Blount also ran a museum of steam locomotives, called Steamtown, USA, in North Walpole, N.H.īlount died in an airplane crash in 1967 but his dream lived on. Nelson Blount persuaded the State of Vermont to obtain 52 miles of track between Bellows Falls and Rutland. The Green Mountain Railroad, one of New England’s oldest heritage railroads, formed in early 1964 by a steam-locomotive enthusiast. Passengers can take a historic train ride on a Fall Foliage Excursion, a Cocktails on the Rails trip or a Green Mountain Dinner in a restored dining car.

The Grand Bellevue Rail Dining Experience, for example, offers a two-hour, multiple course, formal dinner with live music. Other themed excursions include such excursions as the Autumn Harvest Bistro train, Lunch with Santa and Murder on the Bellevue Express.Ĭlick here for a schedule Green Mountain Flyerĭuring five weeks of New England’s glorious foliage season, the Green Mountain Flyer runs five days a week from Chester, Vt. Today, Rhode Island’s only heritage railroad also offers dining experiences, as it has a kitchen car and chef. It runs between the Melville Marina section of Portsmouth and downtown Newport. The new railway formed in 2014 when the for-profit Newport Dinner Train and the nonprofit Old Colony and Newport Scenic Railway merged. In 1976, then-owner Conrail sold the railroad to the state, which then leased it to the volunteers who ran the Old Colony and Newport Scenic Railway. The railroad once belonged to the Old Colony Railroad, a major system running from Boston to southeastern Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Lowell and Cape Cod. The Newport and Narragansett Bay Railroad runs historic train rides on Aquidneck Island, offering gorgeous views of the bay, colonial homes and the decommissioned USS Saratoga in the Newport Naval Station. Winnipesaukee Scenic RailroadĪ locomotive during the Old Colony and Newport Railroad days.

See a short video about the Cape Cod Central Railroad here. The railroad, which runs from May to October, also offers brunch trains, dinner trains and special excursions. In Bourne, the Gray Gables Station, built in 1892 for Grover Cleveland’s personal use, now serves as a rail museum. They’ll also see historic railroad buildings, including the West Barnstable station and the Buzzards Bay dispatch tower, both built in 1911. The Shoreland Excursion takes passengers on a two-hour historic train ride past salt marshes, sand dunes and cranberry bogs, then along the canal. In 2012, Iowa Pacific Holdings LLC bought a controlling interest in the company. Passenger service on Cape Cod stopped in 1959, but 40 years later the Cape Cod Central Railroad formed. Then in 1935, the Buzzards Bay vertical train lift extended the railroad across the Cape Cod Canal. Eventually the railroad carried passengers between 14 of Cape Cod’s 15 towns. It’s a remnant of the first train on the Cape, built in the mid-19 th-century to carry freight to and from the Boston and Sandwich Glass Co. The Cape Cod Central Railroad offers a historic train ride along 27 miles of track from Hyannis to Buzzards Bay. The Cape Cod Central coming ’round the bend Then comes an hour-long riverboat ride along the Connecticut River on the Becky Thatcher, where passengers will see Gillette Castle, Goodspeed Opera House and Haddam Swing Bridge.Ĭheck the calendar here for dates. Passengers aboard the 1920s-era coaches will see Selden Neck State Park, Deep River and Chester. It then runs for a 12-mile round trip through the quintessential New England towns and unspoiled parts of the Connecticut River Valley. The 2-1/2-hour historic train ride begins at the Essex Station, built in 1892.

The Essex Steam Train & Riverboat ride runs from May through October. The New Haven Railroad became the Penn Central (later Amtrak), and Penn Central gave the Valley track to the state of Connecticut, which leased it to a group of volunteers. By 1961 the New Haven Line declared bankruptcy and all service finally stopped in 1968. For a while it operated as a branch line of the New Haven Railroad. It’s part of the Valley Railroad, which formed a century after the Connecticut Valley Railroad started regular train service in 1871. The Essex Steam Train & Riverboat ride Is also only one of two in the world. Alas, only one steam-train-and-steamboat trip remains in the United States: in Essex, Conn. Valley Railroad 3025 under steam in November 2015īack in the day, travelers often journeyed by train to a steamboat landing, then continued on their way by water.

Essex steam train 2021 schedule