Pictured above: Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, Colorado
By: Mary Moore Mason
You probably know about the AMTRAK railroad network that spans much of the massive USA, but did you know, or may I tell you, about the great, little vintage steam- and diesel-powered rail lines that operate among them all along the way?
Some chug along long-established passenger or freight train tracks, often dating back to the pioneering days of rail travel. Others have been more recently introduced. But virtually all of them offer their passengers splendid views of scenery that they might not otherwise see as well as insights into the history and heritage of the countryside and often-charming small towns along the way.
Among my favourites is south-western Colorado’s Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad (durangotrain.com). Established in 1881 to haul silver and gold ore from the remote Silverton mines to colourful and commercial Durango, it still features coal-burning, steam-fuelled locomotives and spectacular cliff-side views of the awesome Animas River and Valley far below plus the cachet of appearing in the classic film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
Hikers, backpackers and fisher folk can drop off along the way for outback adventures and tourists can linger behind to explore picturesque Silverton and its mines. Also of note: Durango is the start point for the annual Iron Horse Bicycle Classic race in May between the train and 3,500 cyclists racing from Durango to Silverton as well as a great staging point for excursions to the ancient Anasazi cliff dwelling in the Mesa Verde National Park.
Colorado is also home to a number of other vintage railroads, each with its own special claim to fame. For instance, Manitou Springs is the base camp for North America’s highest rail line, Pikes Peak Cog Railroad (cograilway.com). Built in 1891 and powered by a diesel traction engine, it climbs 14,107 feet to its namesake peak, offering at its summit the views of ‘amber waves of grain’ and ‘purple mountains majesty’ that inspired poet Katherine Lee Bates to pen those lyrics in America the Beautiful.
Best known for its appearance in the thrilling 1989 film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the Cumbres & Toltec Scenic Railroad (cumbrestoltec.com), launched in the 1880s, starts in Antonito or Chama, just across the New Mexico border, and steams 64 miles through the Rocky Mountains and Toltec Gorge offering seating in three types of cars, all promising delicious lunches.
And, in 2021, the Canada-based Rocky Mountaineer (rockymountaineer.com) added a USA route from Denver to Moab, Utah. Joining its two-day Rockies to the Red Rocks excursion pulled by a bio-diesel-powered locomotive, I enjoyed stunning mountain and desert scenery, vintage wines, delicious food and an overnight in the Gilded Age spa town of Glenwood Springs before disembarking near colourful Moab, gateway to such awesome national parks as Arches and Canyonlands. The Rocky Mountaineer has recently announced that it also will be offering three-day. extended Canyon Spirit service to Salt Lake City, Utah in 2026.
Far to the east, American Heritage Railways, which owns the Durango & Silverton railroad, also operates two other lines. In the buzzy entertainment and tourism hub of Branson, Missouri, you can board their 45-minute Ozark Zephyr excursions as well as dinner and seasonal Polar Express trains (bransontrain.com), and Bryson City, North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains Railroad (gsmr.com) gives passengers a choice of routes into the deep forests and past the lakes and waterfalls of some of eastern America’s tallest and most-spectacular mountains.
The route, which was particularly appealing to my film buff family and me, passes the still intact bus and train wreck from 1993’s The Fugitive, starring Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones. Bryston City can also be linked with visits to attraction-filled Asheville and the Native American community of Cherokee.
And at Blowing Rock, on up the scenic, mountaintop Blue Ridge Parkway, you’ll find the Tweetsie Railroad (tweetsie.com), which my son particularly enjoyed when he was a child. Not only does it feature three-mile train rides guided by a ‘tweeting’ narrow gauge steam locomotive, but also a surrounding namesake theme park featuring amusement rides, Wild West re-enactments, a zoo and such special holiday events as the September/October Ghost Train rides and Christmas Santa Express adventures.
