Founded in 1975, the non-profit railway museum, located in the four-acre Latonia Yard, has a permanent collection of 37 pieces of historic equipment from the seven railroads entering Cincinnati.

So says Building Cincinnati, in a post about May’s Covington After Hours, about the Railway Museum of Greater Cincinnati.

I’ve probably driven down Decoursey Ave. in Latonia about a thousand times, so I’m fairly familiar.  I know about Johnny’s Toys and the now-vacant Value City store.  But I never knew there was a whole museum dedicated to trains hidden back there!

After a bit more digging, I turned up an old Cincinnati Post story (on the Wayback Machine) on the museum.

Some people never stop playing with trains.

Take 84-year-old Bill Ewing of Anderson Township, whose ”toy” is a real, bright yellow B&O Railroad caboose, for which he paid $2,500 15 years ago.

He keeps it in the rail yard of the Railway Museum of Greater Cincinnati, in Covington’s Latonia neighborhood, where he and other volunteers work on the museum’s 80-piece collection every Wednesday and Saturday.

… In the rail yard, each car has a unique story, and Ewing is eager to tell them.

A tiny green engine with a No. 1 on its face used to push coal into a power house, he said.

He helped paint a dark green passenger car, which he said was at least 75 years old. ”It’s priceless,” he said.

A red passenger car, which had two master bedrooms and a shower, was one of four end cars for the Broadway Limited in New York, volunteer Bill Williams said.

I wonder if there is any other event in the country that so explicitly mixes video, film, and live music into one attraction.  Or does Cincinnati have the only one?

The Lite Brite Indie Pop & Film Test (that’s Test, not Fest) returns for its 5th year.  On July 24th, it kicks off with a feature on the Fountain Square video board, followed by three nights at its usual venue, Southgate House in Newport.  Each night offers live music and short films in various rooms of the mansion.

Um, here’s the submission form.

Wow. That’s a mouthful.

As noted on the flyer, this is your chance to see the Cloven Hoof Theatre, Barnyard Burlesque, Pickled Brothers Sideshow, and Dante’s Gypsy Circus all at once!

More at Northside Rocks.

Ha!  Anyway, Queen City Survey noticed a clever marketing campaign downtown, promoting the return of giraffes to the Cincinnati Zoo.  I love it.

via Queen City Survey.

I had two events set to write about for this weekend, when I looked over at Soapbox Cincinnati and saw that they had beaten me to it already, and even included more events! Well, here they are anyway. On the longest weekend of daylight of the year, the list of quirky things to do abound. I like to think we have pagans to thank. Thank you pagans.

• RiverSpan Sculpture Exhibition and Sale. “The entire bridge deck will be tented to provide an enjoyable experience to artists and patrons alike, rain or shine.” Hmm, like a giant worm trapped in a purple cage.
• Cincinnati Soapbox Derby. Aside: I once made a car for the Pinewood Derby in Cub Scouts. I didn’t know it was legal to add weight to the car. Hence, I finished dead last, and my car didn’t even make it to the end of the track. Thank you for the self-confidence, Cub Scouts.
• Happen Inc.’s Grand Opening Celebration In Northside. From the creators of the Toy Lab comes a new space in Northside. Promises to be a fun day of art for all ages.
• 48-Hour Film Fest At 20th Century Theater. See the best films that can be made in under 48 hours.

CityKin reminds us that the Cincinnati Drag Races are this weekend! Mentioned before, the Drag Races are a set of events culminating in a street race you won’t soon forget. From the website:

From the start line the first member from a team of 4 gets dressed in Dress, Wig, Handbag and Heels must be 2 inches high. Then runs one block to the exchange line, where they pass off the same items to the next team member who in return runs back down the course. The race is complete once all four team members have completed course. The start/finish line judges are Penny Tration, Grand Parade Marshal, Miss Mona Lott and a judge from Women Out Front. The exchange line will be judged by a board member of the Gay Chamber.

But the Drag Races isn’t just about the race! The whole weekend is packed with activities including the “Pumped!” kickoff party at Below Zero lounge, where you are encouraged to wear your most OUTrageous pumps.

Sunday events are being held in conjunction with Second Sundays on Main, and include “Drag Your Dog OUT” and Dykes On Bikes. The actual race starts around 4 pm.

Complete schedule of events on dragracescincinnati.com.

Only someone completely distrustful of all government would be opposed to what we are doing with surveillance cameras.

– NYC Police Commissioner Howard Safir, 27 July 1999.

From the homepage of the Surveillance Camera Players: Completely Distrustful Of All Government.

On Sunday, April 27, 2008, Bill Brown from the Surveillance Camera Players conducted a walking tour of surveillance cameras in downtown Cincinnati. It was the first tour since November, 2005. He found 222 cameras, nearly double the number of cameras in 2005, and an increased “camera density” of four cameras per city block, up from three cameras per city block in 2005.

In 2005, Brown hastily drew up a map of downtown cameras. He created a new map in his recent tour for comparison, shown below.

The tour covered technical aspects of surveillance as well as discussion on government surveillance as a crime deterrent and private use of surveillance cameras, for example for insurance purposes.

The tour was covered by Visualingual and CityBeat.

On Sunday, June 22, 2008, at 2pm, Brown will conduct another tour. Meet at the corner of Walnut and 6th downtown for a unique tour you won’t easily forget. You might never go downtown again without looking over your shoulder.

via Visualingual

I’ve made the decision that I won’t live in a city that doesn’t have its own Fringe Festival. A Fringe city makes a statement about itself. It says it’s open to the unknown. It says maybe we don’t have avant-garde, uncensored, rock-it-out-to-all-hours-of-the-night events happening every week, but we think there’s a place for that and so we’re going to make it happen – even if it’s only for twelve days at a time to start. A city open to risk, to taking a chance on something it’s never tried before is a city that honors and respects its creative capital. It indicates an understanding that a city’s uniqueness is tied to providing opportunity for its creatives to experiment and collaborate with other creatives from other parts of the world. More than just an arts festival, Fringes are essentially very cool conventions on what tomorrow’s art will be. Like many things worthy of understanding and funding, it will take some time before all civic stakeholders see the twelve-day event that way, but Festival organizers say they’re not plannning on leaving anytime soon.

Take any drive to any city and on your way in you can pretty much guarantee what kind of shopping you’re going to run into, what kind of music will be playing (or not playing) on the radio and what kind of food you’re going to eat based on the pretty pictures on the menus. But a Fringe city tells you something different. It tells you that amid this homogeny lies a group of creatives who are willing to offer something much more exciting than the safety of the familiar. They’re willing to offer a gamble. And that gamble is what a Fringe Festival is all about - there is always something for anyone to love or hate, you just have to find it.