Went to Canadian Museum of Rail Travel. This is not to be confused with Canadian Museum of Trains if there is one. This museum is about the insides of trains, not the engines or the outsides. It is cool. It is also just like the stuff we like about cars. I mean car cars, automobiles, and not train cars. I wonder if car cars got their names from train cars. Seems logical. Museum is 2 minute walk from Prestige hotel. We walk and not drive because driver getting air at tire station like I told him to last night. It is now his idea.
This is Cheryl. Cheryl wants to know if my name has anything to do with Harry Potter. If you knew my name and knew Harry Potter you would get it. No, I am not a wizard. Cheryl will not be our tour guide. She is taking the second group. Our guide will be Rebecca. This is Rebecca in front of groovy 1960s wall stuff in train. Cannot find notebook and panic. Beg plain paper from gift shop on which to take notes. I am a good girl and everyone always wants to copy my notes.
This is the hotel that was at a great big fancy train station. It was kept in semi trailers and the lights weren't sold. This is a good thing. The hotel died because no one went on trains anymore. Plus it was in a red light district. I think that should be good for business as all those hotel rooms could be busy. Shoulda had an hourly special. There are models of the dresses ladies wore from 1890 on. The first one has a 16" waist. I guess they were all Scarlett O'Haras. It seems that you can get your lower ribs removed to get this figure. True.
This is what the trains mostly looked like when they got them. This is what old cars look like when you get them too. As a matter of fact, this is what every house I lived in during my childhood looked like because my parents spent a lot of time renovating them and then when they were done, moving.
I have a ton of pictures and notes about this museum. I don't know why. Here are some that demonstrate the stuff that a train restorer deals with. I get these. Also that there is a 32-volt fandolier (light with fan). This is a mess. I know this because of all my 6-volt problems. Take it from a pro: only use 12-volts in anything that moves. Doesn't the chair look like a Lay-z-boy? My ex-husband had one of those. I hated it. They make them look a lot better now but I can't wrap my head around actually having one in the house. There was a sideboard that the museum found in a chicken coop painted lime green. We have cars like that. Also, one of the cars was used as a cottage. I wonder why it took the museum so long to find it. I mean, can't you tell that a cottage was once a train car? The circus liked trains, too. One of these cars was painted orange. I think it looked cool that way.
Here is a gigantic diesel engine. I also get this. I'm not sure why the fact that you could smoke on just one side of the aisle tickles me. Think about planes, too. Remember when the smoking section was at the back? Didn't get that either.
I'm not sure why I continue to be fascinated by class differences, but this is what a first class passenger gets and this is what the guy who runs the thing gets. One of the group has no idea how they could actually fit in one of the berths. Well, I'm sure you can get a California King in an 1800s train. You can also get a cupula in your solarium on the train with Vitaglass which means it let in the good UVA rays. Sorta like the Ghost without sunscreen. Also, fancy railroad cars had upholstered toilet seats. Private planes have potty seats which are pretty much the best ones because you can stretch out your legs. I know this because I have sat on a potty seat in a private plane.
This is a group photo of a really big really nice family on The Tour. Waldo is in it. Waldo is in every photo. Don't get it. Have to ask Waldo to step out of photos I am taking and feel like a heel. Waldo sulks. You get the Waldo thing don't you? As in Where's Waldo the pictures where you look for Waldo with the red and white hat. Alternate analogy is Zelig. You get the Z... oh, nevermind.
Walk very fast back to hotel. Pass this in museum parking lot. It is part of Cruise Idaho! If I didn't have Woody, I would want this car. Ask Hirsch if he found notebook. He did not. He did find my iPad. I didn't know I lost it so losing my notebook may have been a good thing. Not really. I prize my tattered three inch spiral notebook more than my iPad because it is where all the good stuff is. Told Hirsch I was working in bed. Went to room. Had been made up. No notebook. I am panicking more than ever. I am hyperventilating. I can do nothing. Ran back to car with iPad and wall adapter that someone else in our group left.
