Trains, Trains, Everywhere

So, I picked up my grandson Miles this morning after an appointment, and we got into what he dubbed (for reasons unknown to me) my "super car," and set off to the train display at the Cincinnati Museum Center, in the Cinti. Historical Center and the Children's Museum. We took the pic above on our walk from the parking lot to the museum, the historical and beautiful Cincinnati Union Terminal train station.

The first train display we stopped and marveled at was a recreation of Cincinnati's downtown, circa 1940, complete with trains, riverboats, and of course beautifully authentic models of many buildings that still stand (and others I remember from my childhood). Surrounding this display were others of Union Terminal itself, Ivorydale (the sprawling Procter & Gamble plant on the north side), the Mount Adams and Clifton inclines, and more.

Another long stop was a flatboat re-creation which had removable wall planks, which Miles just loved...mostly the demolition stage of the process. He made Crappaw do most of the building part.

And then we finally got to the holiday train display, deep in the bowels of the children's museum (probably not a great metaphor, but I was surprised at how big the place was!).

There were many different train displays, featuring trains of varying scales, and all done well enough to send Miles and me into rapturous ecstasy and ecstatic rapture!

And lo and behold, there was also a nice big train table to play on, which occupied Miles for a good hour or so.

And there were other interactive train displays. In one, there were 6 or 8 buttons to push to control different functions in the plexiglas-encased village, like a switch or a rotating light. And another small display had a button that could be held down to make the train go or released to make it stop. Miles's favorite technique could best be described as stopgostopgostopgostopgo stopgostopgostopgostopgo stopgostopgostopgostopgo.

And that still wasn't all. There was a train for Miles to ride ON! Crappaw was too big to join him, but Miles was undeterred. He even got to sit in the engine of the three-car train and ring the bell! It was hard to tear ourselves away from it all, but we managed somehow, and on the way back home, Miles took a well-deserved nap before an also-well-deserved (and very late) lunch at McDonald's in Oxford.

1 comment:

  1. Wow! This looks like something my youngest son would just love. Miles is going to have so many fond memories of his times spent with Crappaw! He's one lucky dude! You're a lucky dude, too!

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