Castledare Miniature Railway

I had read in my book "Kidding Around Perth" of a miniature railway that operates in Castledare grounds on the first Sunday of every month. Since we were so close to the first Sunday of May, we decided to check it out.

Ashwin was THRILLED when he saw this railway. For that matter, so was I! He was even more excited when he learnt that he was actually going to ride on the train!

We went with friends of ours Subadhra, Kannan and their kids Subagan and Bavithra. Their friends Suresh and Bhuvana also joined us. Waiting for our turn was fun in itself as we got to watch the trains pulling into the station, changing signals, people waving little flags. The railway was just like the real thing. For each run, the coal and water had to be loaded into the engine and it was Ashwin's first experience of the actual "Koo chuk buk kuk" - the steam engine! Since then, Ashwin's question "Train eppidi koo chuk buk kuk poogum? (How does the train go koo chuk buk kuk?) has been unceasing. The correct answer is: The coal heats up the water and converts it to steam which turns the turbine making the train go koo chuk buk kuk. This activity of Q&A gets tiresome after a few back to back rounds ! No short form answer will please him though. Likewise, the answer to how does a car go drrrrr? is The driver will put the key in and turn it. The ignition cranks and the engine starts. This makes the car go drrr. What was I thinking when I told him this for the first time???!

Back to our railway, the ride meandered through the grounds on a very scenic 5km track which all of us enjoyed. Soon, the ride was over and it was time for our picnic.

We set up our picnic somewhere in the midst of the tracks so we got to wave to the passing trains as we picnicked. The young and old kids enjoyed a round of football after yummy food. All in all, a splendid day.

You can see pictures of our day here:

Our calendar has been marked for all the coming first Sundays!