Rare Mileage East of the Mississippi

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Anderson

Engineer
Joined
Nov 16, 2010
Messages
10,409
Location
Virginia
Most of the famous "rare mileage" routings (Techiapi Pass, Feather Canyon, UP Overland, etc.) are out west and therefore pretty hard for me to grab a ride on (not that I won't try to do so if the opportunity presents itself, but the time each way is a bit prohibitive). Are there any occasional/semi-common rare mileage bits either in the East/South or elsewhere more or less east of Chicago?
 
Most of the famous "rare mileage" routings (Techiapi Pass, Feather Canyon, UP Overland, etc.) are out west and therefore pretty hard for me to grab a ride on (not that I won't try to do so if the opportunity presents itself, but the time each way is a bit prohibitive). Are there any occasional/semi-common rare mileage bits either in the East/South or elsewhere more or less east of Chicago?
One suggestion, you might think about excursion trips that are museum based. Such as Tennessee Valley Rairoad Museum in Chattanooga. Just a thought. I sort of think you have in mind detours by regular commercial trains and I am not really sure about that.

Of course sometimes the TE has taken a different route between Chicago and St Louis.
 
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I'm interested in both (Amtrak detours are just a bit more easily accessible when they happen). Sadly, the folks out in SW Virginia have their excursion planned for the one weekend I can absolutely not get away from things, or I'd be out there for at least one of the days.

Other than them, are there any excursion groups within either a sane travel distance or a train ride of my area? I'm giving some thought to doing dinner on the Bay Coast Railway at some point, but at the same time "dinner trains" have always struck me poorly (I'll admit that I'd rather have an Amsteak en route from A to B than a fancy meal entirely at a given location...dinner trains just seem like a badly-failed imitation rather than a functioning remnant of the real thing).
 
I'm interested in both (Amtrak detours are just a bit more easily accessible when they happen). Sadly, the folks out in SW Virginia have their excursion planned for the one weekend I can absolutely not get away from things, or I'd be out there for at least one of the days.
I've wanted to make that trip for quite some time - maybe next year...
 
Well the Zephyr is doing a rare trackage event, much of which is east of the Mississippi. Some of it is west of the Miss, but much is east of the Miss. Of course since it's this weekend, it's probably too late to do it now.
 
A very nice train on which very good food is served in a Dome priced very reasonable - read about what Amtrak charges or cheaper, but better quality food, try the Saratoga and North Creek. Though a little far from Virginia it is likely worth it. Then there is also Adirondack Scenic from Utica to Thendera.

Also there is a pair of excursions out of Altoona this year on what are normally freight only lines across Pennsylvania, which might become an annual occurrence.

Steamtown in Scranton occasionally runs trains to Stroudsburg across Pocono Summit and to Nicholson PA across the Nicholson Viaduct. These happen usually about twice a year. The next Stroudsburg trip is on the 15 of Oct.

Closer to VA would be the Western Maryland Scenic between Cumberland and Frostburg.
 
I really do need to look at the Saratoga and North Creek. How late are they running this fall (as in, when do they stop service for the year)? Also...how's the scheduling interchange with Amtrak at the station?

And sadly, I can't make much of anything this side of November 8...election season in Virginia stinks.
 
I really do need to look at the Saratoga and North Creek. How late are they running this fall (as in, when do they stop service for the year)? Also...how's the scheduling interchange with Amtrak at the station?

And sadly, I can't make much of anything this side of November 8...election season in Virginia stinks.
It connects to the Ethan Allen in both directions, IIRC.
 
I really do need to look at the Saratoga and North Creek. How late are they running this fall (as in, when do they stop service for the year)? Also...how's the scheduling interchange with Amtrak at the station?

And sadly, I can't make much of anything this side of November 8...election season in Virginia stinks.
The S&N will operate year round. I believe that the schedule changes in terms of how many trains they run, but they plan to run that train for the skiers in the winter. It's not just a summer operation.
 
Unfortunately, in this day and age, when Amtrak is faced with a disruption, the most common solution is to turn the trains and bus the passengers across, rather than detour the trains. There are simply less and less suitable alternate routes for Amtrak trains to use, and setting them up and operating over the few that are available can ofter take much longer than the first solution...
 
Also watch Amtrak.com for Amtrak Passenger Service Notices on the Silver Service/Auto Train routes for planned track work between Savannah, Ga. & Jacksonville, Fla.

Occasionally this will cause any or all (but usually #97) to detour via Waycross, Ga. on CSX's Jesup Subdivision between Jesup, Ga. & Folkston, Ga.
 
I'll keep an eye out for that and see if I can run down to FL on that.

As to the time issue...even absent consolidation among the Class Is to the degree that it happened (and I do agree that such may have gone too far), working out detour plans (and figuring out who gets their ticket canceled and/or who gets a bus ride) was going to be a problem. "In the day", you could do a detour without too much trouble on your express trains because (to offer an example) a New York to Washington train might only stop at Newark, Philly, Wilmington, Baltimore, and Washington...so if you need to detour in northern NJ or shift to B&O tracks in Maryland for a bit, that's not a big deal.
 
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