Let's ride the Coopersville & Marne Railway

Are you ready to ride the Coopersville & Marne?

We'll have to go back in time ...

DATE: April 14, 2007

Before the Pahman grandchildren left for El Paso,

Grandpa and I wanted to ride on a real train with them.

The Coopersville & Marne was close by

and the train ride lasts about an hour and a half.

So we picked up Emma and Christopher --

(sorry, Matthew! Next time we will take you too!)

and went over to the station.

Christopher & Grandpa walk to get our tickets
The tracks and buildings in Coopersville

The 7014 was pulling the train ...
Here it comes!

After seeing The Polar Express at our house
about 1000 times,
Emma and Chris were ready for their
very first train ride!
We arrived early to get our tickets
but then we had to wait before boarding ...
so we walked down to the
Historic Museum
near the Interurban Depot
and took a look at "Merlin"
who was in the process of being restored.
This is an electric interurban that operated
between the years of 1902 and 1928
The station that has been converted to
a historic museum ...
Emma posing by the museum
It was so cold, she had to tuck her hands up into her coat!

Grandpa loves cars like this one!

Inside the city, they used to run on wires that were

suspended above the streets ...

out in the country, they ran on a third track.

The 7014 was finally ready for passengers!

The conductor was kind enough to have his

picture taken with Chris and Ems

I think the kiddos were expecting

someone more like Sir Topham Hat from Thomas the Train

AAAALLLLL ABOARD!!

Christopher is all set to go ...

I love how he looks with our

THOMAS THE TRAIN hat on ...

It was time to have our tickets punched!

This was practically the most exciting moment

of the entire trip!

The conductor tried to entice Mr. Jones to join the

Coopersville & Marne volunteers!

I wanted a picture of Emma holding her

now-stamped ticket ...

but I really wanted to see her face!

Funny girl!

Christopher was a bit more compliant

but was a little bored with grandma's camera

antics by this time ...

We were all given cool engineer hats to wear --

but we had to put them together ourselves ...

I finally gave up and had Mr. Jones help me

construct hats for all of us ...

Emma thought I looked funny in mine!

But I thought she looked

BEAUTIFUL

in hers!

The Coopersville & Marne train ride

runs from Coopersville to Marne (duh!)

and then back again.

There is really nothing much to see along the way ...

you kind of have to make up your own excitement.

Emma and I looked out the window

and searched for alligators and crocodiles in the creek

that was running alongside the tracks ...

I told Emma that I thought I saw a dinosaur once,

but she didn't believe me ...