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

Travel America, Sept-Oct, 2003 by Randy Mink

Strasburg Rail Road, Strasburg, Pennsylvania. From your seat in an authentic wooden coach or open-air observation car, soak in the unspoiled charm of Lancaster County, where Amish farmers still plow their fields with horses and mules. The nine-mile, 45-minute excursion on America's oldest short-line steam train (dating front 1832) goes to the town of Paradise and back. Across the road is the world-class Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania, with mole than 100 locomotives and coaches from yesteryear. Also in Strasburg are the National Toy Train Museum and the Choo Choo Barn, both with model train layouts.

Mount Washington Cog Railway, Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The world's oldest mountain-climbing cog railway takes you up the second steepest track in the world to the 6,288-foot summit of Mt. Washington, the highest peak in the Northeast. View four states, Canada, and the Atlantic Ocean on a clear day. Other days, you find yourself suspended above the clouds.

At the base station, see museum exhibits and the locomotive Old Peppersass, the original "Little Engine That Could," which first reached the summit in 1869. Today's similar engines consume one ton of coal and 1,000 gallons of water for each three-hour roundtrip, which includes 20 minutes at the summit, where temperatures can be 40 degrees colder than at the base. The train stops once to replenish its coal and water.

OVERNIGHT ODYSSEYS

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN A MULTI-DAY TRAIN JOURNEY THAT COVERS A broad swath of territory, several companies offer first-class rail adventures that combine outstanding scenery and fine dining with overnight accommodations.

American Orient Express, with restored sleeping cars built between 1950 and 1956, pampers guests on two elegantly appointed trains that offer regional trips throughout the United States, Mexico and Canada. Seven-to 10-day itineraries include "Antebellum South" between Washington, D.C., and New Orleans; "Pacific Coast Explorer" between Seattle and Los Angeles; and "National Parks of the West" between Santa Fe and Salt Lake City.

Passengers enjoy cocktails in plush piano club cars and gourmet cuisine in vintage dining cars set with fine china, crystal, silver and table linens. Polished brass, inlaid marble and warm rich woods recall the grandeur of the 1940s and '50s streamliner era.

Contact: American Orient Express, 5100 Main St., Downers Grove, IL 60615; (800) 320-4206; www.americanorientexpress.com.

The Montana Daylight, now in its ninth season, travels the Northern Rockies on 12 itineraries built around the 478-mile signature trip between Livingston, Montana, and Sandpoint, Idaho. The train maximizes sightseeing by running during the daytime with overnight at a hotel in Missoula, Montana. A maximum of 14 passengers may opt for onboard luxury sleeper service in private bed/sitting rooms.

From large picture windows in 1950sera rail cars, passengers glimpse majestic peaks, cattle herds and the wild waters of the Clark Fork and Missouri rivers. Many of the tours include rental car or motorcoach extensions to where the tracks don't go--deep into the heart of national parks like Yellowstone and Grand Teton.