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All aboard for South Florida's best train adventures

Ellen Wolfson Valladares | South Florida Parenting

Anyone who knows our family knows that our 4-year-old son Gabriel has a thing about trains. Not just a little thing, mind you. At the young age of 16 months, he was already expressing his love for choo-choos by making us rewind the scenes of Casey Junior, the circus train in Dumbo, over and over again.

Now, our lives (and home) are filled with wall-to-wall toy trains, train videos, train songs, and every kind of train paraphernalia you can imagine. His passion shows no signs of waning, and much to Gabriel's delight, little brother Michael is following in his tracks.

So when it came time to celebrate Gabriel's fourth birthday recently, we drove three hours north to the tiny town of Parrish, Fla., for the ultimate train experience. Family members from South Florida and St. Petersburg gathered at the Florida Gulf Coast Railroad Museum to celebrate Gabriel's birthday by taking a 1 1/2 hour ride in a little red caboose. We even came back the next day so that Gabriel (and Mommy) could ride in the engine's cab and help the engineer drive the train. What a thrill for both of us! The look on Gabriel's face was worth every minute we spent in the car getting up to Parrish.

If you are not quite up for a 150-mile drive with the kids, however, there is good news. There are plenty of exciting train adventures waiting for you, right here in South Florida. From Miami-Dade County to Palm Beach County, you can find old trains, new trains, toy trains, and trains to ride on, if you just know where to look.

The Gold Coast Railroad Museum

Possibly one of Miami's best-kept secrets, the Gold Coast Railroad Museum is a hands-on history lesson sitting right at the entrance of Miami Metrozoo. Operated and supported by volunteer members, this unique nonprofit museum offers visitors the chance to explore a variety of train cars and engines that date from the early 1900s to late 1940s.

"This is a great place for kids," says the museum's executive director, Connie Greer. "Most museums are pristine, and kids have to look but not touch. Here, they can climb on most everything. They can sit in the chairs, even lie on the beds."

The 30-plus exhibits include everything from steam locomotives, steam-operated wreck cranes and diesel engines, to baggage cars, passenger cars and cabooses. Highlighting the lineup is Miami-Dade County's first national historic landmark, the presidential rail car U.S. No. 1 Ferdinand Magellan. Built in 1942 for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Ferdinand Magellan is the only train car custom-built for a U.S. president in the 20th century. The car was used by presidents Roosevelt, Harry S Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and most recently by Ronald Reagan during his 1984 campaign. Remember the famous news photo of Truman holding a copy of the Chicago Tribune banner headline that mistakenly announced "Dewey Defeats Truman"? That was taken of the platform of the Ferdinand Magellan in 1948.

The Gold Coast Railroad Museum itself is rich in history, started in 1957 by a group of Miami rail fans. It has endured moves from Miami to Fort Lauderdale and back to Miami again. And it has survived a direct hit by Hurricane Andrew.

"In 1992, Hurricane Andrew took the entire building (that covers the trains) down. Many of the cars were destroyed and damaged," said John McLean, a 20-year member of the museum. "Eight and a half years later, FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) is still helping us rebuild."

When the reconstruction is complete, the museum will be a $6 million facility, according to Greer. To date, the train shed has been rebuilt and the museum now boasts a new station entrance and expanded gift shop.

In addition, the Edwin Link Children's Railroad offers rides at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Children and adults alike enjoy the 15-minute ride aboard the General, a small-scale, steam-engine train that runs on a 2-foot-wide track and operates on compressed air. (On our recent visit, Gabriel particularly liked the part when the engineer stopped the train and invited everyone to try their hand at "throwing the switch" on the tracks.)

Before leaving the museum, don't forget to visit the model-railroad section, which is hidden in a smaller building toward the back of the museum. You will find an ever-expanding collection of both operational and display layouts in a variety of scales.

The Tradewinds &Atlantic Railroad

On the third weekend of the month, hundreds of train lovers from around South Florida can be found at Tradewinds Park in Broward County. That is when the Tradewinds & Atlantic Railroad, another volunteer-run organization, makes its miniature "live steamer" trains available to the public. For $1 (free for children under 4), you can take a ride on one of the pint-size, custom-built steam or diesel-electric trains.

While they may be only 1/8th the size of a real train, everything about these homemade trains is authentic, says club president Jon Hollahan, who also happens to be an engineer for the Florida East Coast Railway.

"These are the smallest trains that you can ride on," he said. "We have engines that burn coal or propane, diesel-electrics, trolleys that run on batteries, and gas engines."

Club members build and maintain their own engines, often sharing tools and shop space. On the second Saturday of the month, they meet to make any necessary repairs to the railroad tracks their trains use at Tradewinds Park.

On the third Saturday and Sunday of the month, they do what they love most - operate their trains. At the same time, they share their hobby with the general public.

The trains haul about 1,500 people of all ages each weekend they are out at Tradewinds Park, Hollahan says.