As a larger train passes in background a smaller one stops to provide rides to kids enjoying the Train Day festivities in Hope Saturday afternoon.

On Train Day in Hope, Saturday morning at 9 a.m., several things got started at the same time. A couple dozen vendors opened in the Hub. The owners of several antique cars, trucks and tractors parked on Main Street and registered for that day’s competition. The Kids’ Korner opened at Walnut and East Division, and the rib cook-off began on Main in the block from Division to East 2nd.

You could walk through the Hub and choose among decorative wall-hangings, honey, jams, jellies, candy, bamboo bed sheets, cornhole boards featuring a deer photo or the Christian flag, plastic kitchenware, women’s blouses, banana nut bread, free Seventh Day Adventist literature, paperback books and abstract paintings of neon swirls.

Then you could walk east on East 2nd, north on Main, and then east on West Division and take your kids to a bouncy castle, a bouncy slide, or, if they are older, to a rock-climbing challenge or a jump-harness.

Back at the stage in front of the Hope Depot, as wood smoke filled the air from the grills cooking ribs, veterinarian at Byreview Damian Stroderd and two female retrievers took the stage in front of the train depot. Stroderd gave a sermon on relationships while leading the dogs through several tricks.

Those on hand watched them play long-distance fetch as Stroderd threw toys far into South Main. He seemed to guide one dog by means of signals from a whistle to the right places to look as the other dog sat patiently watching from the stage.

After that, at 10 a.m., the young students of Dancetastic Studio moved on stage in rhythm to several songs with heavy beats pumped through the big JBL speakers.

Starting at 10:30 a.m., the cornhole contestants began warming up in the parking lot in front of The Melon Patch. After teams registered, the contests began in earnest at 11 a.m, with several team members underhanding their beanbags toward angled cornhole boards in hopes of sinking them in the hole or nudging beanbags of their team colors into the hole or knocking their opponents’ bean bag away from the hole. Score was kept by Hope Parks Superintendent Summer Powell, courtesy of a handy smart phone app.

Meanwhile, the Hope High Jazz Ensemble lined up along the stage and played hits of the swing era by the likes of Woody Herman, and Marks and Simons’ “All of Me.”

The winner of the car show was announced at 2:00 p.m. and this time it was a truck, a ‘71 GMC owned by Randy Stewart of Gurdon.

Both photos taken by April Lovette.

The weather was sunny, with only a few clouds, as temperatures crept in the early afternoon to the upper 80s. And every few minutes a train would go by.