Just a little Story:
In 2002 my wife and I decided we wanted to adopt a baby. We did a lot of research and decided that the best thing would be to adopt from Russia (there's a lot of detail left out along the way...so let's leave it at that. It's trying to be a railroad story after all!)
So in late January, 2003 we got a notification from our adoption councilor that our paperwork was fine and we had Aeroflot tickets for early February. We had about a half hour debate over the best way to put it off until June or July, but slowly realized that if we were really serious about this then a little thing like a Russian Winter shouldn't stop us.
So now we have just gotten off a plane on Sakhalin Island, Russia. We are 2/3 of the way around the world on the western shore of the Pacific and 15 Hours ahead of Eastern Standard (jet lag like you can't even imagine...). We are off the coast of Siberia and it is 10 degrees F and there are 5 feet of snow basically everywhere. It really is about 10 feet, but they say it crunches down under its own weight. It is not exactly tropical.
So we are rattling away from the airport in a minivan when what do I see but railroad tracks, but not just any railroad tracks, but obvious narrow gauge. (!)
So I find myself in Railfan's Hell: there is an entire narrow gauge railroad out there, but I can't break away from the adoption group. I don't have my own wheels, and the Sakhalin Islanders aren't used to having foreigners poking around their railroad and might just arrest me!
Turns out the Sakhalin Railroad was built as a 42" gauge line when the island was part of Japan. When the Soviets booted them out at the end of WWII, they kept it that way up to present days, including captured Japanese steam well into the 1970s. They say there is a museum near where we were, but I never saw even a rivet of it!
Much like when I saw the Maine Central tracks in Farmington in the summer of 1982, it was a one time thing: there is a project underway right now to convert the system over to Russian Standard Gauge (5'), so if we ever go back it won't be the same.
The little boy we brought home to be our son (10 months then, six years now) loves trains. Like a kid born in Narrow Gauge Country should, his first train ride anywhere was from Sanders to Phillips on the SR&RL and the second was the round trip from Sheepscot on the WW&F (no Alna Center yet).
We have a loop of LGB in the yard, and talk about some HO in the basement. Maybe even an On2 revival some other time.
Being a railfan is great. Passing it on to a son is better!
