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As a child,
I remember spending a lot of time in the world of make
believe, especially when it came to trains. I grew up in
Cahokia, Illinois and the main road, Highway 157, had a
railroad crossing at each end of the town. It seemed like
you could not get out of town without being stopped by a
train, usually a long freight. When I would see that big
diesel engine coming down the track, I would pretend I was
driving it. I was back into my world of make believe. I
received my first Lionel "Santa Fe' freight with twin
F7 A units at Christmas in 1959 when I was 5 years old.
Every Christmas my dad and I would set the train up under
our tree and I would lay down on the floor and for hours I
would pretend to be the engineer. It was also around this
time in my life that my parents took me to my first drive-in
movie theatre, the Skyview
Drive-In, located in Belleville, Illinois. They
had a huge playground with a miniature train moving around
the oval track carrying a load of kids. From that moment on
I was in love!
As I grew
older, I never lost my love of trains. Forty years
later, I happened to be in Belleville, Illinois working and
I passed the Skyview Drive-In. Although it was closed
for the season, everything was the same except the old train
was gone. The owner, Steve Bloomer, happened to be
there and kindly gave me a tour. He also mentioned
that the Skyview would be celebrating its 50th anniversary
on July 8, 1999. A wild and crazy idea entered my
mind! What if I could find one of those old trains for
the celebration?
With
the help of a terrific website, Amusement
Park Trains, I was able to get in touch with Bob
"Smitty" Smith who works on the G-16's
owned by Bob Panella in northern California. Smitty
introduced me to Greg & Susan Robinson,
publishers of GSQ
(Grand Scales Quarterly). I discovered
that the G-16's were out of my price range and I
also learned that I needed a smaller train that would be
portable so that I could transport them from place to place. These
are the G-12's which are similar to the G-16's but
they are portable and less costly. Through one of the
ads in the GSQ,
I located a G-12. It had been renovated with a bigger
motor, included 240 feet of track and was ready to
roll! With the support of my very close and dear
cousin, Gary Uhlemeyer, I went to Chicago and  bought
myself a train!
The
first job for Rails of Fun was for the
biggest traveling model train exposition in the country, the
Great
American Train Show. The second
job was the most exciting. I donated the use of my
train for free during the week of July 5 - 11, 1999 at the Skyview
Drive-In for their 50th anniversary
celebration. My 10-year-old son, Eric
Uhlemeyer, helps me set up the trains, track and the
portable fences. The excitement on his face matches the
excitement of the kids riding the train. In fact,
several of the adults were more fascinated by it as they
haven't seen one since they were kids.
I
am forever grateful to everyone who has helped me fulfill my
childhood dream. I am having the most fun ever in my
life and I wish that all who ride my train will have 'Rails
of Fun', too!
Jeff
"The Train Guy" Uhlemeyer
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