I just wanted to post about a train ride I just took this past weekend that I highly recommend.
I took my kids on the "Skunk Train" line from Ft. Bragg, California through the redwood forests of Mendicino County. (Skunk Train actually refers to the 1920's era gasoline powered rail cars that they used to run passenger service on. Now they mostly run diesels and a steamer -- although they still have one of the gas cars that they bring out now and again. We rode the GP9.).
This is truly one of the most scenic, rugged and beautiful short line trains I have been on. I hope to post some pics later.
We paid a few extra bucks and they let my kids and I ride in the cab of the GP9 that pulls the four passenger cars through the forest.
I know that some people had posted in the past year that one of the deep mountain tunnels had caved in and stopped service. They have recently cleared the passage and the line is up and running again.
Two and a half hours of beautiful river views, countless hundred year-old trestles; three hundred foot tall, thousand year-old trees; homesteads and mining sites dating from the Civil War era; an old abandoned box car and some mining cars of some sort discarded in the wilderness; and a really nice barbecue lunch in the middle of the Redwoods half-way to the terminus in Willits.
It is a beautiful two and a half-hour ride. Highly recommended. (they also have a fun O-Scale logging layout next to the train barn).
- timbo
