On Monday I took our oldest son Gregory (who’s almost 3 now) to Grand Island to take a train ride on a real train. As compared to the little mini train at Stolley Park which he has ridden numerous times.
Eastern view of the Operaton Lifesaver train.
Our original plan was Gregory and I would ride the train and Vanessa and Zeke would go shopping. We wanted to take Zeke with us but weren’t sure how long it would take and didn’t want him to get too fussy. As it turns out we ended up taking him anyway and took the ride as a family. This was our first train ride as a family. This was also Vanessa’s as well as the kids very first train ride.
Gregory enjoying the view
The whole event was sponsored by Operation Lifesaver to educate people about the dangers of rail crossings. They had a small presentation before we started which was very informative. I have decided that I will be taking the kids to do this again in a few more years when they can understand it a little better, as here in Nebraska we have a lot of railroad crossings and a ton of rail traffic.
Train Route
Our route started in downtown Grand Island and through a small town called Campbell and stopping in Central City about 22 miles north-east of Grand Island. The trip to Central City we went backwards and then on our return we went forward, since they don’t turn the train around.
All in all we had a good time, and will probably do this again next year.
We also happened to be riding the train with the Grand Island news crew who were doing a piece for the evening news on Operation Lifesaver. We made the news for about 30 seconds on each broadcast. Gregory made the spotlight and got a nice close up shot.
