Bev, Carey, and Spencer recently had a weekend vacation to Strasburg, PA. It was a special weekend vacation just for Spencer and we saw lots of trains. Here are some photos from that vacation. Just "click" on any of the pictures to see a close up.

Here is Bev with Spencer at Village Greens putt-putt golf. Spencer had lots of fun and liked hitting the ball into the water hazards.

There's Bev and Spencer again. You can see that Bev's about 8 months pregnant.

Our main event was traveling on a real steam engine. We travelled on the Strasburg Rail Road. This picture shows Spencer and Carey on board the coach. All aboard!

Spencer and Carey in front of the steam engine No. 90.

We also went to the Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. There were so many different trains on display. Spencer's favorite item was the Coudersport and Port Allegany Railroad snow plow. Snow plows like this were used extensively by railroadsin the 1890s, and a few remain in service today. They were pushed into snow drifts by one or two locomotives, thrusting the snow aside. This plow's front is designed for a single track operation, as it throws the snow to both sides. This could be dangerous work, with the locomotives backing up and thrusting the plow into obstinate snow banks. A crew member manned the plow, looking forward through the windows, and passed signals back to the engineer on the locomotive. Here's a webpage with the reconstruction of this snow plow.

Finally, we made a stop at the Thomas the Tank Engine store. Everything was Thomas! Spencer just about hyper-ventillated. Here's Bev and Spencer in the train display.