Just across the Smoky Mountains in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, Dolly Parton’s Dollywood theme park (dollywood.com) offers 2.5-mile Dollywood Express rides up to a mountain top pulled by a 1938 or 1948 coal-fired steam locomotive. And, to the south, Chattanooga (choochoo.com) is home to the Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum (tvrail.com), established in 1961 to preserve and operate vintage railway equipment via Chattanooga & Hiwassee Train Rides to places of scenic and/or historic appeal. In the city you can overnight in refurbished 1920s and 1960s carriages from the legendary Chattanooga Choo Choo, which inspired the 1941 song recorded by the famous Glen Miller Band. They are part of the trendy Hotel Chalet sited in the former railway station and surrounded by a 30-acre complex of restaurants and entertainment venues.
The legendary Shenandoah Valley in neighbouring Virginia offers Virginia Scenic Railway (virginiascenicrailway.com) excursions departing from the appealing college town of Staunton. Our relaxing, three-hour return Allegheny Special journey to the former timber hub village of Goshen featured lovely views of the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains, pasturelands, apple orchards and small towns, and was enhanced by pleasant food and drink and historic narrative.
For something special families could schedule their visit to coincide with the town’s annual Harry Potter Festival (festival2025.com, September 27-28, 2025). It promises Diagon Alley-inspired streets, wand-making and wizarding workshops, Butterbeer on tap and costume competitions plus, most importantly, the arrival of Harry Potter and his mates on the Virginia Scenic Railway – perhaps they have been told it’s the Hogwarts Express.
For a totally different experience check out Mountain Rail West Virginia (mountainrailwv.com). It offers excursions from the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park, where you can visit buildings dating back to the early 1900s when this was a major logging community. Among other attractions are an array of vintage locomotives including the oldest one still operating on its original line. We opted for the thrilling trip to the top of Bald Knob, at 4,842 feet, the second highest peak in West Virginia.
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is known not only for the unique lifestyle of its Amish and Mennonite communities but also for its railway heritage. The Strasburg Rail Road (strasburgrailroad.com), chartered in 1832 and America’s oldest continuously-operating railroad, not only displays a splendid collection of fully-restored steam locomotives and the shop where century-old wooden railcars are being brought back to life, but also a 45-minute, fully-narrated vintage train ride through the picturesque surrounding countryside.
Far to the south and right on the doorstep of Dallas, colourful Grapevine, Texas, offers Grapevine Vintage Railroad (grapevinetexasusa.com) trips in just under two hours to Fort Worth’s Historic Stockyards where you can disembark and stroll a short distance away to watch cowboys herd longhorn cattle down East Exchange Avenue. In line with many other such historic railroads, it also offers popular Christmas season Polar Express excursions.
Far to the north-east, Connecticut offers a rare combo: Essex Steam Train & Riverboat trips (essexsteamtrain.com). Lasting 2.5 hours, the combined rail/boat journeys through the beautiful lower Connecticut River Valley begin at Essex on a train powered by a 1917 vintage locomotive and then, at Deep River Landing, passengers are escorted on to the Mississippi-style Becky Thatcher riverboat, named after the young girl in Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The bird life along the route– swans, geese, egrets and, in season, bald eagles – is particularly notable.
And while in New England, why not enjoy a real mountain-top experience by boarding the Mount Washington Cog Railway (thecog.com) in Conway, New Hampshire, which ascends 6,288 feet to the highest point in the north-eastern USA. From there you can see five states and the Atlantic Ocean as well as part of Canada’s southern Quebec. And at its base, you can add to the experience by taking a trip on the Conway Scenic Railroad (conwayscenic.com).
Railroads were vital to the evolvement of mining activities and settlements in the American West as I discovered when I visited historic Virginia City, Nevada. After boarding a vintage Virginia and Truckee (virginiatruckee.com) train in the 1870 depot, we explored the surrounding countryside best known not only for gold mining but also for the 1859 discovery of the Comstock Lode, the first major silver ore deposit found in the USA.
