All aboard the ‘Suwee!’ express

Richard Weigel of the Island City Lions Club pilots the Pig Train in Haines during the town's Fourth of July Festivities. (Baker City Herald/S. John Collins)

The same onlooker might also have noticed a train of a different sort rolling round the bend.

Though maybe not until the conductor, Dick Weigel, shouted his version of the typical “All aboard” call.

“Pig train ride. SUWEE!” he called to the eight children, and several parents, eager to jump in one of pigs.

The song went on with the lyrics, “I hear the train a comin.’ It’s rollin’ ’round the bend ... ”

As if on cue, Weigel announced, “Pig train ride is off and running like a herd of pigs,” as he began making loops in the center of Front Street. “SUWEE!”

Al Weathermon said the train was built as a retirement project and has been used in the parade for four years as the Island City Lions Club entry.

He built it because he knew the kids would have a good time riding.

“Oh, the kids are just happy to see us here and be a part of it,” Al said referring to the use of the pig train in the parade.

The train has eight “passenger pigs” made of 50-gallon barrels, with a five-gallon bucket fashioned as a nose to the front. The engine pig is made of two 50-gallon barrels and is just large enough to accommodate the conductor.

Johnny Cash might not have had this particular conveyance in mind while writing about trains going past the infamous prison, but there is no doubt inmates would have relished the sight and envied the passengers of a pig train more than a regular train.

Pig train rides were offered at $1 per person and Al Weathermon said the proceeds would go to the Lions College Scholarship fund.

As the band finished the song about inmates watching a train go past at Folsom, Weigel shouted one last time, “SUWEE!”