HI,
Has anyone gone on the dinner train in Spooner, Wisconsin? It looks nice on the web page, but I was hoping to get feedback from people who have taken the train to see if the train and dinner are worth the drive and money.
Thanks!
Can’t say I’ve ever taken the Dinner Train, but I used to volunteer up there for a long time (see my username??)
From a railfan’s perspective, it’s a nice ride. 4 Heavyweight passenger cars, with mahogany interiors (except the Baggage car, of course) and era appropriate details. Although I still can’t agree the “safety orange” of the railroad cars was the best choice…lol
From the Dinner Trains I have ridden, it had always looked like an enjoyable ride, with good food.
Otherwise, anybody else want to chime in??
Aside from the dinner train, Spooner has a large depot from the C&NW days, a yard office, scale house, sand tower, turntable, and roundhouse. Unfortunetly, last week stalls 1-2 were torn down due to stability problems. The beams were falling apart. Thankfully, these stalls were a seperate structure from the remaining 6 stalls still standing. The good beams from the 1-2 stalls will be used to repair the ones in the current structure. The roundhouse is privatly owned and not used by the WGN.
Power is ex-Milwaukee Road SW-1 #862. If you want, you can pay them $200 and they will run the F7A (ex-C&NW 423) because it takes up more gas than the SW and is not reguarly run.
Other “non-restored” equipment there includes some old Denver & Salt Lake heavyweight cars, a couple of engines not property of the WGN, and some MOW equipment.
Hope this helps!
Phil (former volunteer on the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad)