March 31, 2019 – U.S. Train Experiences

THE THOMS SUNDAY TRAVEL SECTION

WHERE TO?                  THE SENSES.

Rail Road Trip

Recently, we were looking at great overnight train trips. But maybe you don’t have the time or budget to go away for several days. That doesn’t mean you cannot have a train experience. Thank goodness, some forward-thinking people did not let all the great train cars and engines disappear.

There are many educational, scenic or tasty day trips out there. Maybe in your back yard. Or better yet, combine one with a driving tour and give the driver a day off. When was the last time they got to look?”

Steam Train Experiences

There are many options today to ride upon a steam train. Some are several hours long, some less than an hour. I know a real steam train that can go from Mainstreet to Frontierland, in less than 10 minutes.

Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

This steam train experience is one of the best-known in America. Its primary goal was to supply the mines and haul out the precious metals starting in 1882. They also ran scenic trains, but the big moneymaker was mining. Then the mining companies began closing, and the shift was to scenic train rides. The 1950s and everyone buying cars did not help.

Several Hollywood movies in the 1950s create a new interest in the train. Then in 1969, with its appearance in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the train gets worldwide recognition. Today, it is a National Historic Landmark and a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark. Trains run year-round, and there are several classes you can choose. The Durango to Silverton route is available May – October. The trip between Durango and Silverton is 3.5 hours each way.

Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad

It is a National Historic Landmark dating from 1880. It also began serving as an extension line to the silver mining district, this time for the Rio Grande Railroad. And it is also a movie star, appearing in Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade, Wyatt Earp and A Million Ways to Die in the West. 

It also went through difficult times including the Rio Grande Railroad abandoning it. Preservationists pressured Colorado and New Mexico to buy it in 1970, and it goes into service the next year. Many consider this remaining section to be the most scenic part of the line. Train experiences run May through September.

V&T Railway

See if this sounds familiar? The gold and silver mines of Virginia City and Carson City need a link to a mainline railroad. In 1872, they got that link to the North Central Railroad (of Golden Spike fame) in Reno. Silver and gold disappear, the railroad falls on hard times.

It got a fan club in 1972. With a lot of work, it is running a partial section of the route three years later. It now takes 90 minutes to make the run to Virginia City where there is time to eat and explore. The steam train runs from May – October.

Cass Scenic Railroad State Park

In West Virginia, a 90-minutes drive from the Greenbrier or Homestead Resort is the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park.

The railroad, dating from 1901, was for hauling lumber to the mill in Cass. Several Shay locomotives in use today are from that time. That makes them some of the oldest engines in continuous service on their original line. Many of the passenger cars are old logging flatcars with some refurbishing.

There are several trips available by steam and diesel. The 4.5-hour steam trip to Bald Knob is one of the most popular. This train experience runs May through October.

White Pass & Yukon Railroad

This railroad makes me a little crazy. As the name implies, it includes the White Pass and Yukon. In 1898 construction began on a railroad to take prospectors and supplies over the White Pass and into the Yukon. There was gold in them thar hills.

Today, tourists stream off of cruise ships, into train cars alongside their boat. Then the trains fall into a single-file line and follow each other up the track to the White Pass. Then right before going through the pass and on into the Yukon, they stop. They put the diesel engine on the other end of the train, and go back to Skagway in single file. That’s like riding the Disney World monorail past the entrance to the Magic Kingdom, but not going in. 

However, later in the morning, they have a steam train experience. It passes through the White Pass and continues into the Yukon. Just after the pass, the valley widens, and you can see lakes and forests and potential wildlife. It goes approximately seven miles into the Yukon before looping back for the trip back to Skagway. But, you are in the Yukon, you see a little of the Yukon, and you’re on a steam train. 

Or if time allows, do the train to Carcross and bus back via the Klondike Highway. (sometimes it runs in reverse.) You see more of the Yukon. There is a stop in Bennett which you can only reach by train or foot. And you take a different route back to Skagway seeing more of the Yukon. Both of these are better train experiences.

Diesel Train Experiences

Rio Grande Scenic Railroad

These trains depart from Alamosa Colorado. You can drive there from Pueblo in about two hours, or Taos New Mexico in 90 minutes. This scenic train trip follows the same route over La Veta Pass that freight trains have been using since 1878.  At Alamosa agricultural and mining products would transfer to the mainline railroads.

In 2006, it became a scenic railroad. The eight hour round trip excursion includes free time in La Veta. The train runs between May and September.

Arkansas & Missouri Railroad

Starting as a commercial railroad in 1986, it revives the abandoned St. Louis-San Francisco (Frisco) Railway system dating from the 1880s. Besides the stations in Fayetteville, Van Buren, and Fort Smith, very little of the original remains. The passenger cars come from other railroads and vary in style (level of service.) The oldest is from 1917 and the youngest from 1956. They offer several train experiences. The full route includes bridges, a tunnel, and mountain views. The train operates year-round, predominantly on weekends.

Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, North Carolina

The Grand Canyon Railroad

Departing the Williams Arizona station, it follows the original 1901 Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway feeder line.

The trip to the Grand Canyon Village takes just over two hours each way. Time at the park is about three and a half hours, departing before sunset for the trip back.

In the old days, guests would overnight at one of the lodges near the rim that the railroad built. Today, those lodges belong to another company, and I guess they can’t play together. You can book the train and rim lodges separately. Also, the Grand Canyon railroad has an inn set back in the woods with a shuttle to the rim.

