I read about this every fall (when it's too late to sign up - they completely sell out) and think it would be fun to do so I'm putting a spring-time reminder on my calendar to find out when tickets will go on sale. And what really inspired me this year to try and do it next year is my recent trek to the grocery store. I had been out to lunch and decided I'd swing by Kroger's on my way home. To do that I had to go under one of the railroad track viaducts and as I turned on to that road and could see the tracks, there was this beautiful railroad car slowly and very quietly rolling across followed by another. It really shocked me and I even stopped briefly but realized I couldn't sit there watching them all go by with traffic piling up behind me. So took a detour from the store and found the first street I came to that would let me get right up to the tracks and here they came. I didn't get as many pictures as I wanted but here are a few.
The Marshall locomotive is always parked here - if it's ever been used I've missed it. But I think it's great to see it all spiffy.
This is the main center portion of the old Huntington train station. It's still in use as something to do with trains I think, but the actual train station is a kind of dismal cement block one story building on down a few streets.
And this gent is Collis P. Huntington, an important figure in Huntington's history.
I was told that all these refurbished cars are, for the most part, privately owned - either by companies or individuals - and I don't know how it all works actually. I don't know if the privately owned ones are used by the owners, their friends, families, whatever or if they rent them to Amtrak for the trip or ...??? But I sure love seeing them. I've loved trains since I was a girl and saved my pennies to buy a model train and then didn't really know what to do with it. Just ran it around and around the track mostly. One of my big thrills when we visited the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago (which we did at least once a year) was to gawk at their model train display. It was truly fantastic - don't know if it's still there or not.
If anyone is interested in this trip or one of their other offerings, the website is www.newrivertrain.com. They have longer trips to Washington, DC and New York City where everything pretty much is included - hotel, meals, etc.
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