All Aboard

It was another day at Largo Central Park a couple weeks ago. This time for the first-weekend-of-the-month running of the Largo Central Railroad. This is where a club of train hobbyists gives free rides on (1:10 scale?) model trains around a 1.2 mile track inside the park. They have diesels as well as steam engines (with little coal fired boilers and everything) and usually have four or five engines out on a given weekend.



The diesels are faster and can pull more people, but I really like the steam engines for the cool factor. You end up covered with coal dust and I try to hold my breath in the tunnel, but its a lot of fun. And I'm not even a big model train guy.

Some people really get into it. It's hilarious to watch old guys act like little boys when there's a model train around. My neighbor John is about my dad's age and every year he sets up his model train around the Christmas tree. My boys went over to his house to see it and the three of them played with the train for almost an hour.

The track at the park goes over a little pond and through a tunnel, which of course is the coup de grace, and there are bells and lights and little crossing arms where it goes over a sidewalk -- a real quality setup.



We rode the last train of the day, so I got to ask about the daily count. 1,938 people rode the trains that day, a Sunday, which is about average. Their all-time high is 3,500 in a single day.