When Sun City resident and model railroad aficionado Mike Ptak landed the train engineer role at Goebbert’s farm, he didn’t know he would be immortalized in a children’s book; now he and local author Deb Skog are both living the dream.
“You have my ideal retirement job,” Ptak recalls telling the previous train engineer on a fateful visit to the Pingree Grove farm. By the following season, Ptak was running the rails ten hours a day and he is featured in the new picture book, “A Day at the Pumpkin Farm.”
Sun City resident Mike Photo submitted Ptak operates drives the model train at Goebbert’s Farm in Huntley. His new book, based off his experiences, celebrates the farm’s many attractions. (Photo provided)
The book, Skog’s second, regales in rhyme a dozen of Goebbert’s Fall Festival attractions, including the jumping pillow, pig races, and haunted house.
“Agritainment is what they call it,” said Skog, a long-term Goebbert’s employee and former kindergarten teacher who said the abundance of activities, including an upcoming carousel and wedding venue with bridal cottage, created tough choices for her book. “I had to pick and choose. I only had so many pages to work with.”
Chugging through it all is the Pumpkin Express.
“Goebberts has become a tradition, and riding the train has become a big, big part of that,” said Ptak, who explained that riders witness an unfolding animatronic adventure in Western Town. “The whole thing revolves around the storyline that the Goebberts discovered gold on this property. The bad skeleton gang is attempting to rob the goldmine, so there’s the ensuing chase. It really is impressive.”
The long lines for the train and other attractions attest to the farm’s popularity.
“It’s just a magical place. It defines fall,” said Skog. “People can come and escape and have a great bonding activity.”
And her motivation for the book?
“People leave with a lot of yummy treats and doughnuts and caramel apples. Good stuff, but I wanted to create a non-consumable for families to bring home,” she said.
And roaring through page nine of that memento is a remarkable likeness to Ptak commanding the train, his image captured accurately enough by the illustrator for Ptak to call it his avatar.
But Ptak knew he had truly arrived when a pint-sized passenger ranked him at the top of her favorite’s list, right up there with another beloved book character.
“The little girl’s mom turned to me and said, ‘It’s you and Peppa Pig’s grandfather because you each have your own train,’” said Ptak. “I’ve never forgotten that.”
