All aboard! America's best excursion trains offer stunning scenery on nostalgic rides into yesteryear

Travel America, Sept-Oct, 2003 by Randy Mink

Illinois Railway Museum, Union, Illinois. The nation's largest railway museum, with more than 400 pieces of rail and public transportation equipment, offers 10-mile roundtrip diesel and steam rides to Kishwaukee Grove. Electric streetcar (trolley) rides also are available. Observing its 50th anniversary, this "museum in motion" is just an hour or so northwest of Chicago.

Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, Independence, Ohio. Featuring climate-controlled, stainless steel coaches built in 1939-40, the train runs on 26 miles of old CSX track through the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area. Besides a 90minute scenic trip to the historic village of Peninsula, full-day excursions go from Independence to downtown Akron for visits to Inventure Place (Inventor's Hall of Fame and Museum) and Quaker Square shopping complex (once the Quaker Oats factory); Akron's Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, the former estate of the co-founder of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company; and Hale Farm & Village, a living history museum.

Agawa Canyon Tour Train, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. In the Lake Superior/Lake Huron region, just across the water from Michigan's Upper Peninsula, this day-long wilderness excursion takes you 114 miles north of Sault Ste. Marie over towering trestles, alongside pristine lakes and rivers, and through awesome granite formations. After a 500-foot descent to the canyon floor, you have two hours to hike the trails and see four sets of waterfalls in Agawa Canyon Park. One option is climbing the 300-some stairs to the lookout platform.

Great Smoky Mountains Railway, Dillsboro, North Carolina. Traveling at a maximum speed of 15 m.p.h. between Dillsboro and Bryson City, the train follows the Tuckasegee River, past bucolic farmland, deep forest, waterfalls and sheer rock faces near the boundaries of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Passengers are momentarily enveloped in total darkness in the 836-foot tunnel hand-dug by convicts mole than 100 years ago.

Big South Fork Scenic Railway, Stearns, Kentncky. A highlight of this open-air excursion is a visit to Blue Heron, a coal mining camp restored by the National Park Service. Skilled craftspeople and park rangers explain Appalachian coal culture. See boulders, a hand-cut granite rock tunnel and beautiful mountain views as the canopied cars travel through Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, near the Tennessee border. The railway depot is in downtown Stearns, built and owned by the Steams Coal and Lumber Company from 190276 and now a National Historic District.

Cass Scenic Railroad State Park, Cass, West Virginia. In the old lumber company town of Cass, hop aboard an open-air car (a refurbished logging flat car) for the 90-minute roundtrip to Whittaker Station or the 4 1/2-hour ride to the summit of Bald Knob, the second highest point in West Virginia at 4,842 feet. In historic Cass, stay overnight in six- to 10-person cottages that once housed company workers.

Western Maryland Scenic Railroad, Cumberland, Maryland. This 3 1/2-hour, 32-mile ride between Cumberland and Frostburg passes through a breach in the Allegheny Mountains, crosses an iron truss bridge and threads a 914-foot-long tunnel. Passengers have a 90-minute layover in Frostburg to dine at the 1891 depot, shop in the old hotel or visit the Thrasher Carriage Museum. They also see the engine moved onto the turntable and prepared for the return trip.