"Celebration of trains" in Dover, NH

[MEC407]

From Foster's Daily Democrat:

The Children's Museum of New Hampshire has created a special opportunity for young train enthusiasts that will include activities at the museum as well at the Dover Rail Yard. The museum's second annual Train Time event will take place on Sunday, June 10, noon-2 p.m. and all activities will be included in the museum's regular admission price ($9 adults & children, $8 seniors, children under 12 months old free).
...
The off-site part of the Train Time event takes place at the Dover Rail Yard at 75 Oak St. Families will be shuttled to and from the rail yard via complementary trolley service provided by Regal Limousine, leaving from outside the museum. At the rail yard, families will be able to tour an authentic Pan Am freight locomotive engine. Volunteers from Pan Am Railways will be conducting train tours, punching tickets and answering questions.

Read more at: http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar ... ertainment

[FatNoah]

Thanks for the information. I might try to take the train up for the event with my 4 year old. Looks like enough time in the schedule to get up for the event, have a late lunch, and head back home.

[MEC407]

Hope you and the little one have a great time! Take pictures!

[FatNoah]

My 4 year old and I took the trip up on Sunday to check out the event. We got on the first trolley load heading to the Dover yard. MEC #337 and the railroad police Humvee were there for the kids to check out. Needless to say, the highlight of the day was being able to climb aboard the locomotive and sit in the engineer's seat! The model train stuff at the museum wasn't terribly interesting to me, but the little guy liked being able to control the trains.

We drove up since I wanted to be there for the noon start to get over to the rail yard, though I did consider the Northbound DE that arrived at 12:37pm. It turned out to be a good decision since the line for the second trolley had more people than could fit, so some people had to wait a while. We have friends in the area, so we're already planning a future visit to the museum via the DE. The station is no more than 1/2 mile from the museum and is a pretty easy walk with sidewalked, downtown streets in between.

[MEC407]

Cool! Glad you and the young fella had a fun time.

[newpylong]

Allowing people on railroad equipment? I definitely did not work for this company in the mid 2000's, lol.

[MEC407]

Foster's Daily Democrat printed a follow-up article. The opening lines made me cringe (you'll see why), but otherwise it's a nice article:

The Children's Museum of New Hampshire hosted Dover Train Day with the co-operation of the Boston and Maine Railway, Guilford Transportation and AMTRAC.
...The five minute trip to the Oak Street grounds was fraught with anticipation. As it pulled up behind Salmon Falls pottery, a hush fell over the groups for looming into view was the huge gray engine PAN AM RAILWAY #337.

OK, I just need to get this out of my system and then I'll give you the link:

Boston and Maine RAILWAY?

AMTRAC?

Huge gray engine? I know she's a little dusty, but she's still visibly BLUE in the photos.

Guilford Transportation? Gone, died in 2006, R.I.P.



<serenity now, serenity now>


Here's the article link: http://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar ... -1/FOSNEWS


I'm glad the kids and grownups had such a great time, and Pan Am deserves a round of applause for participating.

[pnolette]

Allowing people on railroad equipment? I definitely did not work for this company in the mid 2000's, lol.

I'm starting to believe this company is really trying to change its image.Wonder what Fink Sr. thinks of all this!

[MEC407]

By the way, they did this last year as well. The June photo in this year's Pan Am calendar is of MEC 517 at Dover with kids and adults climbing all over it.

It would be great if they could team up with the Children's Museum of Maine to do something similar up here.

[jaymac]

Lest we forget departed occupational titles: "the fireman's seat."

[jr145]

Lest we forget departed occupational titles: "the fireman's seat."

Some people still call it that.