Tourist trains
Photo: Photo by M. Rehemtulla / QUOI Media Group, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
A tourist train is a rail operation intended not as practical transportation (a way to "get in" or "get around") but as a museum-style attraction to see, a tour as an activity to do, or a means to employ historic dining or sleeper train cars as somewhere to eat or sleep for novelty, nostalgia or entertainment purposes.
UnderstandTourist trains are distinguished from regular trains by various factors:
Historic and museum trainsOften, historic rolling stock from another era has been painstakingly restored and put back on the rails as a form of living museum exhibit.
Historic and scenic routes
Sightseeing and luxury trainsA few trains operate primarily for sightseeing or as nostalgia for an era before mass air travel in which the well-to-do rode the rails in style.
Dinner trainsThese runs occupy a similar role to that of a dinner cruise on a tour boat line; they are typically short (an hour to a few hours at most) and operate at relatively slow speeds on otherwise little-used lines.
Attraction and park railwaysAttraction and park railways, are "small" railways, where the railway itself is the destination for a traveller.).
Excursion trainsThese occupy a similar role to a chartered bus, aircraft or ship.
Decommissioned rolling stockLong after an engine or car's travelling life on the rails is over, it may still see use as part of a static exhibit in a museum, park or public venue; a town which uses a former historic rail station as a landmark or…
See also
Sources and licences
- Guide text adapted from the Wikivoyage article "Tourist trains" by its contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikivoyage · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo: Photo by M. Rehemtulla / QUOI Media Group, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons