Travelrific® Travel Journal
Picture postcards in prose.™ Check out the blogroll on the front page for official merchandise and other resources!Archive for train travel
Supremely Scenic in New Hampshire
By Linda Tancs
Supremely scenic excursions await you aboard the Conway Scenic Railroad in New Hampshire. In fact, the Mountaineer is touted as the most scenic ride of all, offering 1950s-era streamlined passenger cars to Crawford Notch, a major pass through the White Mountains. Other trains to Conway and Sawyer River offer heritage rail excursions by employing early 20th-century railcars to recreate the experience of traveling from town to town. Regardless which trip you choose, the trains depart from the 1874 station in North Conway.
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New England’s Railroad Heritage
By Linda Tancs
The Railroad Museum of New England in Thomaston, Connecticut, preserves and restores New England’s railroad heritage. The museum boasts a diverse collection representative of New England railroading including locomotives, passenger and freight cars, and cabooses. Through its operating subsidiary known as the Naugatuck Railroad (originally chartered in 1845), they tell the story of the region’s rich railroad heritage, conducting scenic and historical excursions between Torrington and Waterbury.
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A Lakeside Rail Ride
By Linda Tancs
Visitors to Meredith, New Hampshire, can enjoy a ride on over 50 miles of historic railroad track on the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad. Operating between Meredith and Lakeport along the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee (the largest lake in the state), the route was once home to the famous Boston, Concord & Montreal line dating back to 1848. All excursions are round-trip from Meredith.
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A Scenic Rail Adventure in Canada
By Linda Tancs
One of Canada’s most popular train tours is the full-day tour to Agawa Canyon, covering the stunning Canadian wilderness of Northern Ontario. Departing from the train depot (87 Huron Street) in downtown Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, the stunning beauty of the mixed forests of the Canadian Shield brings the landscape art of the Group of Seven (a group of Canadian landscape painters) to life. As if the rugged landscapes, forests, lakes and rivers weren’t enough, the train descends to the canyon floor, an area created more than 1.2 billion years ago by faulting. You even get the engineer’s “bird’s-eye view” thanks to locomotive-mounted cameras projecting images via flat screen monitors installed throughout the coaches. This year’s tour season runs from August 3 to October 15; peak season runs from September 17 to October 10.
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Steaming Through Britain
By Linda Tancs
Evoking a bygone era of luxury steam travel, Steam Dreams is a rail company in Britain offering both day trips and holidays throughout the country. Depending on the tour, locomotives include 45231 Sherwood Forester, 46100 Royal Scot, 61306 Mayflower, Braunton, Brittania and RPSI. This summer brings a new series of lunchtime trips from Victoria Station to the Kentish countryside. Pullman Style Dining is the most popular class of travel, boasting three-course dining in a 1950s or 1960s era carriage with wood paneling, curtains and comfortable seating.
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Two Downtowns and a Train
By Linda Tancs
The Hoosac Valley Train connects the downtowns of Adams and North Adams at the northern end of Berkshire County in Massachusetts. The round-trip, scenic ride operates regularly with a classic 1955 Budd RDC or self-propelled passenger car, and volunteers narrate the history of trains in the mountains. Trains leave from the platform beside the Adams Visitors Center on weekends from May to October in addition to holiday-themed special runs in December.
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A Steam Train and a Riverboat
By Linda Tancs
Essex, Connecticut, is a quaint town on the west bank of the Connecticut River. At Essex Station, you can catch a ride on a steam train operating along the historic Valley Railroad line. The 12-mile, narrated journey passes through Deep River and Chester (together with Essex, referred to locally as the Tri-Town Area). But why stop there? You can combine the steam train journey with a riverboat cruise, which offers views of coves, inlets, marshes, wildlife, rocky shoreline and Gillette Castle. The Essex Steam Train & Riverboat excursion is 2 1/2 hours long, operating round-trip from Essex Station between May and October. Advance booking is recommended.
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Vintage Cars in Grapevine
By Linda Tancs
Located in the heart of historic downtown Grapevine, Texas, the Grapevine Vintage Railroad offers an authentic experience aboard 1920s-era Victorian coaches. The excursion moves through six different cities in Tarrant County before ending in the historic Fort Worth Stockyards. Once there, riders will have the opportunity to explore the stockyards before re-boarding to return to Grapevine. The standard excursion runs from April to November. Specialty rides occur at other times of the year.
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Steam Over Scranton
By Linda Tancs
One of the earliest rail lines in northeastern Pennsylvania was the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. About 40 acres of that old railroad yard in Scranton is now occupied by the Steamtown National Historic Site. The park’s collection includes locomotives, freight cars, passenger cars and maintenance-of-way equipment from several historic railroads. The locomotives range in size from a tiny industrial switcher engine built in 1937 by the H.K. Porter Company for the Bullard Company to a huge Union Pacific “Big Boy” built in 1941 by the American Locomotive Company. The oldest locomotive is a freight engine built by American Locomotive Company in 1903 for the Chicago Union Transfer Railway Company. You can learn more about railroading history at the museum and, seasonally, enjoy a train ride.
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The Foliage Train
By Linda Tancs
The Vigezzina-Centovalli Railway runs 32 miles between Domodossola, Italy, and Locarno, Switzerland, passing over 83 bridges and viaducts. Just the mention of a route like that evokes scenic wonders, so imagine how colorful it gets during autumn. That’s when “the foliage train” operates, promising enchanting views enhanced by autumn’s foliage. Each train is equipped with full-length windows, too, so it’s doubtful that the journey will disappoint. You can reach the International Rail Station of Domodossola with Eurocity, interregionali and regionali trains operated by Trenitalia. On the Swiss side, Locarno can be reached by using the international railway lines Basel-Milano or Zurich-Milano, and the route is fully covered by the Swiss Travel Pass (Flex) and GA travelcard.
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