Rode the cab of Mid-Continent’s blue Alco in North Freedon, Wisc. Eventhough it wasn’t steam it was still fantastic. The museum is, as always, first class! -Tom Walker
It’s not strictly a “tourist” line, but I rode the Trinity Railway Express between Dallas and Fort Worth. It goes from Dallas Union Station, along the old Rock Island tracks through the Mid-Cities and on to the art deco cathedral of the T&P station in downtown Fort Worth.
Lots of good RR action along the way, and especially at the two ends, with restored Budd RDCs on some trains and EMD engines and Bombardier coaches on others. And only $4 to ride as much as you want in a day!
Illinois Railway Museum, Railroad Museum at Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Twin City Model Railroad Museum, Saint Paul, Minnesota, all on the way West re-tracing the route of Lewis & Clark to the Pacific. All saw / photographed GN locomotives at Williston, North Dakota and Havre, Montana, Northern Pacific steam engines at Helena and Missoula, and the Milwaukee Road Little Joe at Deer Lodge, Montana.
Places I’ve been this year so far:
Illinois Railroad Museum
Indiana Transportation Museum
St Louis Museum of Transportation
Monticello RR Museum
Museum of Science & Industry, Chicago
Fox Valley Trolley Museum, Elgin
Monticello RR Museum
Galesburg RR Museum
Plano Depot Museum
Sugarcreek, Ohio, for the “offical” last run of the OC steam program
Places still on the list for this year:
Wheels O’ Time Museum, Peoria
Smithsonian Institute
With the exception of the Smit and the OC, everything is within a four-hour drive for me. I love living in Illinois!
RAY
Visited Whitefish, Montana, and went in and about the Great Northern museum, I live near Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. A great site for BNSF and Union Pacific is area between Sandpoint, Idaho and Spokane, WA. checkout www.icehouse.net/funnelfan/funnel.htm Good pictures and explanations
I spent my summer vacation time attending family weddings (three in all), the last of which took place in Mystic, CT, enabling me to ride the Valley Railroad. Even my wife enjoyed it.
I visited the Portola museum when our Quincy Where? group visited there. We all chose a caboose to ride in (we missed the regular trip so only rode in the yards) and following that we each got to drive the train for 10 minutes. What a thrill! Everyone enjoyed browsing around the yards and looking at all the stock they have there. We also dropped quite a few bucks in their souvenier shop.
Went to Horseshoe Curve and spent 2 wonderful days at the Cass Scenic RR (stayed in town!).
We attended the narrow gauge convention in Denver earlier this month.
We visited the Gunnison Pioneer museum - really excellent, but
of course, we also visited the Colorado RR Museum in Golden.
We rode the Cumbres and Toltec from Chama - however, it derailed
about 2 1/2 miles past the Los Pinos curve, so the trip was cut short.
I hope they can get another engine running for next year, and they
can get back to their prior form.
ted
Rode the “Wisconsin Great Northern” in Spooner, Wi.
Went to Miniture World in Victoria,BC Canada. Supurb displays and a great source for layout ideas.
We went to Disneyworld and took the behind the scenes tour of the railroad-don’t laugh. It got us into the train shed were we spent quite a fair amount of time. They have four Baldwin steam engines that they rescued from South America and have rebuilt to look older. The fidelity to detail was amazing. We got into the cab of one of the engines and the engineer/fireman explained how the controls work and how each engine has a different personality. My wife and friends enjoyed it too.
My family and I rode Farmrails Quartz Mountain Flyer from near Altus Lake State Park in Oklanhoma to Lone Wolf OK. The 9 mile trip took close to an hour due to the slow speed limits on Farmrails line. This train is operated with Farmrail owned equipment and ticketing is handled through Qtz Mountain Lodge. Although, technically not a tourist train, my boys and Ialso rode Amtrak from Raton to Las Vegas New Mexico. Since we only took the trip for the sake of riding a train, I am considering it a tourist train ride. Santa Fe all the Way!
Roaring Camp Railroads, Felton, CA. This is a don’t miss! Along the San Lorenzo River to Santa Cruz thru the redwoods and return.
California State Railroad Museum. Last visited 11 years ago - something
lacking now - Quite disappointed.
We rode the Cumbres and Toltec one day in July and the Durango and Silverton the following day. Great trips! Last month back home in West Virginia we rode the Durbin and Greenbrier’s “Cheat Mountain Salamander,” a later-day copy of a 1920’s era interurban car.
In May we visited Hawaii and rode the Ewa on Oahu and the Sugar Cane RR on Maui. Then in July we embarked on a 7000 mile trip on Amtrak via Denver, Sacramento, Seattle, roundtrip from Lancaster, PA. Spent three days in Denver. Rode the Georgetown Loop, rode the 3985 excursion to the buffalo ranch, and the Royal Gorge RR. I visited the Virginia and Truckee in Virginia City and then we rode the Mt. Rainier Scenic while we were in Seattle. All in all, it was a great trip. Service on Amtrak was pretty good and the trains were not excessively late.
Rode the Georgetown Loop in Colorado and the Colorado Railroad Museum
My wife,son and I hit a full court press of WV. Went to Cass all the way to the top, Cheat Mt. Salamander to old town of Spruce in a built new(2000) 1920’s motorcar. The Durbin Rocket, Climax was down with broken axle, but the little Whitcome worked just fine. The New Tygart Flyer behind old WM BL-2(?), and of course finished up with the Potomac Eagle. Much fun for all thanks to Christy.
I rode on the Abilene & Smokey Valley RR at Abilene, KS. It’s 10 years old this summer. They have an old Hutchinson & Northern Alco S1 switcher from 1945. The engine motor was origionally built for a submarine. Pretty cool and lots of fun! www.asvrr.org
Rode the Cab of Royal Gourge, Durango & Silverton, Georgetown Loop, Cambres & Toltec, Grand Canyon, Verde Valley, Pikes Peak. All were a wonderful experence. Also visited Golden Train Museum. Also made Amtrak 8,000 mile tour. It’s been a busy year. Not bad for an 80 year old young man. Been a Rail Fan all my life. Art. Simmons Sr. Phoenix,Az.