I am wondering what museum, tourist and heritage railways have evening operations included in their typical schedule. I find riding a train of any kind, a completely different experience in the darkness of night. Riding in an older coach or locomotive, you are completely absorbed by the immediate experience of the older equipment, and reminders of the modern world outside fade away.

I have ridden quite a few, with the Illinois Railway Museum's saturday night of Member's Weekend (now called "Museum Showcase Weekend") being an outstanding experience every time. Probably the most spectacular was the winter night operations of a few North Shore Line interurban celebrations, which I understand will never be repeated.

Branford (Conn.) Electric Rwy. Ass'n. - Shore Line
Trolley Museum sometimes does it, especially between
Thanksgiving and Christmas. However, the trolley
museum at Warehouse Point, Conn. does a much
better and more successful job, decorating the entire
line like a Christmas shopping street. It takes a few
years to develop the repeat ridership necessary to
supply the crowds of paying visitors.

Olin -

Although Hoosier Valley doesn't have nighttime operations, there is a Halloween train that operates out of North Judson to La Crosse late in the afternoon on the Saturday before Halloween. There is a talk about "not so scary animals" at La Crosse and by the time the train is loaded back up and returns to North Judson, night has fallen. I agree that it is a different, and wonderful, experience.


Les

You can't talk about nighttime operations without mentioning PLA at Niles Canyon's "Train of Lights". Incredible operation. They have those trains wired for serious power, and they cover the trains with lights. It's one of those services that sells out months in advance.

Just for reference, traditional Christmas lights are 40 watts per 100 lights. LEDs are 5-10 watts per 100 lights. The vast majority of LED Christmas light strings are passive/resistive, i.e. just a bunch of LEDs in series and do NOT have those switching power supplies that would allow them to run happily on higher or lower voltages. This is both a blessing and a curse; it also means you can literally "hack" LED strings to run on your choice of AC or DC voltages.

This may or may not count, but Dollywood runs at night during the Christmas season and it is really neat when the fire doors are open sending an orange plume of steam above the train. I think TVRM runs North Pole Limited trains at night also.

During the annual Washington County Fair, the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum operates until midnight, shuttling fair goers to and from our park & ride lots. This year, the Fair runs from August 15th through the 22nd.

/s/ Larry
Lawrence G. Lovejoy, P.E.

It used to be (and I assume still is) the case that the Midwest Electric Railway in Mt. Pleasant IA ran "owl service" all night during the Threshers Reunion. The electric line there is used as regular transportation for the people camping on-site. I recall that before its full restoration, their CA&E car had been fitted with bars across the end doorways so that they could hang the headlight for night operation but still keep the train door open for ventilation!

Hi,

This is slightly at a tangent.

In the late 1980s and the 1990s, the Georgia Building Authority was run by Steve Polk. He was a member of the Atlanta Chapter NRHS. He also ran most (if not all) the restaurants (not snack bars) owned by the State of Georgia. The main restaurant was the Garden Room which was kept for the convienence of the legislature (a session of the legislature is 45 working days - part time) - across the street below a park/garden.

Steve set up a lease of the Atlanta Chapter's S&A 750 for two uses. The first was covered in a Trains article titled (I think) "Looping Atlanta" for Saturday coach excursions. Problems with CSX freight cause many delays and this part got a bad reputation.

He also had monthly (or weekly) dinner trains. 750 or one of the ex-Southern F units would pull several cars from Atlanta to Stone Mountain (Georgia Railroad) for a very nice dinner on the train. The last two cars on the train were (If I remember right) a restored pullman and a private car.

During the trip back to Atlanta, you could tour these two museum cars and see what train travel was like back in them olden days. Usually, you could ride the back platform in wicker seat or sit in the pullman. I think a few berths were set up for coach and at least one was set up for sleeping (upper and lower berths).

The concept died when Steve died. The assembled equipment and dinner trains were kept together in case the 1996 Olympics wanted to use them. They were not used since the understanding of what a railroad could do and how to get it to work was lost with Steve.

Doug vV

New Hope & Ivyland runs several; their Evening Star Dinner Train, Family Dinner Train, Murder Mystery Dinner Train, Halloween and Trick or Treat trains and the North Pole Express. Black River & Western also has their rendition of the North Pole Express as well as their Saturday Night Special trains which often return after dark and Pumpkin Junction trains which run well into twilight.

Minnesota Streetcar Museum runs our streetcars at night for several special events, including our Murder Mystery, the Moonlight trolley ride and the Halloween ghost trolleys.

Thanks!

The moonlight runs to Osier on the Cumbres & Toltec were magical. No special lights, songs, or gimmicks. Just an evening run at sunset up the pass, arriving at Osier around dusk. Stopped for an hour or so to turn the train and everyone could be served at the eating house. Lit the markers, and climbed back up to Cumbres and down the pass with a night sky and full moon.

One night a pretty substantial thunderstorm rolled in, and beyond the headlight, the only thing you could see was lit by flashes of the lightning. No city lights in the distance, or traffic lights from the highway. Just the mountains, the headlight on the railroad, some kerosene lamps, and every cab light giving way to the opened fire doors.

I'd like to add the dinner train events run by Midcontinent Railway Museum in North Freedom, WI may start out before sundown (depending on season) but end around 9pm for most trips. mld

The East Troy Electric RR dinner train is a nighttime operation.

This thread begs the question of "what is the best nighttime experience"? If a car is brightly lit on the inside (for obvious reasons), then the view outside into the darkness is limited at best. You may see things LIT on the outside of the car (highway flashers, signals, buildings, etc.) but for things in the darkness...not much. A car interior dimly lit, or not lit at all, gives you better views outside including train headlights, marker lights, other cars in the consist, a firebox (if steam power), etc. and even the passing landscape. I only rode the old East Broad Top night train once, but I seem to recall dimly lit car interiors. Not sure which would be the best nighttime experience; brightly lit interiors or dimly (or non) lit interiors. Both have their good points.

Les

Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum used to operate trains to the Pops in the Park concert at the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park on Independence Day. Later the date was changed to Memorial Day and I believe that they still operate the train for that event.

When I worked the trains, we would run down to the Chickamauga and Chattanooga NMP in the afternoon and detrain the passengers attending the concert, along with picnic baskets and other related items. The train would then deadhead to Chickamauga and run trips for the locals down to Lafayette. Later in the evening, we'd head back and lay up about a mile from the park until after the finale. We would then pull down to the crossing, load passengers and head home. The primary attraction was being able to get to the concert site with minimal hassle-the train unloaded at a crossing less than 100 yards from the concert site and the passengers avoided having to negotiate the heavy automobile traffic before and after the concert.

We also ran dinner trips to the Gordon Lee Mansion or the Lee and Gordon's Mill. Those trips ran to Chickamauga where the passengers would detrain. If the meal was at the mansion, they would walk the three blocks to the mansion. If they were going to the Mill, they would transfer to a bus for the remaining three miles. The Mill and station would be kept open so that the passengers awaiting transportation had something to do while they waited. On some nights, the miller would be on site and would open the sluice and run the machinery for the visitors.