My husband and I enjoyed the great ride and fabulous dinner. The food is outstanding. I must admit this is my 1st train ride and it was the best. This excursion takes 3 hours and is well worth the money.
RE-OPENING FRIDAY NOVEMBER 18, 2022!DURING NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 2022, Seminole Gulf Railway will donate 10% of All Ticket Sales to the HARRY CHAPIN FOOD BANK for Hurricane Ian Relief and Holiday Meals.All aboard the Murder Mystery Dinner Train for a one-of-a-kind theatrical and culinary experience! Enjoy a five-course dinner with a choice from three entrees, prepared fresh onboard the train while a live murder mystery show is played out in the dining cars during your 3-hour, twelve-mile round trip from Colonial Station in Fort Myers, Florida.
southern heritage dinner train
Your five-course dinner consists of an appetizer, soup, salad, choice of Slow Roast Prime Rib, Poached Salmon, or Baked Chicken as your main entrée, and dessert, plus coffee, tea, and iced tea. A wide range of wine, beer, cocktails, and soft drinks are available for purchase onboard the train. Menu items may change from month to month. Click here for our latest Menu.
UP, of course, had long been an advocate of industry preservation and for years operated its own heritage program including such pieces as never-retired 4-8-4 #844 (once #8444), 4-6-6-4 #3985, and its beautiful business train which mimicked the streamlined City fleet powered by sleek E9 diesels.
Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad (OCSR) is a unique heritage railroading museum in that it not only has static displays of engines and historic artifacts but also provides interpreted train rides along the coast. OCSR tells the story of the area, gives information about the wildlife, and stresses the importance of practicing environmental conservation so that others may continue to enjoy the beautiful North Coast of Oregon.
The Sakonnet River rail bridge was damaged in 1988 and removed in 2007, isolating the line from the national rail network. Despite this, the for-profit Newport Dinner Train began sharing the line in 1997, offering dinner trains and other tourist-based operations. The relationship between the two operators, which had to share the primarily single-track line, was at times rocky.[1]
By early 2013, the dinner train operation was offered for sale.[citation needed] It was sold in November 2014 and rebranded as the Newport and Narragansett Bay Railroad Company. The Old Colony and Newport ceased operations in early 2015 and eventually merged into the Newport and Narragansett Bay.[1]
We thoroughly enjoyed the romance package on the dinner train! We would definitely book it again for another celebration! The food, service, views, and atmosphere were second to none! We loved this experience!
Our story begins at the Ellensburg Rodeo during Labor Day weekend 1988. The Temple family -- father Nick and brothers Eric (b. 1966) and Brig -- had recently purchased a short-line freight railway they called the Washington Central Railroad. Entrepreneurial sorts, they decided to try an experiment in rail excursions. They leased a set of old dining cars from the Canadian Railroad Historical Association and offered a dinner excursion along the Yakima River Canyon south of Ellensburg for the duration of the rodeo. The trip proved so popular that the Temples continued the enterprise the following spring, even adding a second route from Kennewick to the Hogue Cellars winery in Prosser. With the 1989 centennial of Washington's statehood in mind, the family christened the train Spirit of Washington.
May 1992 found the Temple family moving the dinner-train operation to Puget Sound with hopes of benefitting from a larger market and a year-round temperate climate. Eric Temple, with a degree in business administration from the University of Washington, was put in charge of the operation. The little-used Woodinville Subdivision of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) line offered an excellent route between the burgeoning city of Renton at the south end of Lake Washington and the popular wineries of the Sammamish Valley near the lake's north end. The Temples brought their collection of vintage engines and passenger cars across the Cascades and set up shop at the Renton Depot, contracting with BNSF for use of the line and retrofitting the dormant passenger station to serve as a welcome center.
The Dinner Train experience offered a three-and-a-half-hour excursion six days a week from Renton to Woodinville and back, approximately 24 miles each way. Guests were served dinner on the way up and coffee and dessert on the way back. Soon a weekend brunch train was added. The initial destination in Woodinville was the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery. After a year or two, when the active event schedule at that winery became an obstacle, the Dinner Train moved on to the Columbia Winery, where guests had a break of about 45 minutes to stretch their legs, perhaps taste some wine, and browse in the winery gift shop.
Some riders quibbled about the bumpiness of the ride, the quality of the food, the shared tables, and the sometimes less-than-pristine views. (While many onlookers waved and smiled at passengers, more than one wag "mooned" the train.) In addition, the train ran into the safety problems inherent to operating a railway in a densely-populated area; there were at least nine accidents on the track during the train's run, two of them fatalities (one a suicide). Although it traveled at very slow speeds, the Dinner Train had to navigate 45 crossings in each direction, 27 public and 18 private, and chronically overgrown vegetation affected visibility for both train engineer and car drivers. In 2002 a BNSF freight train, the only other train still active on the southern portion of the route, crashed into the stationary and unoccupied Dinner Train at the Renton Depot, damaging the engine.
As heritage tourism, however, the Dinner Train was an unqualified success. According to figures supplied by the business itself, the train drew approximately 100,000 riders per year for a grand total of 1.4 million over the course of its stay on Lake Washington. At the same time, it pumped millions of dollars into the local economy.
Many folks in the Puget Sound region remember the Dinner Train fondly. Occasionally voices are heard suggesting that a new dinner train might be established -- perhaps in Snohomish County, perhaps near Redmond. Meanwhile the question of whether rails and trails can co-exist continues to be argued as plans for the Eastside Rail Corridor take shape.
The Buffalo, Cattaraugus & Jamestown Scenic Railway Company offers steam and diesel-powered passenger train rides to the public with the goal of educating them about the equipment and heritage of American railroads. We would like to introduce or rekindle the joy of riding the rails for our passengers and do so in a manner that is safe and educational.
Experience the heritage, legend, and grandeur of the railroad. Enjoy historic depots housing museums and recalling yesteryear. Indulge in wonderful food and exquisite scenery aboard an elegant dinner train. Relive history with museums dedicated to the railroads and rounders. Journey aboard operating trains which take you back a century to a time when the rails ruled. Explore lovely authentic trains and cabooses on display. Visit historic sites and allow your imagination to transport you back through time as you see, hear, and feel the magic of the rails. 2ff7e9595c
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