So I was looking through the newspaper on Friday and saw that they were having an open house in New Haven for the Fort Wayne railroad historical society. It was a chance to see some old steam locomotives and take a ride on an old train. Like many boys, if there is any activity with cars, trains, or planes they are into it. I recalled a memory of my dad taking myself and my brother out to New Haven at least 25 years ago to see an old steam locomotive. I remember that my dad knew one of the guys working on restoring the engine or something like that. My brother actually remembered the guys name, but I forgot it already. Anyway I remember climbing into the cab of this old engine while it was working and it was quite impressive. I wasn't sure if this was the same locomotive that I saw over 25 years ago, but the one thing I did remember that to get the whistle to work, you had to pull a lever on the far right side of the cab, and sure enough when the boys and I climbed into the cab, there was that lever. I forgot how huge this train was. It had to be at least 20 feet high. Unfortunately it wasn't working, but they did have a restored 100 year old caboose that we got a chance to walk through and down memory lane. They were offering rides in one of those old cabooses so I took the boys on it for a ride. The caboose was pulled by a 1950's diesel locomotive that was also pretty impressive. All around this warehouse where they were working on the trains they had other project cars all over the area. Most of them were no where near completion or even started, but as I understand that the group that works on the trains are all volunteers and they only do a few events like this to get donations.

At the midway point of our ride we pulled up next to a fairgrounds with a bunch of RV's. I noticed the sound and look of old steam powered tractors. I asked the conductor of the caboose if that was the Maumee Valley steam and thresher show. Back in the days of working for WOWO I had been to this event a bunch of times and always found it very interesting. Along with the old steam tractors they also had a pretty impressive flea market. Also part of this complex was a large field where they flew remote controlled airplanes. After getting off the ride we headed over to that other show. As I pulled up I noticed people leaving and people packing up the flea market. We were too late to see the flea market, but there were still a couple of the old steam tractors around. I took the boys over to the remote controlled airplane area and they really enjoyed watching the people fly their planes. I am sure when they get a bit older we will buy an airplane. We got back to mom's house and I put together their planes that they got a cracker barrel on vacation and they had fun playing with those. The wood that these planes are made of is that flimsy, thin as paper, wood. So I don't plan on those lasting that long around the house. Minutes into putting them together I was already in repair mode with the scotch tape trying to put planes back together again.

More info on the steam locomotive can be found at: www.765.0rg