If you are going to go that far, see a sunset, and a sunrise over the Grand Canyon. January and February (slow and cold season) there is one train a day. Every other month there are two trains from Williams each morning. One Saturday a month, they run a steam train. 

Alaska Railroad

Here is another railroad that makes me a little crazy. They push the Anchorage to Denali segment and sell it like crazy. I don’t think its the most scenic section of the railroad. I believe the railroad has two better train experiences. If I had a choice, I would do the Coastal Classic between Anchorage and Seward.

From Anchorage, the train travels south along Turnagain Arm and passing Portage, Spencer, and Grandview glaciers. Look out on towering waterfalls and a curve so sharp; you can see the other end of the train. The trip lasts approximately four hours and 15 minutes. The Coastal Classic remains in Seward from 11:00 AM until 6:00 PM when it returns to Anchorage. It runs May through the beginning of September. At the beginning and end of the season, sunrise is before 7:00 AM and sunset after 8:00 PM. (Sunrise is before 5 am and sunset is after 11:00 PM in June and July.)

If your travels include a cruise ship, it gives you time in Seward which has several exciting things to see. Or you can do it as a (long) day trip from Anchorage. If you have an extra day in Anchorage, look at the Glacier Discovery train. It does the highlights of the Coastal Classic but with optional stops along the way. It returns to Anchorage (or Girdwood)

Train Experiences of an Hour or Less

Georgetown Loop Railroad & Mining Company

An hour’s drive west of Denver is the Georgetown Loop, initially offering access from Denver to the Clear Creek Canyon. The stretch to Georgetown dates to 1879. With gold discoveries near Leadville, the Union Pacific wants a link from Denver. Just west of Georgetown is an engineering nightmare. A grade of more than 6% which most trains cannot climb.

The Union Pacific finally builds a solution using hairpin turns, bridges, and a 30-degree horseshoe curve. By 1884, the track reaches just past Silver Plume.

A competing railroad reaches Leadville. The U.P. gives up interest. Today, the section between Silver Plume and Georgetown offers incredible engineering and beautiful scenery. They try to use steam engines as often as possible. For those interested in mining, visit the restored mining camp and real mine.

Strasburg Railroad

Just outside of Lancaster Pennsylvania is one of America’s oldest operating railroads, The Strasburg Railroad dating from 1832. The 4.5-mile feeder track would bring local supplies to a central line of the Pennsylvania Railroad.

By 1957, rising expenses and competition from trucking companies put the railroad on the selling block. A group of 24 train lovers buy the railroad and begin passenger trips. The 45-minute tour by steam transits the 4.5-mile to Paradise PA and back.

Across the highway from the station is the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania. Their collection includes approximately 40 locomotives and 60 cars from Pennsylvania railroads.

Honorable Mention

Illinois Railway Museum

The museum began as an electric railroad museum in 1953. In 1964 they moved to the current location 90 minutes NW of Chicago. Since that time, the property and collection keep growing. Today, they have over 400 pieces of equipment. Some are complete train sets.

The museum is the largest of its kind in the United States. Besides trains, there are interurban and streetcars from Chicago’s past. They offer rides around the museum’s grounds several days a week between April and October.

B&O Railroad Museum

Is more museum than a train ride, although they do offer them. The museum is on a 40-acre campus that includes the historic Mt. Clare Shops, roundhouse, and the first mile of commercial long-distance track in the United States. This rail makes the museum the birthplace of American railroading. Today, it is a National Historic Landmark, and an affiliate of the Smithsonian Museum. The site has a comprehensive collection of trains and artifacts predominantly from Maryland railroads. There is also a nice collection of scale-model and toy trains. 

Steamtown National Historic Site

Steamtown NHS covers almost 40 acres that were the Scranton yards of the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad. There is a museum as well as shops that you can tour.

Several days a week they offer a short train ride around the rail yard. Fifteen minutes out, and then back on the same track. Think lots of museum, with a short train ride.

Other Train Experiences

Are these the only train experiences in the United States? Hardly. Every year, there seem to be more. There are Cog Railways, which some would argue are an incline and not a railroad. They have rails, an engine and a passenger car or two. You decide.

Wine, beer, brunch, and dinner trains. These are usually more about what is going on inside the train than what is going by outside. More than 50 culinary trains are operating in North America, so there is probably one somewhere in your state.  Many of these trains operate either seasonally or a few days a week. Some operate daily (or even twice daily on weekends.) 

There are “theme” trains. Easter, Halloween, and everyone’s version of the holiday or Polar Express. These attract children and do not serve alcohol. To me, these are not “train experiences”; they’re a trip into the fiery…

Take a Tip, Take a Trip.

Take a short day trip, or combine several trains into a long weekend adventure. If they are in a different state, take an overnight train to reach them and make it a vacation. 

Many trains offer seating in an upper dome or second floor. This move will not put you above the trees, but it will set you above the bushes and thicker foliage. They usually come with some food or beverage and enhanced service. On a “scenic” train, I believe in increasing my chances of seeing something.

For the “kids” over 21 years old, some railroads let you help start the steam or help in the roundhouse. And some, after instruction, will give you take the throttle.

There’s a train experience for everyone.

Please “Leave a Reply” below to this: What part of the country would you like to see by train?

(BACK TO TOP)

“See Mykonos Greece” Continued on Page T3         “Taste Nice France” Continued on T4