The same was true for the copper mines around Jerome, Arizona, as you discover when you board the Verde Canyon Railroad (verdecanyonrr.com), built in 1912 and now taking passengers on a four-hour round trip from Clarksdale, along the glistening Verde River, through red-rock canyons and past Native American ruins to the historic ranch town of Perkinsville.
And that’s not to forget the Grand Canyon Railroad (thetrain.com), which offers regular excursions, including Saturday steam-powered ones, from Williams, Arizona, to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. Along the way you can enjoy tales of the area’s history and more, western music and perhaps the shenanigans of a cowboy role-player.
The Pacific coast also has its waterside rail wonders, such as the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad (oregoncoastscenic.org), which offers 1.5-hour, steam locomotive-powered, narrated rides along Tillamook Bay, rugged cliffs and through dense riverside forests between Garibaldi and Rockaway Beach.
And in Mendocino, California’s coastal Fort Bragg is home to what is arguably the state’s best-known rail line, the oddly-named ‘Skunk Train’ (skunktrain.com), so named by1920s residents along the route because some of its cars were powered by extremely smelly fuel. Officially the California Western Railroad and established in 1885 to transport timber, loggers and their families around the rugged, redwood-rich area, it offers two separate scenic trips, one along the Pudding Creek Estuary known for its wealth of blue herons, ospreys and egrets, and the other departing from the cowboy town of Willits and climbing through scenic Noyo River Canyon to the highest point on the line.
Inland and far to the south-east, the River Fox Train (riverfoxtrain.com), departing from Woodland, just 15 minutes from the state capital, Sacramento, offers a variety of three-hour or longer excursions including sunset dinners and murder-mystery themed journeys, and along the coast south of San Francisco, Roaring Camp Railroads’ seasonal Santa Cruz Beach Train (roaringcamp.com) runs two-hour return trips through the Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, while its sister Redwood Forest Train takes passengers on a six-mile, 75-minute ride through towering old-growth redwood trees to the summit of Bear Mountain.
And finally, California has in store special rail treats for food, wine and film lovers. Departing from its namesake town north-east of San Francisco, the Napa Valley Wine Train (winetrain.com) offers two to three hours of hedonistic happiness for food and wine lovers, idyllic vineyard views from open cars and a wine tasting visit to two St Helena wineries. And not only does Railtown 1897 State Historic Park (railtown1897.org) in Jamestown, west of Yosemite National Park, offer seasonal Sierra Railway vintage train excursions through the scenic Gold Country but you also can view a number of special locomotives, notably ’Movie Star # 3’, which has featured in such films as 1929’s The Virginian, starring Gary Cooper, 1952’s High Noon, which he also starred in, 1990’s Back to the Future III, and 1992’s The Unforgiven, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood.
It all goes to prove that, regardless of its age, rail travel continues to play a star role with lovers of travel in and to the USA.
A REVOLUTIONARY WAY TO RIDE THE RAILS
New, trendy railbike adventures are now being offered across America by such companies as New Revolution Rail Co (revrail.com). Based in New York State, it offers its ‘passengers’ the opportunity to sit in comfy chairs on flat bed vehicles which they pedal along often remote tracks and over spectacular trestles in the Lake George and Saratoga Springs areas. One of the routes includes a Lake George riverboat ride and others parallel the scenic Hudson River. In addition, there are routes out of Cape May, set at the tip of New Jersey and known for its grand Gilded Age mansions, from South Fork, Colorado, along the Rio Grande, and in historic and picturesque Kennebunkport, Maine.
Editor’s Note: Some vintage train lines offer service year-round, usually excluding Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years; others are seasonal and, particularly if travelling with families or those with special interests, you may benefit from asking about themed excursions, many of them linked to holidays such as Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day and Halloween.
Image Credits: Yugarya Goyal, American Heritage Railways, Carol Highsmith, Tweetsie Railroad, Visit Staunton, Trestle Studio, Visit Grapevine Texas, Visit New Hampshire, Xanterrra Travel, Travis Wild/Visit Oregon
