A train ride in an amusement park, or a municipal park setting, is a small ride consisting of a miniature train, often running on a permanent or portable track, but sometimes without any track whatsoever. In the latter case, the "trains" are simulated by connecting railroad-like cars behind an ordinary, or modified motor vehicle. This type of ride is often conducted as a sightseeing tour of the surroundings.
If the ride is on tracks, and especially if the service is provided by a non-commercial hobbyist club, or a private backyard railroad, the train can be an exact scale model, often with a live steam locomotive.
Commercial "kiddie rides" often use simple but colorful equipment, with the driving mechanism hidden under vacuum formed plastic covers.
Some train rides (e.g. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad) resemble roller coasters, and may not be available to children under a certain age or a minimum height.
Famous quotes containing the words train and/or ride:
“Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death. To smoke opium is to get out of the train while it is still moving. It is to concern oneself with something other than life or death.”
—Jean Cocteau (1889–1963)
“I saw him beat the surges under him,
And ride upon their backs. He trod the water,
Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted
The surge most swoll’n that met him.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)