Does anyone know of any railroads that still do cab ride alongs on the east coast? Any help at all would be appreciated. I would prefer diesel but even a steam engine would do.
Try www,goldcoast-railroad.org
They offer cab rides.
EVENa steam engine will do? Careful, you could bet burned for a comment like that. [:D]
Seriously, you may have trouble finding cab rides due to insurance problems and litigation fears.
I would be interested too.
I think if you were a know railfan and hung around an area and some switching local pops around, you know them and they know you good enuff, asking for a cab ride or they might offer, tho they might not tell their superiors…8-D
Of course if you ride on any electrified passenger line you might get a good front end view. The engineer might let you up in the cab area, but theres no problem watching the track from the rear car.
If you happened to be on the west coast, you could take the Lewis & Clark Explorer Train from Portland to Astoria and back. It uses RDC’s and the engineer seems very happy to accomodate people up front with him. Terrific view out the three front windows as well.
In southern California,the Orange Empire Railway Museum offers cabrides for an extra charge.
Locally to Winchester Virginia, it can be done with the Winchester & Western railroad. They need to be contacted and you will need to sign a waiver, and that’s about it. They make an 18 mile trip hauling sand from the Unimen Sand Mine in Gore, VA to Winchester. They usually use ALCO RS-11’s or EMD GP-9’s.