Trains at Marion and Findlay, Ohio

22 July 2007, Sunday. The Jones Family reunion was over and we were on our way back to Michigan with the Rauch family joining us for the week. We had stayed overnight in a hotel in Marion, so it was completely logical that we would head on down to Union Station to watch trains before leaving town.

By the way, Marion, Ohio is the hometown and burial place of the 29th president of the United States (and publisher of the Marion Star) Warren G. Harding. Marion is the rail center for CSX, Conrail and Norfolk Southern. Trains come by the station almost every 20 minutes or so.

The Model RR Club wasn't opening up until 2:00

in the afternoon and the Museum/Gift shop wasn't open on Sunday

Olivia up on the tower, which is the best place to watch trains
Jackson quickly climbed up after Olivia so that he could see too

While we awaited the first train, Olivia entertained herself

(and her brother) exploring all around the station.

Karis was totally into it

and so was Sabrina!

But Grandpa was in his glory ...

He is as happy around trains as I am with

lakes, flowers, nature, farms, etc.

He had his camera all ready to shoot ...

Jackson & Olivia on a piece of train equipment

(I would tell you what it is called, but I haven't the slightest idea)

This is where the Club meets, and they have a pretty nice layout

(I have seen it in prior years)

But they weren't going to be opened for another couple of hours ...

Andrew did not grow up LOVING trains

so this was a bit of a STRETCH for him ...

However, I think he did very well

waiting to see the trains.

Finally! A very very long train arrived!

It was SO LOUD!

We stayed at Union Station for over an hour. We saw two trains come by. The second train, Olivia and I counted cars. I counted 53, but Olivia counted 54. Oh well, I never have been very good with numbers! We wished we had counted cars with the first train because I think there were well over 100.

Since we couldn't stay to see the layout at the Marion train club, Grandpa said if we went on up the road to Findlay, we could see some more train stuff there. So we stopped and ate a hearty lunch at Cracker Barrell and then headed over to Findlay.

The layouts were very cool in here ...

but Grandpa told me these were "display layouts"

not "operating layouts".

Mr. Jones seems to prefer operating layouts

because with them, you can actually control your own train, etc.

This was a very funny SOOIE train ...

See the head of the pig and its rear end?

I thought of Emma and how much she would like this train

(Emma LOVES pigs)

There were HO model layouts ...

as well as LIONEL layouts --

this one even had model planes flying overhead.

Jackson was having a good time here.

I had a hard time getting good pictures --

the lighting was tricky ...

And then it was time for us to take a ride

on a model train outside!

This train is usually pulled by a cool-looking steam engine

but it was being repaired ...

We saw quite a lot of trains on our trip! Everyone had a good time, especially Grandpa and Jackson. Andrew survived (whew!) his father-in-law's constant train talk and then we were back on the road to Michigan!