The Nut Tree Railroad began in 1953 as a narrow-gauge attraction for customers of Vacaville's Nut Tree Restaurant, a legendary roadside stop on the route between Sacramento and San Francisco. Riders bought their tickets at the Nut Tree Toy Shop, a colorful building that doubled as the railroad's main station - part retail, part platform, entirely charming. Two years later, the tracks were extended to the Nut Tree Airport, creating a genuinely practical service: pilots could fly in, hop on the miniature train, and ride directly to the restaurant. The route wound through the property's orchards, crossing a trestle bridge and passing through a tunnel carved into the landscape. It was whimsical and functional in equal measure - the kind of thing that only makes sense at a place where aviators, movie stars, and families on Interstate 80 road trips all ended up sharing the same table and the same impossibly good honey cookies.

The celebrities who rode the Nut Tree Railroad read like a guest list from California's mid-century golden age. Ronald Reagan rode the train; so did California Governor Pat Brown, his political rival. Shirley Temple, by then grown up and going by Shirley Temple Black, took the trip through the orchards. Fred MacMurray climbed aboard. Heavyweight boxing champion Max Baer, who grew up in nearby Livermore, was among the riders. Julia Child, already famous for bringing French cooking to American television, made the journey from toy shop to airport. Even Bozo the Clown reportedly took a seat. The narrow-gauge railroad, small enough that adults looked slightly ridiculous riding it, became one of those places where fame and ordinariness intersected without anyone making a fuss.

The Nut Tree's closure in 1996 ended a 75-year run that had begun as a roadside fruit stand on the Lincoln Highway. A family feud taken to court brought down the enterprise, and the property - all 71 acres of it - fell into limbo. Buildings were demolished one by one. For several years, the Northern California Renaissance Fair set up on the grounds, jousting tournaments occupying the space where families had once eaten gingerbread cookies and ridden rocking horses. But while the rest of the Nut Tree faded, Engine Number 5 sat in its sealed tunnel, purchased and protected by the City of Vacaville. The city's insistence was remarkable: many of the original buildings did not survive the years of neglect, but the train would. Developer after developer approached the property and heard Vacaville's non-negotiable requirement - reopen the railroad or find another parcel. Finally, in 2006, Snell & Company agreed to the terms and reopened the railroad in a new Nut Tree Family Park. When that park closed in January 2009 due to low attendance, the train's future looked uncertain once more.

In July 2009, developer Westrust purchased the Nut Tree property and reopened the railroad that August, adding a carousel and children's park to what became the Nut Tree Plaza. The train now runs on a biodiesel engine - a concession to the twenty-first century that the original builders might have appreciated, given that the Nut Tree had always been ahead of its time. Ed Power had hired Charles Eames to design the restaurant's furniture and modeled the patio after Copenhagen's Tivoli Gardens; the place was never content to be ordinary. Engine Number 5 emerged from its years in the dark to find a changed landscape. Where orchards and a legendary restaurant once drew travelers off Interstate 80, a mixed-use development now offers retail, dining, and residences across a 71-acre site. The Harbison House, Helen Power's childhood home and the Nut Tree's original anchor, has been restored as a centerpiece of the new plaza. Much has changed. But the train still runs, winding through a smaller version of the route it has traced since 1953. Vacaville made sure of that.