The Trains Magazine

Haley's Dad here again. As a railfan I'm a subscriber to a couple of different railroad magazines. Haley really likes these because they are littered with pictures of trains. She opens each one and makes a first pass looking for the Daylight. If there is an image of the Daylight in the magazine, no matter how small or stylized, she will find it. She has a passion for that locomotive.

Her next pass is to identify other locomotives and which railroad they belong to. For the most part she can pick out locomotives from BNSF, UP, Amtrak, Sante Fe, BN, CN, and CP with little help. Some times prior paint schemes from these railroads confuse her a little. This is where Haley's Mom and I come in. We have to identify the railroad for her on any images where she doesn't recognize the paint job. This is OK, but after reviewing the same magazine with her dozens of times it gets kinda old.

Thursday the latest issue of Trains arrived in the mailbox. When I hopped into the car with it Haley had already noticed that I was carrying a new magazine. She asked to see it in her own gibberish. I handed it to her. That was a big mistake.

She has essentially claimed the new issue as hers. During the day it sits on our bar table so she can refer to it at any time. Every meal it sits between us and we have to flip pages while I identify railroads (and there are an abundance of unusual railroads this month!). At night it goes to her magazine cache in her room where it rests until she gets up. Needless to say I've had little opportunity to read it myself.

Why is this issue so compelling for her? The best I can figure is she loves the full page vertical image of SP4458, a sister Daylight locomotive to the SP 4449, pulling a freight train. Of course she doesn't know it is not the locomotive down in Portland, it's a Daylight locomotive and that is all that matters!

I'm very happy she has a passion for something. I want to read my magazine though.