Rob's Blog

Friday, April 27, 2007

Trains a comin'

As the publisher of two weekly newspapers and soon-to-be president of the Cuba Chamber of Commerce, I tend to find out about a lot of things in the community well before the general public does. I got a juicy bit of information this week I thought might interest our readers.
On Monday, I received a call from John Woods, who owns a large farm west of Steelville and has recently installed a narrow-gauge railroad on the property for his family’s enjoyment. John had called the chamber office in Cuba in an attempt to get some information to link his website with the chamber’s.
As it turned out, John will be hosting a national narrow-gauge railroad convention on his farm in September and is working to get contact information about area motels, restaurants and campgrounds for the 250 or so couples who will be attending. He wanted to be able to link to the chamber’s website from his own website so those attending can have a list of area services.
Woods said there are a wide variety of folks coming in for the convention. He expects several to arrive in their own private train cars, but other will be camping while they are here. It sounds like it should be quite an interesting group. We plan to provide some coverage in the newspapers while they are here.
I had never spoken to John before Monday, but had heard a lot about the train track he had been building for the past several years. I hope to get a chance to see it soon, as he was nice enough to invite me and my son out for a ride.
If you would like to know more about John’s railroad, check out his website at www.arborwayrailroad.com.