CHUGGING ALONG FULL STEAM AHEAD!

For 24 years, the New Mexico Steam Locomotive and Railroad Historical Society has been on a quest to fix up the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe 2926, which ran from 1944 to 1956. Now, it seems as though the journey for the society might finally be coming to an end, as the train is fully operational and is able to run under its own steam power. NMSL&RHS President John Roberts has been with the organization for the past 12 years, and he says that in the next year or two, it’s very possible we could see the 2926 become a full-blown attraction. “The hope is to be located at the railyards, and I like to tell people that the locomotive itself is 99.9% complete,” he says. “It’ll never be 100% done because we can always work on something, but the organization’s true plans are to run tourist excursions from Albuquerque to either Lamy, NM or Las Vegas, NM.” Before the NMSL&RHS took on the ambitious project, the historic 2926 was essentially an obstacle for the city of Albuquerque. “The story was that the train was in Coronado Park and it was in the way of the big I interchange reconstruction, and the city needed to get rid of it,” says Roberts. The NMSL&RHS bought the train for a symbolic dollar and set to work on reconstructing it to the best of their ability. The goal is the same as it was in the beginning—to preserve the train—but now there’s a secondary goal of using it for tourist purposes. “Rail tourism is a big industry, and we were thinking that Albuquerque, like Durango or Silverton, could have its own standard-gauge rail tourist attraction,” says Roberts. —ET

Chef Jan Laird and her husband C.E. founded Jan’s On 4th in 2006; six years later, she decided to start offering kid’s cooking classes. It’s not like she didn’t have the experience: homeschooling seven kids of her own gave Laird the perfect foundation to start educating other children on the importance of prowess in the kitchen. “Cooking is a skill that needs to be learned by everyone, I strongly believe in that,” she says. “My favorite thing to hear is when kids come to several classes and tell me, ‘I made this!’ and ‘I made that!’”

Laird has found that the kids that attend her classes are there because they want to be, and that they want to hear what she has to say about the art of cooking. The first thing she starts with also happens to be the most important: assessing the equipment needed for the recipes they start with soon after. “Kids can start here at 10 years old because I teach them how to hold and sharpen a knife, and they’re in the kitchen with the ovens and the stove, so I teach them that they are all tools to be used,” she says.

The joy of cooking was known to Laird since she herself was a little girl—or at least to her peers. “According to my friends, I used to have them come over when I was 12 and I would make them afternoon snacks,” she says. “I would just throw things together and people would come over to my house to eat. It was crazy!” Add that to the fact that several members of her father’s family owned restaurants at one time or another, and it’s no surprise Laird went on to have a culinary career of her own. To check out the cooking school or inquire about other offerings of Jan’s On 4th, head over to janson4th.com —ET

Alexander Archuleta

AGE: 9 SCHOOL: Tierra Antigua TOTALLY INTO: Math, Fortnite, drawing NOT A FAN OF: Bullying and zucchini FUTURE PLANS: Mechanic or videogame designer HIS STORY: Sandwiched between brothers ages 16 and 5, Alexander shows no signs of middle child syndrome; in fact, his mom DeAndra says that his compassion and willingness to be a friend to those who need it are some of his strongest traits. “He is a very helpful, loving kid,” says his mom. “Even at school he’s the person who shows new kids around so they feel safe and comfortable.” That helpfulness extends to the homefront, where he likes to help his parents with cooking and other household chores. Poised to be the next Einstein, Alexander is a math whiz, and will often do gas price multiplication problems in his head just for fun. “He’s probably better at math than me!” says his mom, laughing. —ET