#solar train

Thurston is a very bad boy, Don is a very good boi, Shiny is queen, TRICIA "NEVER MEET YOUR HEROES" TROODON IS HERE, Mr. Conductor nearly swears in front of children, and train stuff! Dinosaur train YTP, youtube poop, funny edit, etc, whatever, of Dinosaur Train Solar Train.

It is very well established that there are so many species of different sizes and types in the universe. And yet the trains are only one size universally. And smaller species are usually fine riding, but the larger ones?

Laura Giganotosaurus is confined to the Observation Car essentially at all times. There's an entire episode where an argentinosaurus boy is sad about not being able to ride the train at all anymore. Yes, we have Observation Cars and the Flatbed car for megatheropods and sauropods, but those just seem far more uncomfortable and unaccommodating!

Why isn't the entire train large enough for larger dinosaurs?

"Well, troodons probably made it with only troodons in mind"-WHY?! It is well established that so many different creatures exist! I can kinda understand older trains being made scaled only for troodons, like Trevor's drill train, but the newer models? The Rocket and Solar Trains are the same size as the Dinosaur Train! And quite frankly, the older engines could have maintenance done to them too to rebuild them better fit for all species! The only exception for trains being made just for troodons I can see are the drill trains, as they primarily was made for a mission, not for transporting passengers.

Dolores, from behind: ANNIE! Wait up!

Annie: [skids to a halt and turns around]

Dolores: Annie, you can't go on the train looking like that.

Annie: [looks down at her feet and back up] I washed my feet though.

Dolores: No, honey, the bandages.

[Annie's bandages covering her eye socket and scars were once white but are now brown, stained beyond recognition, with loose wrappings hanging down the side of Annie's face]

Annie: But I don't have any more to replace these! I was going to ask Gilbert for some from Troodon Town!

Dolores: You should take those off, Annie, they're a biohazard at this point. And, um, they smell.

Annie, looking away bitterly: They're not as unsightly as what's underneath, you know...

Dolores: [nuzzles Annie] Nonsense. You're not the only creature, even on the train, to have these sorts of injuries. But you don't need to be ashamed of those scars, Annie. Wear them with pride, you survived! You need to start thinking of yourself better, the past is in the past. You're a strong, gorgeous girl! You don't have to be afraid of going out and being seen.

Dolores: [gently tugs Annie's bandages off, the bandages fall to the ground]

Annie: Y-you think it's okay? Really? I won't scare anyone? Or-or...

Dolores: [kisses Annie right on her scars] Go with dignity and honor, Annie.

Annie: [tearing up, smiling at Dolores sincerely] ... Thanks, ma. I love you, ma.

Dolores, chuckling softly and smiling at Annie: I love you too. Have fun.

[Annie heads to the train station, but instead of the Dinosaur Train, it's the Solar Train approaching]

Annie: Huh?

Tricia: All aboard! Oh, hey, Annie, the Dinosaur Train is in the shed getting repaired, something emergency like, I'm taking Mr. Conductor's route today.

Annie: Is everyone okay?

Tricia: Nobody's hurt or anything, don't worry.

Annie: Okay! [runs into train]

Tricia: So, where are you headed to?

Annie: Pteranodon Terrace! But I was also wondering if I could get a message to Gilbert Troodon?

Gilbert, from behind: I can deliver the message.

Annie: [eeps and turns around] Ah! Gilbert!

[they both laugh]

Gilbert: So Shiny came to Troodon Town because she wanted to research something, I found her in the biology and medical section of the library. So I'm heading back to Pteranodon Terrace with her! You wanna come with us?

Annie: Fuck yeah, I wanted to go there anyways!

Tricia: All aboard!

[as Tricia and the kids enter the train, a familiar older pteranodon briefly glances out of the window from the dining car before heading back into the train]

---

by Pete Diebel, President & CEO, Zipline Green, Inc.

As the inventor of a solar powered train, you better believe that I am a proponent of commuter rail projects.  And, as the President and CEO of Zipline Green, I am well acquainted with change.  Our company’s products and services offer change in the form of transportation and energy infrastructure which drives economic development.  We are change.  Change for the future of your community.

Still, change can sometimes be sad. 

Today, as I got off the SunRail train, I noticed some construction work going on at the old Winter Park, FL Amtrak Station.  As I got closer to my car I realized it wasn't construction at all: today they are demolishing the historic Winter Park Train Station.  There were no protests from the city’s often loud historical preservation organizations.  Just a few citizens, like me, taking a snapshot with their smartphones.

On a personal level, as I stood there watching the station get demolished, I remembered back to my childhood trips on the train to Washington DC with my parents and later to Williamsburg, VA with my elementary school.  I have picked up friends from that station, and used it to ride Amtrak to South Florida as a teenager.  That station has stood on the edge of our Central Park for generations of us, slipping a nickel on the tracks when the Stationmaster wasn't looking, or cutting down the tracks when walking to and from the annual art festival, or even for a rest room break for my young son as he learned bladder management skills.

From the community perspective though, today we lost a reminder of our community’s grimmer past.  A reminder that we weren't always such a friendly town.

When you walked into the Winter Park train station and looked up, you might have noticed that there was a beam, reaching about six inches down from the ceiling that seemed to separate the room into not so even parts.  For those in my generation and later, this appears to be simply a funny looking bit of architecture.  But for my mother’s generation, this was a remnant of the “Separate but Equal” policies that once ruled the South. 

The beam is all that was left of the wall that once divided the Winter Park train station into separate domains for the whites and the non-whites.  My mother shared this information with me on a train trip we took with two of my nephews to Winter Haven, FL, whose station had a similar beam.

Perhaps it is time for this reminder to be torn down.  Perhaps now it’s OK for the knowledge to simply reside in our hearts and minds rather than in stark physical evidence right there in our train station.  The SunRail is here now and it’s time to climb on board and move on to our community’s next memories.  Hopefully one that is more inclusive of everyone.

Still, I will remember that Old Station in my memories with a smile as I step on-board the SunRail.

Zipline Green’s Oasis Smart Guideway™ brings together transportation, energy, and resource management to help communities step on-board their community’s future. (cc) The Winter Park Station by Zipline Green, Inc. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.