Riding the Rails

Last weekend we enjoyed the sunshine and headed to the East Bay to ride the Redwood Valley Railway. Max had been on this small steam train before, so I didn't take pictures but just enjoyed the ride. The 12 minute ride takes you through the woods and opens up to beautiful views of San Francisco Bay.

To my surprise and delight, the half size versions of the already small trains were open for folks to look around... and to ride! I was hoping we could see them. I never thought we'd get to ride on one.

 

The smaller trains are run by hobbyists. The little steam version wasn't working but they got out a diesel for us. They said that too much wobbling from passengers could make it derail.

The sets we went by were quite detailed, and included a Masonic Lodge.

Why build a fun train yard if you're not going to have a tunnel?

On an even smaller track, we saw this guy zoom by sitting sideways.

It sure looked like a lot of fun and I can see why people who want to work on trains might want something bigger than what would fit in a basement or attic.

It's hard to tell that this train is so much bigger than the ones above.