Any Train Aficionados?

[Stan Calow]

You can go coast to coast on Rail Canada. I've only done the Nova Scotia to Toronto segment, with a few stops in Quebec. Considering the western part now.

[Kurt Kintner]

[QUOTE=Howard Garner;2595670]

We travel out West a lot, and do the Cumbres & Toltec every time.... It can't be discribed or filmed to justify how great it is... Takes most of the day traveling at 10-12 mph.... And the free lunch at the pavilion is a nice bonus....
if you like the sound and smell is a steam engine, like we do, you'll love it.... We spend most of the time on the open air car ....[/QUOTE

Try to ride it from east to west (Antinito to Chama). That way you get to listen to the locomotive all the way to Cumbras Pass which is 3/4 of the trip. Yes you miss the assault of the 4%, but then the eastward trip would mostly coast for the rest of the day.

have done it both ways .... Both are great.....
Last year we had the pleasure if experiencing the engine losing traction on one of the grades....
the maintenance crew had forgotten to fill the sanders.... After sanding the track several times manually,
we were on our way.... I imagine heads rolled over that oops ....

[Adam Herman]

http://georgetownlooprr.com/

this one is fun with a big round tressel to decrease elevation in a small area. you end up going under the track you were just on.

http://hebervalleyrr.org/

a fun one in utah. up to 3 hrs long.

http://winetrain.com/

this one is like traveling first class! wine and food are great (at least they were about 15 years ago)

[Charles McKinley]

Oil City & Titusville Railroad
http://www.visitpa.com/pa-railroads/...orical-society

Strasburg Railroad
http://www.rrmuseumpa.org

Altoona, PA has Horseshoe Curve to watch lots of trains.

Carnegie Science Center, Pittsburgh, PA has the miniture railroad open most of the year now with special displays for Christmas time.

[Bruce Page]

We've done the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge a few times. It's always great fun. Here's a pic from a few years ago of my two youngest grandkids on the Polar Express. Sierra's a big Santa fan now, not so much then..

[Mike Henderson]

There are some "train across Canada" and "train across the US" tours that appear to be interesting. You get a sleeper berth (two kinds, low end with upper and lower beds with shower down the hall and deluxe with a shower in your cabin and a Murphy bed) and the train stops in various towns and you take a tour, similar to what you would do on a ship cruise (such as an Alaskan cruise). There are many different itineraries, different length trips and different cities. You can do just the western US (or Canada) or all the way across. For the US, you can do a southern route starting in LA, or a northern route starting in Seattle (if I remember correctly).

Mike

[Lee Schierer]

My Grandfather was an Engineer in the Erie RR and there were several times when we were home visiting that he would arrange for us to ride in the engine cab with him. On the last trip we rode with him before he retired, when my mother and brother and sisters got off, my dad and my uncle got on and rode the train from Bradford, Pa to Brockway PA and filmed the ride. I have copies of the movies they took of the train crossing the Kinzua viaduct, which at one time was the highest and longest iron trestle bridge in the world. Kinzua-postcard-A.jpg

I've also taken trips on numerous old rail lines around the country and over seas.

Check out the Cass Scenic Railway with their Shay locomotives. or the Potomac Eagle scenic railway or the 1880 train there are also some really neat steam engines at Greenfield Village near Detroit.

[Wayne Lomman]

Rich, 'The Ghan' which runs between Adelaide and Darwin. Cheers
http://www.greatsouthernrail.com.au/trains/the_ghan/

[Garth Almgren]

I wouldn't consider myself an aficionado, but I am a fan of trains.

Closest to me, there is the Great Northern & Cascade Railway which is a ton of fun.

We also have the Northwest Railroad Museum nearby and I've been meaning to visit for quite some time. They also offer train rides on their own 5.5 miles of track within the Mountains to Sound Greenway.

I've always wanted to take a ride down to Portland or Eugene on the Amtrack Cascades or head over to Montana on the Empire Builder, but never had a good reason to do so.

When my wife and I were in Australia for our honeymoon, we took an overnight train from Sydney to Melbourne. It was a very relaxing way to travel, however I wish we had been able to make the trip in daylight to be able to see more of the scenery.

[Chris Padilla]

Darn...was hoping this was about the band, Train, from San Francisco.

In March 2001, my wife and I boarded Amtrak in San Jose, CA bound for Eugene, OR. We were headed there to pick up a brand new 2001 BMW 530i that had arrived. (Long story why we bought the car in OR instead of CA).

Anyway, the train was supposed to pull into Eugene around 1 pm. We got there at 8 pm. While the train ride was nice WHEN IT WAS MOVING AND NOT STOPPED TO BE REPAIRED, we haven't been on Amtrak since. Going by Mt. Shasta was quite breath-taking and the overall scenery was just as nice but the delay was intolerable so we've never set foot on Amtrak since.