Greg and I were looking for something fun to do the Wednesday afternoon before Thanksgiving. He had the afternoon off, and we hated to waste it. In brainstorming, the fact that I needed to get my glasses adjusted came up. My eye doctor is up in Mason, so it’s a bit of a trek and not that fun. But then I remembered the signs I see each time I go for a place called EnterTRAINment Junction. Now that sounded fun!

Since it was our first time, I purchased the Do-It-All package, which included the Train Journey, A-Maze-N Funhouse, and the special Christmas events.

We started out with the Train Journey, the main attraction of which was an amazing model train setup. It was huge. There were three separate displays showing different time periods in train history.

The first period was the 1860s. The displays were filled with interesting details and there was a list of items to find in the displays to encourage you to really look at them closely.

I loved the color of this little house, and that bear on the rock in the river was one of the items to find. The trains are all G-scale (1/24th of actual size), so all the houses and features were nice and big.

The next time period was the 1940s and 50s. I loved the views down the city streets. The street cars that you see were all running, too.

The details were really very cool. That Woolworths is full of figures and merchandise!

Here’s my attempt at showing the scale. Seriously huge.

The final time period was the 1970s. The buildings all looked more modern, and I liked the sculptures they included in the cityscapes.

A large portion of the display was bluffs and tunnels. Red buttons, like the one you see here, were scattered throughout the display. When you pressed them, you’d hear the noises that you’d hear in that place and time.

The whole time we were there I was keeping an eye out for a Milwaukee Road train car. My grandfather worked for them, and in one of the last scenes, I finally found one.

Signs like this were on the floor in some areas to give visitors a bit of an idea of what went into this. It took over a year to build, and it’s continuously updated.

The Train Journey also included some history about the railway system in the United States. I can’t pass up a picture of old travel posters.

Separate from the timeline, there was a replica of Cincinnati’s Coney Island as it appeared in 1965. All the rides were moving, including those tram cars you can see in the sky.

This display also included photos and memorabilia from Coney Island’s history.

Next we made our way to the Christmas train displays, which were not as impressive. Greg said that they were what he feared the whole thing would be like. That area did include Neil Young’s traveling train display (yes, the singer Neil Young). I liked his use of driftwood for this desert scene.

The funhouse was next, which included a lot of things that I’m sure a kid would enjoy. I insisted we go through the Mirror Maze, and led the way for a while, but then I got freaked out, so Greg had to take over to get us out of there. That’s the way things go with us sometimes.

Finally, we took the North Pole path that ended up in a kitchen with Mrs. Claus, where there was the promise of cookies. However, there were only three cookies left and three kids in the room with us, so guess who didn’t get a cookie. We bailed before we actually got to Santa.

It ended up being a really fun and kind of wacky way to spend the afternoon. Greg and I were both super impressed by the Train Journey. It is just really well done, and I can definitely see coming back when we have guests in town.