Trains in my life - "All aboard!"

For the third summer (plus weekends of Spring) I'm working in a delightful amusement (or theme) park, Fiesta Texas. This park, which I've mentioned in earlier blog postings, is officially named Six Flags Fiesta Texas. But I prefer to use the shorter name, primarily because that WAS its name when the park opened in 1992, fostered by Opryland Park of Nashville. (Six Flags took over the park a few years ago).

I'm working a new job this year at Fiesta Texas, Conductor and Depot Agent on the Fiesta Texas Railroad. This is a train ride very similar to the train ride in the now-defunct Opryland. And there are other amusement parks and even a few public parks, e.g., Brackenridge Park here, that have train rides. Folks, it's a barrel of fun to work on the train!

Possibly this fun aspect of my work is because trains (particularly of the passenger sort) have been a prominent part of my life since early childhood. Back then there were two very dominant buildings in downtown Boise, at opposite ends of a major, scenic boulevard, the State Capitol in the style of the nation's Capitol, and the Union Pacific (RR) Depot in California Spanish Mission style, including a very tall clock tower. And when I was about 6 or 7 years old my family took a vacation trip on the Union Pacific's "City of Portland" or "Portland Rose" passenger line to upstate New York (this was before Amtrak). It was a very exciting experience for a little boy, and I remember that it led to my first goal of what I wanted to be "when I grow up": a railroad engineer.

Well, other things happened, other things came to my attention, other things intervened. Actually, I went thru several versions of what I wanted to be "when I grow up". But now that I'm working on the train at Fiesta Texas RR, it's almost like I've come full circle back to my boyhood dream! This insight came to me the other day, as I approached the depot that is the train crew's office of sorts, in the company of one of the older fellows who works on the train. I shared this insight with him and we both smiled at this.

Also, a day or two before this insight, I was doing my usual M.O. upon entering the park for work, which is to go first to a food shop just inside the Guest Entrance (i.e., the main entrance) to get my mug filled with ice water and then proceed down the main pedestrian pathway under the tracks and hang a left to ascend the steps into that depot. The train was just about to depart for the other depot and thus the whistle was being blown. In response I chimed in, "Choo, choo!" A family of Guests was passing me as they left the ride, and the dad stopped me to ask if the guys on the train crew were retired railroad engineers. I smiled as I replied, "Oh, yes, we all are! I'm retired from fifty years on the Union Pacific." Then I quickly added with a bigger smile, "I'm 52". The man took me in good humor, "I tho't you were pulling my leg when you said 50 years on the railroad!"

Ha, ha! All in a day's work on the Fiesta Texas Railroad. "All aboard!"