James River Rambler Train Trip

On 5/21/11 we went on the James River Rambler, a 3.5 hour historic train trek from Dillwyn, Virginia through Buckingham County. This particular day featured a "train hold-up" robbery by the Tom Mix Rangers. The kids loved it...the parents are glad its checked off the "to-do" list (it's a good one-time thing, a little long).

Here are the kid reporters:

(O) We went on a train ride today. This train ride is the first train ride I'v ever went to.

(H) The Gaskin Train Ride - The train ride was so cool! It took us over the James River. Dillwyn (the town we were riding through) had a lot of slate! I mean, there were mountains of it! There was a souvenir shop on the train! Daddy bought all three of us a pin, Sawyer a train hat, and he let me buy a railroad crossing pencil sharpener! It is a three-D railroad crossing sign, and it has a pencil sharpener in the back. I bought it with my remaining birthday money. We got to sit in the part of the train where it has a fence on the outside so you can just look out the side of the train and see all the things outside the train. Halfway through the train trip, they showed us what it was like to get robbed on a train. I mean, people really robbed it. They dressed up in costumes so they looked like real cowboys and Indians, and pretended to rob the train. I really liked it!

(E) WILD WEST TRAIN RIDE!!!!!!!!!!!! We went on a Wild West train ride. The train was full of robbers and cowboys who tried to rob us! The cowboy’s costumes were very detailed and they looked like real cowboys. When the robbers robbed the train, the cowboys came out and shot them. It was really cool. We went past a lot of pretty nature like enormous walls of slate. I think Mrs. Hall (editor's note: school science teacher) would have jumped overboard to get some of it. We went right over the James River!! Daddy said that there were bears in the woods, but sadly, I did not see any. Sawyer threw his sucky (editor's note: pacifer) overboard. After that, he sucked on his lip. We went to the souvenir and snack car, where I got a little pin with a kitty on it. It is very cute. I named it Tadpole. I had a lot of fun.