After visiting the Dells Army Ducks, I was flipping through a brochure looking for a place to go. My sister was kind of exhausted by then and wasn't too thrilled about my attempts to find a new activity. Eventually, I decided we had to take a 40-minute ride on the tourist railway Riverside & Great Northern Railway, because I love steam locomotives and stuff like that. We had some free time before that, so we went to shoot at a paintball range. Expensive and no fun, that's all I can say about it.
But the railway turned out to be a toy one, like from a postcard. The train cars are tiny, the rails are barely 30 centimeters wide, they go straight and only one way. On the plus side, there's a bridge on the way and beautiful cut edges of hills that look like a layer cake.
The crossing. The sign under the semaphore says: “Stop. Look. Listen.”
A museum and gift shop is located in the utility buildings near the railway. I must say, the ride costs $10 — which is not much by American standards. The thing is, the organization that owns the railway is a non-profit cooperative of enthusiasts, numbering over 150 people. In America, such people are called “hobbyists” (almost hobbits), and sometimes their hobby possesses them for their entire lives, devouring a gigantic amount of resources.
A garage for the diesel locomotives
As I’ve said before, there are a lot of various associations and interest groups in the US, and they don't pay taxes, which is called “non-profit under section 501(c)(3)”. Some people turn their hobby into a profession and achieve significant success in it. For example, one of the Microsoft developers, who even published programming books, became a professional race car driver.
An imposing conductor
The railway was originally intended as a technology demonstration by a commercial railroad company, but after its bankruptcy in the 80s, it was bought out by railfans. The hard part was finding diesel locomotives, which were no longer on the site by that time. In 1990, the society opened a line for a round-trip passenger ride.
My sister did not appreciate the little railway
This railway isn't just some fake amusement artificially created for tourists, like, say, Medieval Times. The railway used to be real — and it's got all the same technical bells and whistles as its big brothers.
Railroad ties and train cars
And the rules on it were followed exactly like on regular railways, and the signals were the same. Personally, I liked the railway; I didn't regret the $10 at all. You can't just stare at overhyped wonders and marvels all the time. Sometimes even I, a biorobot, want something warm, sentimental, and old-school.
The train engineer, though not ours
During its lifespan, the enterprise has found itself on the brink of financial and other crises more than once. For instance, in 1995, it survived a fire. They managed to beat it back only because a railway volunteer spending the night nearby happened to also be an amateur firefighter, meaning something like a volunteer firefighter. In 2004, a landslide collapsed the bridge over the little canyon. The state and private sponsors helped rebuild the bridge. Despite all these hurdles, the little railway celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2008 and looks to the future with hope.
