This last weekend, I drove my family (minus the baby twins) to St. Jacob's (about 15 minutes away from home,) and enjoyed a wonderful ride on the Waterloo Central Railway. It is operated by the Southern Ontario Locomotive Restoration Society; it is meant to be nostalgic, scenic and relaxing - and it certainly is all three.
The kids were absolutely delighted!
First, some pictures of the ride into Waterloo:
Arriving at the Waterloo station (on Erb, just west of King St.):
The station is directly next to Waterloo Park (the Eby Farm Lot), so we had a picnic and went to see the animals at the park's little zoo:
And the ride back to St. Jacob's:
The Conestoga River:
As you can see in the pictures above, the train we rode on was an old diesel. The train service also owns an old steam locomotive, which they've fully restored and works 100% - I believe it's from the 1920's! They only get this one out for special holidays. I believe it will be running for the Victoria Day weekend, in which case, they run all the way to Elmira - about double the distance:
The workers pointed out that even if we didn't want to buy tickets again so soon (which cost more when they use the old steam engine), you can just show up to see and hear it in action! I think we'll take that option. They are also in the process of restoring another steam engine:
The caboose one the train we were riding was also relatively modern. The days they run the steam engine, they bring out a caboose to match:
The day was entirely worth it. It really can be enjoyable to take an hour for a trip that would otherwise take 10 minutes! The views of the countryside, the river, the market and Waterloo Park were all wonderful. The only complaint from the photographer (my wife) was that the entire north end of Waterloo (about 10 minutes of the trip) was a long stretch of rectangular, white character-less buildings owned by Blackberry, with a bit of older industry thrown in. But even for those parts, the kids were fascinated.
I have to say, I've found that trains are always the best way to enjoy scenery. Something about them makes it easier. Is it the larger windows? The spaciousness inside? The fact that they're on tracks (as opposed to the road) and not surrounded by traffic? And - regardless of whether they're on the tracks because of nostalgia or economic factors that have prevented upgrade - old trains go slow and make this even better.
It was also nice because it's close to home, and - taking our time and relaxing - the entire outing was just 4 or 5 hours. We weren't exhausted from driving in traffic to get somewhere, or rushing, or getting home late, etc. It was ideal for the kids, and we just felt good.
The world - even when it's the world you grew up in and spent more than half your life in - looks different when seen from an old train.
