The 54th annual Labor Day weekend Steam and Power Show returns to Hesston, Ind. on Sept. 3-6.

This year’s show will feature the “Kiddieland Limited,” a bullet-nose steam engine that once carried Chicagoland residents around Kiddieland in suburban Melrose Park. Now paired with Hesston’s own Kiddieland Express, another engine from the same park, the Kiddieland Limited will double-head Saturday through Monday and pull guests over a one-mile railway line.

Hesston boasts one of the nation’s few working turn-of-the-century saw mills with a 60-inch blade. For the first time since 2006, Hesston has a new working boiler to power this historical mill with its own steam power.

Other show highlights include a 1929 narrow-gauge Shay logging locomotive, a 101-year-old steam-powered light plant for the LaPorte County courthouse, the “Blue Goose” engine that once pulled visitors around Chicago’s Brookfield Zoo, and early 1900’s steam tractors and a steam-power popcorn machine. The show will also include rides in a railroad inspection car, the world’s largest mobile toy train layout, acres of flea market finds, and old-time hand-crafted sodas and fresh-pressed apple cider.

The show has been ranked among Indiana’s top 10 festivals and was named by Northwest Indiana Business as one of the region’s “Top 10 Must-See” locations.

The hours for the show are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST. Admission is $5 per person, with children 12 and under free.

Train fares are $5 for adults and $3 for kids 12 and under. Friday is Senior Day with half-price admittance and half-price rides for all seniors.

To get to the Hesston show, take I-94 to Exit One, then south to County Road 1000N or take the Indiana Toll Road to Exit49, then north on 139 to County Road 1000 North. For more information, see www.hesston.org

Posted 8/30/2010