Batavia: Local Locomotive

BNSF engines on east Wilson Street in Batavia

Batavia: Depot Museum ornament

Batavia, Illinois -- Look what Santa will be leaving on the tree at our house this week. Batavia's history museum is featured as this year's collectable ornament in celebration of the depot's 160th anniversary. It is available in the museum gift shop or, where I found it, at the Batavia Park District's Civic Center office. Ornaments are $10 each. 

Now all the Christmas trains circling my tree can finally have a station! 

Batavia: Summer Hours for Depot Museum

Batavia, Illinois -- Batavia's Depot Museum has posted "new summer hours." The depot will now be open longer on Saturday and Sunday afternoons from noon until 4 p.m. The depot is located next to the Fox River Trail at the northeast corner of Houston and Water streets in downtown Batavia.

Information about the museum is available at it's website. 

Batavia: Lego Day

Scenes from last year's
Batavia library
 Lego Day

Batavia, IL -- (Saturday, Jan. 25) Lego trains will be among the displays to see this Saturday at Batavia Public Library. The library's popular Lego Day will be open between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. The Lego city scenes, which will include an elevated train, will be the work of ChiLUG -- Chicago Area Lego Users Group. Young builders will have a chance to make Lego creations of their own at the event, too. There are no admission fees or registration requirements. 

The library is located at 10 S. Batavia Ave., Batavia. 

A past Lego Day 

Batavia: Pete's Train at Poplar Acres

A favorite miniature train ride from north-central Illinois has a new suburban location this fall. The Waterman & Western Railroad is currently chugging away at  Poplar Acres, just west of Batavia. "Pete's Train," named for builder and owner Pete Robinson, is a  "1/4 scale model F-3 Electromotive" in bright red and yellow pulling passengers in open-air cars also built by Robinson and his team. This is Poplar Farm's first public season in over two decades, and they have plenty more activities for fall fun. For $10 guests can ride the train as well as enjoy a tractor ride, two corn mazes, three big slides, baby animals, larger farm animals and more. Individual train ride tickets are $3. Hours are Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. until 8 pm. and Sundays from 10 a.m. till 6 p.m. 

Poplar Acres is at 39 W. 100 Main Street, Batavia.  

Update: The Kane County Chronicle features a profile of Poplar Acres in the Oct. 5, 2013 edition of the paper. 

Batavia: Library train art

This vivid train poster appeared in the Batavia Public Library's children's department earlier this year in honor of the summer reading program's transportation theme. I'm happy to see that it is still there, mostly because it's fun for me to see how my toddler has gone from simply pointing at it a few months ago to announcing, "Train!" as we visit this fall. Long live the steamers!

Batavia: Red Oak Nature Center

We went to Red Oak Nature Center to see "Devil's Cave" and the animals
inside the nature center. For a bonus treat, a BNSF train ambled by while we were there. Pedestrians cross over these tracks between the parking lot and the path to the nature center. 

Batavia Depot Museum

After a delectable ice cream dessert at the Batavia Creamery, we inevitably find ourselves walking a few short blocks to the Batavia Depot Museum. Most of our ice cream stops are usually after dinner, so we don't often get to peek inside the depot, which is open select afternoons. The highlight, though, is the caboose outside. Climbing the steps to "ride" the rails never gets old. The kids always point out the signal and water tower that are next to the station. Since the depot is sandwiched between Batavia's depot pond and riverwalk and the Fox River Trail, there's plenty of people watching for  Mom, Dad and Baby while the kids are imagining their engineer adventures. On days that we aren't craving something sweet, the Popcorn Depot just a block south of the caboose offers delicious homemade popcorn to munch while enjoying the sights.

Once again, the museum is part of this summer's Passport to Adventure program sponsored by the Kane-DuPage Regional Museum Association. The kids love collecting stamps from the participating museums in their passport books. So, we will be back soon for an inside visit of both the museum and caboose.

The kids checking out the caboose. The Depot Museum is reflected in the building  behind it. 

The Batavia Depot Museum is open from 2-4 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday March through Thanksgiving.