Hoot @ Little Toot

October 7th … Rolled into Flora, IL. A town of 5,100 and the home of Little Toot Railroad. We were greeted by Clint Green. A man who looked like he stepped out of one of the character rolls of The Red Candy Caboose. Blue stripped overalls and matching railroad cap with the appropriate amount of soot made it clear he was a railroad man. I learned of Clint and The Little Toot earlier in the year while visiting the McCormick Stillman Railroad in Scottsdale, AZ.

No doubt, some day Clint’s story and the Little Toot will be the material for a book and movie. As children, Clint and his wife Shelly both rode the scale RR in the town park of Flora, as did hundreds of other children. Like the main character in The Red Candy Caboose, Clint grew up, went away to school, got married and had his own child. When he returned to his home town, Little Toot was gone. The founder of Little Toot had grown older and found it necessary to sell the train. Clint discovered Little Toot had been sold three different times and eventually ended up at a Christmas Tree Farm in California.

Clint’s initial calls to the farm were to check on the well-being of the little railroad. Not long after making his calls the owners called Clint and asked if he would like to buy the train. Clint soon found others in Flora shared his nostalgia for the little train. Many things happened during that year to make Clint’s dream come true. He was able to buy the train plus support trains and equipment from Michigan and Georgia.

The town of Flora is fortunate to have Charlie Brown Park. This is a large park that any town in America would be proud to have. Charlie Brown Park includes fair grounds, arena, community swimming pool, a lake, hiking trails, and even facilities for 75 RV’s with water and electric hook-ups. Charlie Brown Park had been the original home of Little Toot and it seemed things fell into place almost as fast as waving a magic wand. The town struck a deal; they provided the land and Clint provided the train. Running and maintaining the train is a fulltime job, but Clint and Shelly make it happen by contributing endless hours of their own time along with a crew of volunteers that would be an asset to any company.

Clint and Shelly live two hours west of Flora and make the drive every week to keep the little train operating. One of the old steam engines was cranked up for the first time the evening before I arrived. The excitement was contagious as the little engine was put on line and pulled its first load of passengers in many years.

We spent four days at Little Toot starting with a reading and Kahuna/Micki performances at the local retirement home. Clint and Shelly were the perfect hosts, giving a tour of Flora and sharing the history and how the town’s development sprouted around the railroad industry. The beautifully restored depot/museum in the middle of Flora is well worth a stop for anyone with a love of history.

While there we were part of the ground-breaking ceremony which will double the track size of Little Toot. PBS Television was on hand to complete many days of documenting the Little Toot Story and it looks like October 9th was a record breaking day for the train, hauling an estimated 500 passengers.

Before coming to Flora I assumed Little Toot to be entertainment for the local residents, but I expanded my view to recommend it to anyone coming within two-hundred miles of Flora. The community, park, local history and of course Little Toot make it a destination vacation for anyone in this part of the country.