Maple Park: Orchard Train Coming to Kuipers Family Farm

Our first visit to Kuipers in 2007.
Future visits could include a train ride
among the autumn activities

Maple Park, Ill.  -- All aboard the orchard train! According to an article in today's Kane County Chronicle, Kuipers Family Farm has been given the okay to install a train for guests to ride. The Kane County Board approved the action during this week's meeting. The train may not be ready for little engineers for another year, but installation of the track could begin this summer. 

Trains as "icing-on-the-cake"

This is the time of year when the orchards are pulling out all the stops to bring in the crowds (and their dollars). Among the activities at the larger sites, a "train" of some sort that happens to have an apple or pumpkin theme often appears to entice families of little ones. I don't begrudge these places their success in marketing and entertaining, especially when the season is so brief. On the other hand, the grown ups in this household have the opposite goal of finding entertainment that is pleasant but affordable. Plunking down $10-plus dollars per kid for autumnal side show attractions just isn't happening for us. The point? We don't always go places to see the train or ride the train, we consider the train we happen to pass an icing-on-the-cake moment for the kid who always asks, "Do you think we will see a train?" 

At Waterman's Honey Hill Orchard

So this weekend, we headed out to Waterman for a day at Honey Hill Orchard. It was a delighful fall day on all sorts of levels, but for Mr. Train, just getting there was a treat. Our route took us along Route 30, a road that runs parallel to tracks from just west of Aurora Municipal Airport. Even though we didn't happen to pass any actual trains, the view from the van took in enough signals to make the drive fun. So it wasn't really a train day. It was an apple day with a side order of tracks. And that was good. 

Orchard trains

When the fall season begins, a new crop (heh!) of kids activities appears all over the area. Orchards and pumpkin farms take full advantage of the family-friendly nature of a trip to the local farm for some seasonal fun. It's not just autumn's bounty on sale; it's a mini theme park at almost every site. The specific activity varies by farm, of course, but a wagon ride of some sort is almost always available at the larger places. Sometimes, that ride takes on a train theme.

One of our favorite apple-picking places is Jonamac Orchard in Malta. It's plenty busy, but far enough from suburban crowds to be more pleasant, in my humble opinion. We love Jonamac because the folks who run it clearly care about their crop and their customers. The staff is always pleasant, the grounds are always tidy, and everything -- from plants to buildings -- are well maintained. This year, timely investment in a frost fan and an irrigation system means they have apples for picking despite this year's odd weather conditions. Aside from picking apples and pumpkins, there's a farm yard full of kids' activities. My children love the enormous jumping pillow, but there's also the "Apple Train" among other activities. It's a small tractor pulling several barrels that have been creatively turned into "cars" on the train. Like everything else at Jonamac, it's adorable and well done.

We have not yet made the trip to Johansen Farms in Bolingbrook, but their promotional materials keep catching my eye, mostly because they, too, offer a train ride among their kids' activities. Others that advertise train rides include the Hootenanny Railroad at Bengtson's in Homer Glen -- this one is a real mini-train that leaves from a cute station -- and the "Pumpkin Mine Kiddie Train" -- a tractor-pulled ride with "train" cars -- at Siegel's Cottonwoood Farm in Crest Hill. So there's always a chance that a fall day at the farm can turn into yet another train trip for the family.