Any railroad or museum operations doing something special today for the solar eclipse? If so, how's attendance? If you aren't doing something special, did you still see a bump in attendance?

Evan -

I'm not sure about museums, but apparently AMTRAK was running specials out of Chicago. One to downstate Carbondale, Illinois left this morning at 3:00 a.m. There was another one due to go to Quincy, Illinois this morning. Only found out about these on one of the Chicago morning news programs. These runs made sense because automobile traffic to these places was due to be, and has been, horrendous. Using AMTRAK made sense.

Les

I know the Oregon Electric Railway Museum/Antique Powerland in Brooks, OR, were advertising a big event for today (Eclipse campout, or some similar name) when I was there in early June.

Les, If I'd known about taking the train to travel South, most likely would have given it a go. Such is life. My wife & son headed to MO just before 6AM & hope to be back later this evening. Hope they have good fortune. Stay well.
Tom

The Great Smoky Mountains Railroad is running a special Eclipse trains today. Their website shows that it sold out:

http://www.gsmr.com/events/solar-eclipse#.WZsRJE2Wyoc

The train to Quincy is just regular train #381 with extra capacity. After the trains to Carbondale sold out, they looked for other trains that could take people from Chicago to see the eclipse. It is about 98% at Quincy and people can get home that evening on #382.

This morning CBS ran a story about an Amtrak special from Chicago to Carbondale, IL (one of the spots of totality) that departed before sunrise, making only one stop in Champaign - I'm guessing because of Univ. of IL and any science geeks wanting to get on there. Fare was $153 and it sold out all 409 seats. Return trip is 5:30 pm local time.