Excursion Trains of New England

Mr. George Pullman, builder of railroad cars during America’s Golden Age of railroading, would be pleased. In every New England state, especially in mountainous areas and along rivers and lakes and harbors, vacationers are lining up to climb aboard vintage train coaches to take excursion train rides.

What is an excursion train ride? Many small railroad companies – including some associated with railroading museums – operate short round trips through wonderfully scenic parts of New England on trains composed of restored locomotives and coaches – many of them dating from the early-to-mid-1900s.

The primary joy of these excursions is the awesome scenery in places like the White Mountains of New Hampshire, Cape Cod, and the waterfront of Portland, Maine. (Take a camera!) The second attraction is relaxation and luxury. Many of the excursion lines offer pure elegance and white-glove dining service. Examples are the Newport, Rhode Island, dinner train along Narragansett Bay, and the opportunity on the Winnipesaukee (New Hampshire) Scenic Railroad to ride in the super-luxurious Piano Parlor Car that was created for use by the president of the Bangor and Aroostock Railroad.

The third big draw of the excursions is nostalgia. Many rail lines use train stations that have been beautifully restored to their appearance from the mid 1800s or early 1900s. The coaches, too, are often splendid, with polished brass and mahogany fittings and white-tablecloth, flower-decked dining cars. Locomotives may be coal- or wood-fired steam engines or diesel electric engines. Some trains are equipped with the uniformed conductor and his traditional pocket watch; all of the trains serve up the soothing clack-clack of wheels on the track and the lovely hoot of the whistle.

Train excursions are perfect for families with children. Kids love the novelty of every part of the experience: the quaint, old-time furnishings in the stations; the conductor’s call of “all aboard”; the compact coaches; the dining cars; the howl of the whistle; the flashing scenery. Many of the train companies offer gift shops in the stations with railroad nostalgic items like calendars and conductors’ caps and postcards, whistles, books on railroading, and toys by Lionel and Lego.

Some railroads – an example is the Hobo Railroad in Lincoln, New Hampshire – offer Santa excursions in December, with Santa, Mrs. Claus, and the elves in attendance, and a Polar Express excursion. The Polar Express trips, modeled on the children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg, revisits the story in which a small boy, waiting in his bed for Santa on Christmas Eve, is summoned by the hiss and squeal of a fantasy train – the Polar Express – that takes him and other children to the North Pole. The popular Polar Express excursions replicate the story, including dramatic readings of the books by pajama-clad actors. For a different literary excursion for children, some train lines – an example is the Essex (Connecticut) Steam Train – offer young children a trip with characters from the Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends storybooks, with storytelling, live music, and treats.

All the train excursion lines have their own particular character. The Mount Washington (New Hampshire) Cog Railway pulls coaches up a steep grade to the top of the mountain. The coal-fired, steam powered train opened in 1869 as the first cog railway in the world. (In a cog railway, also called a rack-and-pinion railway, a toothed “rack rail” runs down the center of the tracks between the running rails. The trains are fitted with a cog wheel or pinion that mesh with this rack rail. This system pulls the train up very steep slopes.)

Many excursion train lines are connected to a railroad museum. An example is the Berkshire Scenic Railway Museum, where visitors can tour exhibits of railroading history and see historic locomotive, coaches or cabooses on display before or after their train trip. Some excursions begin or end at places with other tourist attractions; for instance, the White River Flyer and the Champlain Valley Flyer in Vermont leave passengers off near the Montshire Museum of Science and the Shelburne Museum, respectively, and urge train travelers to stop in for a visit at the museums. One train excursion – The Essex (Connecticut) Steam Train and Riverboat, offers a two-fer: a train ride and a ride on the authentic Mississippi riverboat the MV Becky Thatcher (note that Connecticut with the home of author Mark Twain).

For a chance to see the beauty of New England and to dip into a bygone era of passenger train travel, a scenic train excursion is a perfect one-day adventure.