We happened to be driving down Woodmere Avenue in Traverse City yesterday and saw these fabulous tiny trains – a whole bunch of them – on the train tracks along the road.
So we stopped and chatted with a few people, and it turns out they’re a group called the North American Railcar Operators Association. Tiny trains! Who knew this even existed?! What a fascinating hobby!
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They were enroute to or from Petoskey to Cadillac. For more info, check out their website, NARCOA.org. Someone even converted a tiny car into a tiny train…
Bud reports that this was a three-day run, which started in Cadillac on Friday. Participants arrived in Cadillac towing highway trailers with their railroad motorcars on them. They set the motorcars on the rails in Cadillac and left the highway trailers attached to their automobiles in a safe place.
Participants then ran on the rails to Petoskey, where they stayed overnight at a motel. On Saturday, they ran on the rails to Traverse City and stayed overnight in a motel there. On Sunday morning (the day I saw them), they left for Cadillac, where they took the motorcars off the rails and loaded them onto their highway trailers and headed for home.
Thanks for the photo and report, Bud!
What fun!
[…] American Railcar Operators Association. I never knew about this fun hobby of theirs until I posted this story in 2016 and Bud sent me a picture of them with their […]
[…] In retirement, Bud and Nancy traveled frequently, including to Hawaii, Alaska and Europe. They also traveled through North American mountains and forests in their two-seat railcar — another machine Bud enjoyed tinkering with. They were members of the North American Railcar Operators Association. […]