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Free National Train Day Celebration in Grand Central Terminal on Saturday

5/8/12 - By Alina Adams

Yesterday, we shared some of our favorite train museums and other places for little choo-choo lovers in and near NYC. But hold on to your conductor hats: Today we've got details on a big bash in honor of National Train Day. This Saturday, May 12, families can head to New York City's most famous and fabulous station, Grand Central Terminal, to mark the 143rd anniversary of the creation of the nation's first transcontinental railroad with exhibits, hands-on activities and interactive displays. If your kid's into trains, you'll want to chug on by to this totally FREE event.

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Although the fifth annual National Train Day is being celebrated at cities across the country on Saturday, May 12, the New York City edition takes place at Grant Central Terminal. From 11am-4pm, kids can drop by to explore various freight, commuter and private luxury trains. The centerpiece will be Amtrak's 40th Anniversary Exhibit Train complete with bistro, sleeper and baggage cars, historic ads, uniforms and memorabilia.

Other attractions include a Kids' Depot with interactive exhibits and games, model train displays and live cooking demos featuring renown chef Roberto Santibanez (who apparently advises Amtrak's culinary team. Train travel is much more civilized than air travel!). There will even be live entertainment from VY Higginsen’s Teen Choir and one of our favorite kindie rock groups, the Bari Koral Family Rock Band. Radio Disney will also be on hand with train-themed contests and prizes.

Although admission is free, all activities are first come first serve, so families are encouraged to arrive early.


Read about other train fun in New York City.

Places featured in this article:

About the Author

Alina Adams

Alina Adams - NYC Writer

Alina was born in the former Soviet Union, spent her teen years in San Francisco, and came to New York City to work for ABC Daytime and ABC Sports. She spent her pre-marriage/pre-kid years as a figure-skating researcher and producer for the U.S. and World Championships, the 1998 Olympics in Nagano and various professional shows.

After learning that international travel and resentful toddlers don’t mix, she switched to PGP Productions and its soap operas As the World Turns and Guiding Light, where she wrote New York Times best-selling tie-in books and developed interactive properties like AnotherWorldToday.com.

The birth of her third child (and the process of enrolling her two older kids into NYC schools—a full-time job in itself!) convinced Alina that she was not, in fact, Superwoman, and prompted her to leave TV and turn to writing books, including romance novels (Counterpoint: An Interactive Family Saga, When a Man Loves a Woman), figure-skating mysteries (Murder on Ice, On Thin Ice) and nonfiction (Soap Opera 451: A Time Capsule of Daytime Drama’s Greatest Moments).

In addition to contributing to Mommy Poppins, Alina blogs for Jewish parenting site Kveller.com and is in the process of turning her previously published backlist into enhanced e-books with multimedia features like audio, video and more. Follow her exhaustive and exhausting efforts to become a Mommy Media Mogul (is that a thing? If it isn’t, it really should be) at AlinaAdams.com and on Google+

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