11:02 PM |
Went to Canadian Museum of Rail Travel. This is not to be confused with Canadian Museum of Trains if there is one. This museum is about the insides of trains, not the engines or the outsides. It is cool. It is also just like the stuff we like about cars. I mean car cars, automobiles, and not train cars. I wonder if car cars got their names from train cars. Seems logical. Museum is 2 minute walk from Prestige hotel. We walk and not drive because driver getting air at tire station like I told him to last night. It is now his idea. 
This is Cheryl. Cheryl wants to know if my name has anything to do with Harry Potter. If you knew my name and knew Harry Potter you would get it. No, I am not a wizard. Cheryl will not be our tour guide. She is taking the second group. Our guide will be Rebecca. This is Rebecca in front of groovy 1960s wall stuff in train. Cannot find notebook and panic. Beg plain paper from gift shop on which to take notes. I am a good girl and everyone always wants to copy my notes.
This is the hotel that was at a great big fancy train station. It was kept in semi trailers and the lights weren't sold. This is a good thing. The hotel died because no one went on trains anymore. Plus it was in a red light district. I think that should be good for business as all those hotel rooms could be busy. Shoulda had an hourly special. There are models of the dresses ladies wore from 1890 on. The first one has a 16" waist. I guess they were all Scarlett O'Haras. It seems that you can get your lower ribs removed to get this figure. True. 
This is what the trains mostly looked like when they got them. This is what old cars look like when you get them too. As a matter of fact, this is what every house I lived in during my childhood looked like because my parents spent a lot of time renovating them and then when they were done, moving.
I have a ton of pictures and notes about this museum. I don't know why. Here are some that demonstrate the stuff that a train restorer deals with. I get these. Also that there is a 32-volt fandolier (light with fan). This is a mess. I know this because of all my 6-volt problems. Take it from a pro: only use 12-volts in anything that moves. Doesn't the chair look like a Lay-z-boy? My ex-husband had one of those. I hated it. They make them look a lot better now but I can't wrap my head around actually having one in the house. There was a sideboard that the museum found in a chicken coop painted lime green. We have cars like that. Also, one of the cars was used as a cottage. I wonder why it took the museum so long to find it. I mean, can't you tell that a cottage was once a train car? The circus liked trains, too. One of these cars was painted orange. I think it looked cool that way.
Here is a gigantic diesel engine. I also get this. I'm not sure why the fact that you could smoke on just one side of the aisle tickles me. Think about planes, too. Remember when the smoking section was at the back? Didn't get that either. 
I'm not sure why I continue to be fascinated by class differences, but this is what a first class passenger gets and this is what the guy who runs the thing gets. One of the group has no idea how they could actually fit in one of the berths. Well, I'm sure you can get a California King in an 1800s train. You can also get a cupula in your solarium on the train with Vitaglass which means it let in the good UVA rays. Sorta like the Ghost without sunscreen. Also, fancy railroad cars had upholstered toilet seats. Private planes have potty seats which are pretty much the best ones because you can stretch out your legs. I know this because I have sat on a potty seat in a private plane.
This is a group photo of a really big really nice family on The Tour. Waldo is in it. Waldo is in every photo. Don't get it. Have to ask Waldo to step out of photos I am taking and feel like a heel. Waldo sulks. You get the Waldo thing don't you? As in Where's Waldo the pictures where you look for Waldo with the red and white hat. Alternate analogy is Zelig. You get the Z... oh, nevermind.
Walk very fast back to hotel. Pass this in museum parking lot. It is part of Cruise Idaho! If I didn't have Woody, I would want this car. Ask Hirsch if he found notebook. He did not. He did find my iPad. I didn't know I lost it so losing my notebook may have been a good thing. Not really. I prize my tattered three inch spiral notebook more than my iPad because it is where all the good stuff is. Told Hirsch I was working in bed. Went to room. Had been made up. No notebook. I am panicking more than ever. I am hyperventilating. I can do nothing. Ran back to car with iPad and wall adapter that someone else in our group left.