Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum Train Ride

Another glorious autumn day. The fall foliage in my community is about at its peak. 

Today my husband and I rode the Pumpkin Train of the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum in North Judson, Indiana. This is a small museum with a gift shop in a small Indiana town that at one time had 4 railroad lines operating through it. It has some rolling stock and throughout certain months of the year it offers weekend rides plus special events such as Easter Train, Santa Train, Ice Cream Train, and Pumpkin Train. The train we rode today was powered by a diesel engine though the steam train was also operating. 

The diesel Pumpkin Train ride was for 45 minutes at an average speed of 10-15 miles per hour. It travels to a viewing point of a bridge over the Kankakee River then reverses course back to North Judson. I hoped for some colorful foliage, but there wasn't anything spectacular. It was a pleasant ride climaxed by kids picking out their very own pumpkin from the pumpkin patch set up by the depot. Of course kids gravitated to the biggest pumpkins only to discover they were too heavy to pick up and carry, ending up with an assist from a parent or being directed to a smaller pumpkin by a parent.

When I booked the reservation, I forgot that there would be a time zone difference. I did realize that shortly after booking so we had no problem. We ate a light breakfast this morning at home, then ate at Christos in Knox around 10 a.m. tummy time, 9 a.m. restaurant time.  Our train ride was at 11 a.m. Central Time. I am glad we allowed lots of time because when we arrived in North Judson some kind of walking event was taking place on Main Street and our GPS kept trying for us to use that road even though it was barricaded off. There was a bit of a delay as we tried various ways to reach the museum. 

We did make it to the depot/museum around 10 a.m. CT. Picked up our tickets and looked around the museum some. Our train had 4 cars: a diesel engine, a coach car, an open-air car, and a first-class car. I paid the $5 extra for first-class. I was not sure what the weather would be like so I wanted to be in an enclosed car. The Monon car (our first-class car) had 12 lounge chairs, a few smaller "bedrooms" with chairs and a dining area. Occupancy was limited to 12. One of the museum volunteers rode along with us telling us some history of the car and of the area. This Monon coach was donated to them last year and refurbished. It has only been out about 6 times. It was for the last few decades a private car that the owner would use with Amtrak. 

I thought our gray and red Monan car was at the end of the train, but when we headed west we were at the front as the diesel engine pushed us. On the way back to the depot, we were pulled and thus we were the last car. 

There were 6 lounge chairs on each side of the aisle facing each other. Nice large picture windows on each side. 

It made for a nice autumn outing.