Train Day in Ashland

On Saturday, we went to the 7th Annual Train Day in Ashland. Rob Bradham, a friend of Chuck's through his lobbying work, told him about it late Friday. He invited us to join his family for the afternoon.

The Town of Ashland is located only 20 minutes north of Richmond, but has done very well at maintaining its small, historic town feeling. The people take pride in proclaiming that Ashland is the "Center of the Universe." The town began after the Civil War as a stop on the rail line from Richmond to DC. The tracks run down the middle of the main street of town, and the area near the Ashland train station is a popular train-watching site. All of the stores and restaurants have train-related names like "The Iron Horse" or "Red Caboose."


For Train Day, the town does all sorts of model train displays, train rides, train bounce house, train story telling at the library, and train music at local coffee shops. And of course, every so often a freight train or Amtrak train will come right through the middle of it all (even two at the same time).


It was lots of fun, but I felt guilty doing all of this train stuff without Connor. Now that we know, the McBride's will need to join us in Ashland on the second Saturday in November 2010.