real train destination bucket list

California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento.

Tehachapi Loop in Cali.

Feather River Museum. 

Orange Empire Museum in Perris CA.

Nevada Northern Museum.

Promentory Point site.

Big Railroad Museum in Illinois whose name I am blanking on.

St Louis National Museum of Transportation

big Railroad Museum in Minnesota whose name I am Blanking on

B and O Museum in Baltimore

Field Museum in Chicago

Virginia Museum of Transportation Roanoke

O Winston Link Museum in Roanoke

Steamtown Scranton PA

Strasburg RR Pa

Pennsylvania RR Museum Strasburg PA

Steam into History Hamburg Pa

Altoona Museum

Horseshoe Curve PA

Pennsylvania Museum of Logging

not sure if it is still there but East Broad Top in PA

Cass RR in West Virginia

Danbury Museum in CT

Steam Days at Clarks Trading Post NH

Thomaston CT Museum

Essex steam train in CT

Branford Trolley Museum in East Haven Ct

Spencer shops in NC

 

this is my list to visit (or visit again)

 

 

 

 

I go to it just about every night  Stillwell terminal and Coney Island Yard

 

Look into the Grand Canyon RR from Williams AZ to the south rim of the canyon.

I have made about half of those listed by Silver Lake, add in the Flambahn in Norway, the Glacier Express and the rack road up to the base of the Matterhorn

in Switzerland, the Durango and Silverton and the Cumbres and Toltec in Colorado,

the California Western in Calif., the railroad up the Urubamba River from Cuzco to below Machu Picchu, and the list goes on.....

 

The UK.

 

Bob

 

A must do before its budget is cut, VIA Rail- The Canadian, Vancouver to Toronto. I take a lower birth in the dead of winter for the best nights sleep on board a train. I make this trip every winter for the past three years. Like riding the golden years of american rail passenger service.

  Do this trip first, you don't know how long it will be around. 

Clem k

Cuyahoga Valley Railroad in OH

Napa Valley Wine Train in CA

Durango and Sillverton in CO

Bejing to Shanghai high speed train in China

NYC Subway

Chicago EL

Yes, GB, including the Ffestiniog, and other Welsh steam preservations....

White Pass & Yukon
I've ridden trains all over the world and hardly anything compares anywhere

I have only one on my list and that is the VIA Rail Canadian run from Vancouver to Toronto.  I've wanted to do this for years but have not been able to talk my wife into doing it.  Bummer.

Chunnel, just because.

 

Anywhere behind a GG1 (a boy can dream, can't he?)

 

Orient Express with enough cash to make the stop-overs interesting.

 

Trans-Siberian, with enough cash and bodyguards to make the stop-overs interesting.

 

Sept-Iles to Schefferville on the Tshiuetin Railroad.

Repeat visits:
Cass (last time; 1992)
Roanoke,VA. (LAST VISIT; 2004)
East Broad Top, if or whenever it reopens (last visit 2008)
Strasburg,PA (LAST VISIT,2008)

Steamtown, Scranton,PA./Delaware Water Gap (765 TRIP IN Sept. 2015; last visit in Vermont c.1971)

 

Dept. of Dream on:

TVRM, Chattanooga,TN
Colorado narrow gauge

Moffat Tunnel

Grand Canyon Rwy.
BNSF in Kingman Canyon and east along old RT66
BNSF and MRL in Montana
Cajon Pass and Tehachapi

 

       
       

Funny thing, I was sort of startled to see this list and realizing I've done all of them.

Clem, thanks for the heads up that it's future might be in jeopardy - our 1st on the list is the VIA Rail Canadian Vancouver to Toronto.  

Lee, I just read your post about the White Pass & Yukon. We were fortunate to have taken that ride on an Alaska cruise side trip from Skagway.  We had absolutely perfect sunny, clear weather and the view was truly spectacular, and it was fun learning about the history on how they constructed the line.  I was a bit worried when we went there because a co-worker had taken the exact same ride 2 weeks earlier and it was rainy that day with a real heavy fog (or clouds?) that limited their view to maybe 20-30 feet from the train for most of the trip.  I would ride that again in a heartbeat.

The WP&Y was once described by someone as, "The best narrow gauge operation in the US that train fans never ride," in that they have plenty of riders, and very few train fans ever show up at Skagway to ride it. I've been lucky to have ridden it twice, each time with pretty decent weather. Once you have ridden it, you start wondering why people make such a big deal about the D&RGW remnants, as the WP&Y has far greater scenery, all the original track still exists (though hardly ever used to the end of track at Whitehorse) and it's a very clean and professional organization. The only things the other 3-footers today have over the White Pass are:

• The WP&Y has very little steam running
• How remote it is to get there

  

 

Thanks for great lists and ideas guys. Excellent thread idea. 

I want to get up close and personal with a Santa Fe 5011 Texas !

Georgetown Loop Railroad in Colorado.

Dollywood in Tennessee has a very nice train ride up a pretty steep grade, pulled by nothing for former White Pass & Yukon locomotives. They used to give cab rides on a seat on the front of the tender, but I don't know if they do that anymore. I strongly encourage people to see it, as it's a great train experience and the park really does have something for everyone. I went there with my wife, my parents, and my brother's family (they had two teens at the time) and everyone found something interesting to see or experience. It's a very underrated place.

I'd like to spend a day at the former PRR Gallatzin, PA, tunnels, and also watch a train top the old Erie hill at Gulf Summit.

I've been checking a few off my list the past several years.   Still on the list is the Chinese train over the Himilayas, a return to the Scottish steamers, a ride through northern India, and a ride through Hungary, Bulgaria & Slovenia.  Oh, and a visit to the steam railroad of Bavaria!  I've taken riding the Rossia No. 1 (aka "Siberian Express") off my list. 

 

 

Kent in SD