Five fabulous fall foliage train rides - from CNN
#1
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/30/travel/fall-foliage-trains/index.html?hpt=hp_bn12">http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/30/travel/fa ... pt=hp_bn12</a><!-- m -->

Canada has several great fall trips too:
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.agawacanyontourtrain.com/">http://www.agawacanyontourtrain.com/</a><!-- m -->

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.creditvalleyexplorer.com/">http://www.creditvalleyexplorer.com/</a><!-- m -->

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.southsimcoerailway.ca/">http://www.southsimcoerailway.ca/</a><!-- m -->

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.rockymountaineer.com/en_CA/">http://www.rockymountaineer.com/en_CA/</a><!-- m -->

Andrew
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#2
As an avid "fall colour" fan, thanks for posting this, Andrew.

You could certainly add the York-Durham Heritage Railway (<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.ydhr.ca">http://www.ydhr.ca</a><!-- m -->) and the Halton County Radial Railway (<!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.hcry.org">www.hcry.org</a><!-- w -->) to that list.

The York-Durham travels along the Oak Ridges Moraine through & alongside lots of nice forest and the Halton County Radial Railway (aka Streetcar Museum) literally travels through a hardwood forest.

I'm sure there are others!

I was thinking about all the fall train options last night -- there is still a lot happening this late in the season.

Cheers,
Rob
Rob
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.robertrobotham.ca/">http://www.robertrobotham.ca/</a><!-- m -->
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#3
As a former tourist train operator I could never see the fascination of riding a train packed in like sardines just to see the colored leaves that could be seen on a drive through the hills away from the crowds. I didn't knock the revenue, we made 60 percent of our revenue in October, but the ride was always nicer in the summer when it was warm and when the seating wasn't so crowded. We had more time for the individual passengers too.
So, my advise, if you are a railfan, and want to enjoy the ride, ride anytime but the fall leaf trains, when the crew has more time to answer your questions.
If you do ride in the fall, and you find the crewmen a bit abrupt, consider the conditions working with crowds that have folks that have no consideration for fellow passengers, sit 2 people to a table of 4 and are insulted when they are asked to share, and others take 4 seats when they have only bought 2 tickets. The other folks bring the 2 year old children to ride the choo choo when we had the time in the summer after the train was in the station to take the children into the cab with their parents and let them have the thrill of being in the cab of a locomotive.
In the fall we ran 3 trains a day and did not have time between trains for the kids, and the kids were so muck fun when we had the time.
To be fair, we did have a group that brought enough beer, wine and food and served the entire train and everyone had a great time. That was one train out of 156 that I did over the last 13 years.
If you are taking children, please be considerate of others and have them remain in your care. We encouraged folks to get up and walk around, but we did not allow them to pass between cars while the train was moving, and we had a few folks that thought our crewmen were there to babysit their children.
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#4
Charlie...

I hear ya... Customers aren't what they once were. I've been on a tourist train that included a mom who thought it was hilarious that she could get her toddler to scream - - by screaming herself first 35

Do you have any links to share? Which road did you run the fall colours on? Any pictures?

Andrew
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#5
Andrew

<!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.kiskijunction.com">www.kiskijunction.com</a><!-- w -->

I have thousands of pictures, I think there may even be a thread here for the Kiski junction. There is a link to a video on their website.
I retired at the end of 2009.
My wife was my brakeman for 12 years too. We have been invited to the opening of the new line they just completed from Schenley to Logansport, Pa, 9 miles of new welded rail on steel ties on October 7. I think CSI guy posted a thread about this line. Primary use will be hauling coal to NS.
Charlie
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