Twenty-five-year-old Jordan Huebert has loved trains since he was a boy. It started small, with family favourites such as Thomas the Tank Engine.
Now Jordan’s parents, Wally and Mary, have created a train lover’s dream right in their own backyard.
“The story is we have an autistic child and he has had a passion for trains for many years. As he’s grown, his love for the bigger trains (has) grown,” Mary said.
Jordan doesn’t often stick to one thing for very long, but according to his mother, trains have been his lifelong love.
The love grew so much that Jordan’s parents hand built a railway around their property in Canora and – after searching for more than a decade — procured a train a third the size of a regular one from Coldstream, BC.
“We drove by the lady’s yard and we saw a little ‘rail’ sign and we stopped and asked if (she still had the train and) she says ‘yes it’s in storage’ so the rest is history,” Mary smiled.
Finding the train was perhaps the easy part. Bringing it all the way home was another story.
“We had to hire a semi to bring back all the rail and half the cars, and then we made a second trip in there to pick up a coal car for our mining train,” Wally said.
After building a fully functional train park, the Huebert’s wanted to expand the fun. They turned their attention to something prehistoric: dinosaurs.
“My husband made a comment about ‘what child doesn’t like a dinosaur, Mary? We should have dinosaurs!’” Mary said.
Their dino collection comes from the Phillipines via New York City. Unsurprisingly, their backyard wonderland has attracted visitors of all ages.
The Huebert’s don’t charge when visitors come, and they don’t take donations.
“It’s our way of giving back to the community,” Mary said.
“We’ve been blessed (and) rewarded. We have had children that have been terminally ill come through here, we have had children with autism. That means a lot to Wally and I. It means we’re accomplishing what we set out to do. We see that in Jordan and we see what it brings to his life.”
– With files from Christa Dao
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