THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY
ABOVE: Brent Sly, middle, and his grandmother and aunts with the restored train.
RIDGE FARM — Brent Sly tears up thinking about his grandfather Kenny and all the wonderful memories his family made with a train he created of barrels and lawnmower parts.
The train was a familiar sight at the park and on Ridge Farm streets. It also had different names, such as the Ridge Farm Grandchildren Express, Ridge Farm Unicorn Express and the Gospel Express.
Now Sly and his cousin Wade White of Terre Haute, Ind., have restored the train in memory of their grandfather, who died in 2018 at age 85. Now called the Grandchildren’s Unicorn Express, it will be a sight again in the village and in area parades, such as those in Kingman, Ind., Georgetown and Ridge Farm.
The family already conducted an inaugural ride in the newly restored train at a reunion this summer. Village residents delighted at its return.
Sly, who now lives near Cates, Ind., said he can’t remember his first time on the train as a child because there were so many. He said he and his family members rode in it around Ridge Farm often, and he loved to see it evolve. His grandfather would add features such as different bells and whistles, a horn, unicorn decals and a radio.
Sly said it was special to be asked by his aunts, including Dixie Kirby, to work on restoring the train and to do the work with his cousin.
Kirby said her dad was known in Ridge Farm, Georgetown and the surrounding areas as the “lawnmower man.” She said he started building the trains about 35 years ago.
The train “had been utilized at all family functions,” Sly said.
It had been stored at his grandma Verna’s house in Ridge Farm. Last fall, they brought the train to Sly’s house.
“It was a winter project for me,” he said.
The train received a fresh paint job, stickers and decals, a new muffler and a smoke machine to create the effect of a real steam engine.
He fabricated new frames and barrels that are lighter and more user friendly. His grandfather had used old lawnmower frames that were heavier and harder to move, he said.
During the rehab, they left the caboose — which has a mower frame — alone, Sly said, as his grandmother wanted that to stay original.
The train has a cowcatcher on the front and flashing lights.
“We’ve had two separate family reunions for both sides,” Sly said about “tons of kids” already enjoying the restored train.
The restoration has meant a lot to Sly and his big, extended family. Kenny and Verna had six daughters and one son. There were enough train cars for all the kids.
“It’s pretty special that the girls (his aunts) asked me to do it,” he said. “It’s been in their hearts for a long time. It means a ton.”
He said it “definitely” will be in parades, and the public will have chances to see it, too.
When the restored train first rolled through Ridge Farm again, from his grandparents’ home to the park where they had their family reunion, Kenny and Verna’s great-great-grandchildren had a blast, he said. A man at the park also remembered the train growing up and said it was great to see it on the road again.
The train has updated decals on the side, unicorn decals on the hubcaps and also a new sticker on the back of it in memory of Kenny.
White said the cars started as all wood when their grandfather first built the train, then were replaced with barrels slowly over the years.
White said his grandfather had scrap metal from working on lawn mowers all the time and made the train cars out of the frames and barrels. He used what he could to get everything going.
The 47-year-old said his grandfather started building the first one around 1990, when White was a little younger than 10. It would make appearances at community events and the annual family reunions, he said, and neighbor kids would hop on board when it rolled through town.
The new metal cars, being much lighter, are easier to get on and off the trailer, White said.
“We’re still doing small things to it,” he added.
The restoration process has been a lot of fun and stirred up a lot of memories, which has included some crying, White said.
White said it’s been “a flood of emotions,” and “it’s one thing we wanted to keep going.”
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