Flat Matthew and Mad City

Flat Matthew went to Madison with Tom and Michael to see the Mad City Model Railroad Show this weekend.

The show is very big -- it is as big as about 60 houses -- and Flat Matthew saw many things.

Flat Matthew went to the Riverside & Great Northern exhibit first because he visited the railroad last week. He said "hello" to Dave, Mary, Dale, Reed and the others he met last week.


Flat Matthew met Eric and looked at Eric's trains. Eric volunteers at the railroad in the summer, doing many different kind of things. Round Matthew helps Eric. Meeting Eric was a special treat for Flat Matthew, because Round Matthew told him about the fun he had helping Eric at the railroad last summer. Round Matthew has driven this train. Do you think that Flat Matthew could learn how to drive it?


After talking to Eric, Flat Matthew went to see the rest of the show. Trains, trains and more trains. Big trains, little trains and really tiny trains. Flat Matthew thought that this train looked a little bit like Eric's train. Can you tell how it is the same and how it is different?


The show had toys, too. This is Flat Matthew looking at the "Oscar Meyer Wiener" trucks. Oscar Meyer wieners are made in Madison. Do you know the Oscar Meyer Wiener song?

I wish I was an Oscar Meyer wiener,
That is what I'd really like to be.
'Cause if I was an Oscar Meyer wiener,
Everyone would be in love with me!

Of course, if you were an Oscar Meyer wiener, someone would eat you. That wouldn't be so good.

When Flat Matthew wasn't looking around, he was helping Michael with the gift shop that the R&GN brought to the show. Round Matthew helps Michael in the gift shop during the summer, and Flat Matthew learned how to help, too.

Tom

Flat Matthew was impressed by many of the layouts he saw at the show, with models trains running through tunnels and around mountains and by cities and towns. When he got home, we showed him that Tom has been working on a model train layout in the basement. It is a model of the railroad crossing the Wisconsin River at Kilbourn City back in the late 1800s. That was the name of Wisconsin Dells back then. Here is a picture of Flat Matthew standing down in the River behind some of the buildings Tom is using to make his model. You can see how Tom has carved foam and painted it to look like the formations and bluffs along the river. He hasn't finished his model yet.

The railroads were very important to the development of the United States in the nineteenth century, and often towns and cities grew up because of where the railroad tracks were laid. Kilbourn City is such a place, and it was built because the new tracks crossed the river here. Before that, the nearest town had been Newport. When the railroad came through where the city of Wisconsin Dells now is, everyone moved to the new location and Newport became a ghost town.

Michael