Beware of the Train

While on vacation in the Boston area, we visited Clark's Trading Post in Lincoln, near Woodstock, N.H., the Wisconsin Dells of the Northeast.   The Trading Post is an old family-run tourist attraction that has been in operation since the thirties or forties.  You'll have to use your imagination for the Chinese acrobats, the dancing bears, the demented "Wolfman", and various other oddities, but they have an operating steam train, which made it all worthwhile.

The locomotive is a Climax, and an operating Climax is something you don't see every day.  The paint may not be completely authentic, but the engine is very well maintained and fascinating to watch.

It ran on the East Branch and Lincoln, a local shortline, and has been at Clark's since the ealy 50's  They also have a Shay and a Heisler from the same railroad in storage.

I suppose we could debate the relative advantages of Shay vs Climax vs Heisler all day.

Of the train it has to push up the hill, the less said the better.  At least all the cars have functioning air brakes.

This 2-4-2T is also from the EB&L, but was not operating that day.  Both of these locomotives were featured in a Trains article included in Morgan's "Mohawk" book.

And there are lots of other interesting things to see.  This Main Street scene would be just about perfect if it weren't for that recycling bin!

Some of the buildings house various museum-like displays.

Thomas Edison, Frank Sprague, and Nikola Tesla.  Just a selection of famous scientists from a long list (seen above at left).

Well, that was fun.  I especially liked the trained bears.  But we later found a much better tourist railroad, so don't go away.