Something I stopped doing returns for today at least
Because some people have nothing better to do than make fun of my family, I stopped posting personal items a little while ago. Today is a small exception. When I was a young I loved trains. I never outgrew it. I used to ride the Peony Park and Omaha Zoo streamliners.
The old Omaha Zoo train looked a lot like this 50 years ago.
The Peony Park train in 1958.
My granddaughter Madison and I today on the Missouri Valley Watson Station streamliner. http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/92521784.html
My father's Day present.
The train:
The steam engine only runs for special events and summer holidays.
We hope to take Madison to Des Moines to ride an actual MTC train like I rode in my youth pictured below.
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Awesome pics! You have a darling grand-daughter! 
Looks like the weather was perfect for you!
Julie
Aw, those are great pictures! And I love the video......really cute! I always loved riding those little trains.
I think it's a shame that some people make fun of your family. I mean, really. 
Some people have no hearts.
Thanks for sharing these today.
Happy Father's Day, Steve!
One of these days I'll find a sibling with some time 
ditto to HAPPY FATHER'S DAY. 
But is she running a spoof website on you behind your back? 
Your stalkers may cut you some slack on this one. It's kinda hard to mock a pic of guy taking his granddaughter on a fun outing without appearing like a total jerk.
In any case, the reaction that gets my vote is Madison's.
Happy Father's Day, Steve! 
love your photos...
will share my day since the train reminds me... I took my Dad for a real train ride and took him to D.C. to visit the War Memorials (WWII vet and he had never seen them) A good time was had by all!!!!
technically a zoo in omaha. been there 3 times. 4 if one counts the fact we did a 2 day visit always wear socks!!! ouch..... no matter how bloody hot it is. Minnesota Zoo is more like a nature reserve...than a zoo, although after the rain, almost had a prairie dog jump in my lap . sneaky.. they still have a train at the zoo though... minus the prairie dogs who escaped their confines in omaha. near the tracks just outside the bird aviary. hey those are supposed to be there.. Usually go when it's cooler and it's way too hot in the dome
keep trying to get my whole family to go there. (for 6 years now) eh. new memories I suppose. they are stuck on old ones.. go to council bluffs ia and terry brandstad is pretty much kicking the tourism out of the state.
1963
Margaret Hitchcock Doorly donated $750,000 to the Zoo with the stipulation that the Zoo be named after her late husband, Henry Doorly, chairman of the World Publishing Company.
They dumped the old train for this: 1968
With help from Union Pacific, 2 1/2 miles of track was laid through the Zoo. Omaha’s Zoo Railroad made its inaugural run in July. Eppley Pachyderm Hill was opened in November on the old baseball diamond site.
I forgot to mention that Kiddie Land in Carter Lake Park had a train ride when I was very little too.
http://www.omaha.com/article/20120530/NEWS01/120539957
Henry Doorly named top U.S. zoo
Published Thursday May 31, 2012
By Carol Bicak
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium has won a popularity contest.
Reviews by visitors to TripAdvisor, the world's largest travel website, have earned the Omaha attraction a No. 1 ranking. The website announced its list of the top 10 zoos in the country Wednesday.
Dennis Pate, CEO and director of the zoo, said he was a little surprised by Wednesday's news but feels the zoo employees deserve it.
“It's so nice because the whole staff has worked so hard to keep the zoo at its best, and then this comes out of the blue,” he said.
FULL story at link.
http://www.omahazoo.com/
Looks like everybody had a great time.
Is she singing?
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Train nut here . Have been ever since i was 2 years old. Volunteered for a train museum near here . Railtown 1897, many years ago. Dont do it any more. Also rode Amtrak since inception .(2 years ago was my last trip for a while ) Rode the old n de m in Mexico. Live in a 620 square foot apartment and have a small layout w all the popular guages. Ignore the a$$hats. You and your grandaughter look like u are haveing a ball Happy fathers day.
When I was in school, I worked summers at an amusement park, just north of here in Lake George, NY. For four years I drove the train that went through the jungle, LOL. It was purple and I loved that train (actually there were two and we ran them both on busy days), kept it polished and shiny, waxed the curves of the track first thing in the morning so it wouldn't squeal on the curves, and took great pride in being able to get it back to the station, no matter what happened with the engine. I was told that it was bought used in 1952, and the train and I made the local papers when it turned over 100,000 miles (though it had probably done so more than once).
Here's the only online pix I could find of it, obviously taken well before my time. It was purple and white. 
We had lunch at the pizza ranch. Gurney's is the big eating attraction, but wasn't open yet: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gurneys-Lounge/273975699850
The water park is in sight of the train depot. The park is just across the street. We didn't know to take swim suits or tanning lotion.
We have a smaller version lawn dragon than the one Madison is taming here.
The kids always loved it as did I when I was little. The best ride is around Halloween when they put on a "haunted" forest ride. Great fun.
From the park's website:
"For 38 years, the first miniature Central Pacific Huntington steam engine chugged over the tracks at Burke Lake Park, carrying kids who grew up and returned to bring their own children back for a ride on this community landmark.
In 2005, the little engine that could was retired, and now a new version of the one-third-scale replica C.P.Huntington is making the rounds.
The new locomotive looks the same but technology has made advances in the design of miniature trains. This model gets diagnostic tests performed by laptop computer, it boasts an automatic sander, it's quieter and the improved gas mileage is a driver's dream - 26 runs, almost continuously throughout the day, on just four gallons of gas.
The ride over 1.75 miles of track takes 10 minutes and reaches speeds of 10 to 12 miles per hour. And after the chug-along, there's more old fashioned fun to sample - a spin on the carousel, a hand-dipped cone at the Ice Cream Parlor and a walk on the park trail rated one of the 10 best urban fitness trails in the nation by the American Hiking Society. "
