­bil­ity, of course, is that it really is an elec­tric engine made to look like a steam engine.

While I’m whin­ing about picky lit­tle things, I might as well give you one more: the Ama­zon page linked above lists the engine’s name as “Rusty the Steam Engine.” Not quite right: Fisher-Price named it “Old Rust” and even trade­marked the name.