Today’s train was the called the Pumpkin Patch Flyer. The train took us up the tracks to a pumpkin patch next to the railroad station in the little village of Wanamaker, PA. There we climbed down off the caboose and all the kids on the train got to pick out a pumpkin to take back with them. Most of the kids got a pumpkin then got right back aboard the train with their parents, but Grandpa and I waited beside the first passenger car so we could watch the big red locomotive couple back onto the train after running around on the passing siding.
The locomotive had a LOUD whistle, and I covered my ears every time the engineer blew it for a grade crossing. Grandpa always warned me when the engineer was about to blow for a crossing. That’s because we don’t want to bonk any cars that are crossing the tracks instead of waiting for the train to pass by first.
After our train ride we got off the caboose in Kempton and we got some stickers to put on my pumpkin to give it a happy face. We walked around the station area admiring the derelict train equipment, and Grandpa let me climb up onto some of the other cabooses and locomotives that were in the yard. Grandpa also showed me how to put a penny onto the top of the rail, then we watched as the big red locomotive rolled over it, and made it flatter and shinier!
The choo-choo ride was such fun that we rode it a second time – also in the cupola of the caboose, and we got asecond pumpkin to take home too!
This morning (the day after his adventure with Grandpa), Preston and I were playing trains in the basement. When he made it down the mainline of the train layout he said "Ok! Here we are at the pumpkin patch!"