Our top correspondents for TrainWeb.com have been quite busy during the last few weeks and have posted several new reports and lots of photos for you to enjoy.

 

Carl Morrison reports on the 2009 Red Unit CIrcus Train. Included are interviews with some of the people that work for the circus. Those and a 2008 interview with the Blue Unit Train Master are posted to CircusTrains.com.

 

Chris Guenzler's reports and photos from Train Festival 2009 held in Owosso, Michigan, July 23-26, 2009 are now posted. Over 36,000 people enoyed steam trains from around the nation. Click here to view those reports and photos.

If you come to vist TrainWeb.com's home town of La Plata, Missouri, during September or October, you can join us for the Depot Inn & Suites Autumn Harvest Celebration and walk through the Jackson Country Connection Steam Engine Corn Maze! From September 6 through November 1, the Depot Inn & Suites will provide free shuttle service to the nearby Jackson Country Connection (JCC), a seasonal, outdoor agricultural entertainment center less than 3 miles from the hotel (admission extra).  This year's maze will be 7 acres in size!  The maze will be in the shape of a locomotive, tender car and caboose.  Advanced GPS technology allows for near-perfect guidance to cut the desired train pattern!

Inside the maze are 16 "stations" and each station has a board with a trivia multiple-choice question on the front and the answer to the question on the back so the maze participants can flip up the board and find the answer immediately.  This year the maze questions will be on Agriculture trivia.  The goal of the maze participant is to find all 16 stations and still find their way out of the maze.  At the whistle stop station is a compressed-air-powered train whistle built by Tom Marshall of the Depot Inn & Suites.  A highlight of the maze journey is to locate the whistle and pull the cord!  There will also be a smaller maze for young children in the shape of a railroad crossing sign.

Other activities at JCC include a pumpkin patch, hay rides, straw pile, corn box, corn cannon, corn hole contests, bounce house, tyke trike trail, and bale maze.  A Country Store provides pumpkins, mums, yard & home interior items, and locally produced crafts, jams, and jellies.

The Depot Inn & Suites Autumn Harvest Celebration also includes regular tours of the Walt Disney Hometown Museum in Marceline.  Transportation from the Depot Inn & Suites is available at the rate of $39.95 for adults and $19.95 for children under 12 (admission extra).  The Walt Disney Hometown Museum is open until October 31, after which it closes for the Winter.

 

Updates can be found at DepotInn.com/autumnharvest.

We were saddened to learn of the passing of Richard Hamilton, host of the popular Let's Talk Trains web radio show.

Richard's Lets Talk Trains provided live Internet radio coverage of many milestone's including TrainWeb's 10th Anniversary and the Grand Opening of the new TrainWeb building in La Plata, Missouri, in 2006, Chris Guenzler's Millionth Rail Travel Mile, the Grand Opening of both the Exhibition of Amtrak History and the Silver Rails Event Center.  Richard also provided live coverage of Fullerton Railroad Days for many years as well as coverage and discussion of many significant railroad events over the last few years.

TrainWeb.com and TrainParty.com were proud to be sponsors of Richard's Let's Talk Trains Internet Talk Radio Show and to support the valuable service that Richard provided to the train enthusiast community.  Richard's presence and efforts will be sorely missed.

Several web sites have seen outpourings of tribute for Richard Hamilton; for more information, please click here.