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Good evening, three-rail nerds! My family and I have taken a splendiferous vacation here in Tampa, Florida. We hit numerous attractions from Busch Gardens to the Tampa Zoo, and what trip would be complete without trains, of course? First off, we arrived in Tampa by plane and were driving to The Florida Aquarium (our first stop), when I caught some hopper cars on my phone.

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Our next stop on Thursday was Busch Gardens, a theme park with dozens of zoo animals, roller coasters, and a park train that loops around an area of the park, giving an insight of the park's animals to the public. No, the train isn't some cheap, 1880's-looking, propane powered 4-2-4-type replica. It's a splendiferous European-African looking iron mare built by Crown Metal Products pulling five or six green coaches.

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... which is interesting, because despite several trips to Florida in recent years I have not yet been to Busch Gardens, and from your description I don’t think I will, in the event that we return. It all sounds very similar to Whipsnade https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...at_Whipsnade_Railway  apart from the roller coasters, which don’t really interest me.

I rather feel that having travelled several thousand miles, things ought to be different!

I strongly recommend the Ocean Highway, to Key West, which follows the route of the former Key West Railway. Stop at Bahia Honda State Park for a spectacular view of the largest remaining bridge span.

Did you see the preserved Baldwin 2-6-2 at Manatee County Museum, near Sarasota?

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Last edited by Rockershovel

... which is interesting, because despite several trips to Florida in recent years I have not yet been to Busch Gardens, and from your description I don’t think I will, in the event that we return. It all sounds very similar to Whipsnade https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik...at_Whipsnade_Railway  apart from the roller coasters, which don’t really interest me.

I rather feel that having travelled several thousand miles, things ought to be different!

I strongly recommend the Ocean Highway, to Key West, which follows the route of the former Key West Railway. Stop at Bahia Honda State Park for a spectacular view of the largest remaining bridge span.

Did you see the preserved Baldwin 2-6-2 at Manatee County Museum, near Sarasota?

D46B8780-B3B9-4278-9016-2DDD34874EC9

Sorry, but no. We only explored The Florida Aquarium, Busch Gardens, ZooTampa, the Museum of Science and Industry (Tampa, FL), and Zitnik’s Trains in the Tampa area. This was a simple family vacation, and we just got home now.

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