When I was young I rode the "Heber Creeper" on a school field trip, so I thought I'd check to see if it was still around. They've updated everything (it's "Heber Valley Railroad" now) but it's still around! They even have a steam train that runs in the summer months. It's not cheap, although Monday nights they have a "family night" price that isn't too bad. We didn't want to go at night because the evenings were still dark enough, in March, that we wouldn't have been able to see any of the scenery! But it would be a fun thing to do in the summer.
We got there early so we could look around at the old train cars. The children were all so excited to see things we'd learned about in person!
Like fishplates! Hooray!
And flanges! Hooray!
There's an old caboose and a tender full of coal, but best of all. . .
An old steam locomotive! They are working on restoring this to working order, I think. They have another one that already runs (but only in summer).
It's so cool to see this up close! We loved being able to see all the gears and rods and pistons.
We looked at the other diesel-electric locomotives too (which we weren't supposed to climb on, apparently, but how should we have known?)
We rode the Deer Creek Express, which was an hour and a half trip---just right. It's a lovely view of Deer Creek Reservoir from the opposite (north) side.
Goldie got passed around a lot. She likes that.
There were some "train robbers" which gave out these "gold coin" chocolates. The children were slightly baffled. Daisy kept saying, "Robbers aren't supposed to give money to US!" They were nice and gentle so the kids weren't scared, just puzzled.
We were lucky to have a beautiful day, so we opened our windows and enjoyed the warm sun!
I love that!
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