How scenic excursions help sustain a positive image of train travel

What makes passenger trains special is that they are about taking in the journey as much as getting to a destination. In the case of tourist and excursion trains, the journey is the destination, so these operations thrive either on spectacular scenery or on providing a connection with history. Some of the best known tourist railways, such as Colorado’s Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad, combine both. And in my neck of the woods, the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad and the Strasburg Rail Road are more widely known, and are bigger-budget operations, for operating steam excursions in picturesque settings.

On Saturday, however, the fact that the Western Maryland’s daily excursion had sold out more than a week in advance gave a friend and I the opportunity to sample one of the its not-as-well-known neighbors. The Potomac Eagle Scenic Railroad is a 17-mile excursion railroad that lies about a 3-hour drive west of my home in Washington, DC. It operates over a portion of the state-owned short-line South Branch Valley Railroad, a former B&O branch line extending from a junction with the CSX main line (route of Amtrak’s Capitol Limited) at Green Spring, WV, south 34 miles, terminating at Petersburg, WV. The State Rail Authority operates freight service over the line and the privately-owned Eagle Cañon Passenger Car Company operates the passenger excursions out of a depot on the north end of Romney.

The Potomac Eagle doesn’t enjoy as big an operating budget as the likes of Western Maryland and Strasburg. Nevertheless, It has built a loyal following by offering a chance to experience the Trough of the South Branch of the Potomac River and witness its abundant wildlife — most especially the family of bald eagles that gives the train its name — in a way only otherwise possible on foot or by canoe or kayak. The line was built in such a way that it left the Trough virtually untouched. Looking back downstream from the bridge at the south end of the regular excursion route near Moorefield, one could be forgiven for not thinking there was a railroad along the river—it is completely camouflaged by trees. 

This portion of the South Branch Valley Railroad is a perfect case in point for the way that railroads act in harmony with the landscape more so than most roads, the central thesis of Alfred Runte’s visionary work Allies of the Earth. If a road, even a two-lane, had been built on the same alignment through the Trough, it would have significantly altered the land’s contours and made that place much less special. Yet the train, hugging the river, winding through lush forests and skirting steep cliffsides, respects nature’s contours. It gives passengers the feeling of being in the wilderness, yet with all the creature comforts close at hand. 

Not only that but, like many good passenger trains do, the Potomac Eagle offers several types of experience with the same vehicle: from open-air observation car to premium parlor car with at-seat meal service. The railroad has enough of a coach fleet—eight cars in total—that cars can be added or removed the morning of an excursion based on passenger reservations and anticipated walk-up ticket sales.

The FRA Class 2 track, allowing for top speeds of 30 mph, makes for a pace that is leisurely enough for the ride to be enjoyed from open-air cars. In addition to a baggage car turned observation car with large glass-less windows, the Potomac Eagle uses a gondola car built to carry such goods as lumber, but with a long bench installed in the center. A narrow passageway is cut at both ends to match the other cars’ vestibules, and a wooden drop-bridge allows passengers to access it from the rest of the train — but only while the train is stopped.

The train is operated in push-pull mode with an F-unit diesel (in either C&O or B&O livery) on one end, and a GP9 (in either Chessie System or B&O livery) on the other. Coach passengers are seated in ex-Canadian National heavyweight coaches with flip-back seats and windows that open, with access to a snack car and two open-air observation cars. Table cars in the center of the train accommodate large tour groups, and at the other end are two premium class cafe-lounge cars of streamliner-era C&O and Pere Marquette heritage. These cars, which once ran in Amtrak service, are climate-controlled and offer either table seating or “honeymoon seats” that face a wide picture window.

Successful tourist railroads depend on the hard work and dedication of their staff and volunteers, but how they communicate and market the experience they offer is as important as actually delivering the service. They must of course depend on non-railfans to make up the bulk of their clientele. The most patronized ones are able to appeal to different types of people seeking varying qualities of experience. Their appeal depends to a great extent on the positive association most people have with train travel as a way of experiencing landscape. This has a lot to do with trains’ ability to let travelers experience nature up close without roughing it—while sitting in the equivalent of a living room or porch with a drink of choice in hand. In the aggregate, the plethora of excursion trains that dot the country do a lot to sustain a broad public acquaintance with the train travel experience and kindle each successive generation’s attachment with trains.

Those of us involved in rail passenger advocacy are often cautioned against being perceived as nostalgists. But nostalgia is a key part of what sells the train experience. American culture justifiably has warm memories of the largely hassle-free, enjoyable mobility that passenger trains offered from most anywhere to nearly everywhere in their first heyday (I am convinced that there will be a second). Passengers come away from timely, stress-free train journeys not only refreshed, but also ennobled by getting a sense of the breadth of the country’s landscapes, both natural and human-made. I, for one, don’t see anything wrong with tapping into that wellspring of goodwill towards trains in selling both excursion and regular intercity train trips, nor in galvanizing public support for investment in a modern, world-class passenger train network.