The Mystery Train Of Woodland Park

AT AGE 100, Woodland Park Zoo is going strong, being lauded in this anniversary year as one of the best, most progressive zoos in the nation. They've done away with most of the primitive cages so animals can roam around in natural settings, allowing them to get back in touch with their inner beast.

That's nice, but what happened to all the rides, especially that miniature train? We'd love to ride that train again. It used to be the main attraction at Woodland Park, at least to thousands of kids whose interest in zoology was limited to eating Animal Crackers and making faces at Bobo.

So we called the zoo, but nobody working there could recall what happened to the train, other than it disappeared with the other rides in 1977. We called people who used to work at the zoo and they didn't know, either.

We tried Enchanted Parks in Federal Way, which has an electric train ride, and Randy Page said he thought the train was down the road at Oaks Park in Portland. We called them, and Herman Frieden said he thought they had it, "but the guy who could really document it passed on about two weeks ago."

The Oregonian newspaper sent us a couple of photos from 1981 of the Oaks Park train that came "from a park in the Seattle area," but it sure didn't look like ours. We eventually tracked down the man who owned the rides at the zoo, Ben Mayers, of Mercer Island. He said he thought the train had been junked and sold for scrap metal. "You couldn't buy parts," he explained.

Great. All that work for nothing.

NOW ARRIVING OVER TRACK 10, A LOT OF FLIGHTS

THE NEW TALGO train running three times a day between Seattle and Portland is nothing like the old train at Woodland Park. It's sleek, fast and a symbol of Amtrak's resurgence.

Excuse us, though, if the airport is as crowded as ever and the old train station is a bit emptier than it was, say, right after World War II. Last year, Seattle-Tacoma International handled a record 402,268 commercial flights, an average of 1,102 flights a day.

That compares to 12 passenger trains a day pulling in or pulling out of King Street Station. On a typical day in 1948, there were at least 32 trains a day using Seattle's two stations, according to a shredded old rail guide we found.

But the biggest transportation news has to be the loss of the Burger King restaurant at the downtown Greyhound station. Another restaurant has moved in, but it's not the same. But then, it hasn't been the same down there since Greyhound removed those plastic seats with the small black-and-white coin-operated TVs attached. It's just not worth taking a date there anymore.

AND IT CUTS DOWN ON THE CALORIES

PEOPLE COMPLAIN THAT eating well at a baseball game has gotten too expensive, what with a top-of-the-line Polish sausage at a Mariners game now $4.25. (That would set you back $42.50 to feed a family of 10, not counting peanuts and drinks, which could bring the tab closer to $1,000.)

Maybe some remember 1966, when a family of 10 could watch what was then the Seattle Angels and spend only $7.50 buying everyone a hot dog (35 cents), a bag of peanuts (25 cents) and a soft drink (15 cents). Well, you still can get by spending only $7.50 on your family at an M's game - treat them to three bottles of Sparkletts water.

Bill Kossen is a writer for The Seattle Times. You may e-mail this page at pacificnw@seattletimes.com or write P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111. Planet Northwest response line: 206-464-3337.