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NYSWTHS Easter Bunny Train (April 7,2001)
by Dave

We took our daughter, Elizabeth on the Easter Bunny train today running out of Newfoundland station. It was pulled by the two Susquehanna E-8s on the head end and by two GP-18s on the rear.

The whole time we were waiting after getting our tickets she ran around in the grass saying "Train? train?," but when it arrived, she clung to my wife, Laura and said, "Done!" Needless to say, we took her on the trip anyway.

She sat on Laura's lap and fussed until the train started moving. I tried to look out the window to keep track of where we were. It's been a few years since I rode the steam excursion through these parts. Elizabeth sat motionless on Laura's lap looking out the window. We call this her stroller stare.

A giant, yellow Tweety Bird came down the aisle from the direction of the GPs. Elizabeth was non-plussed by this. She sat silently on Mommy. I took a picture of then sitting by the window.

Later, the Easter Bunny came down the aisle from the opposite end. Elizabeth put up with his paw being held out to her and I tried to snap a shot of them. Unfortunately, they were a bit too far apart.

The train went down Sparta mountain, past the 'under restoration' Sparta Station, and on to Sparta Junction, where we waited and then reversed direction. A guy came by selling plush, little Easter bunnies for $3.00 each, so I bought one for Elizabeth to add to her huge collection of animals.

At this time Laura and I decided to check out the souvenir car. We waded down the aisle through three coaches until we got to the souvenirs. There we bought a tiny shirt that says, "My Daddy Loves Trains and Me." I'll be getting a picture of her in it to carry around soon.

Soon after we returned to our seats, a little boy a few seats up from us got sick. Having had a similar experience a few weeks back I sympathized with the parents completely. We offered some of our baby wipes to the cleanup effort.

The rest of the trip went well. We returned to Newfoundland station, got off and walked to the car. While Elizabeth didn't close her eyes during our train ride, she promptly fell asleep as we began driving home to Franklin.

I trust Elizabeth will eventually get used to train travel and enjoy it as much as her parents.