 |
 Main Station | |
| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | French Lick, Indiana |
| Reporting mark | IRM |
| Locale | Indiana |
| Dates of operation | 1961–present |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge |
The 'French Lick Scenic Railway is located in French Lick, Indiana, United States.
The Indiana Railway Museum was founded in 1961 in the Decatur County town of Westport with one locomotive and three passenger cars. The museum relocated to Greensburg and then in 1978 to French Lick after the Southern Railway deeded a total of sixteen miles of right of way stretching from West Baden, Indiana, approximately one mile north of French Lick, to a small village named Dubois, to the south. [1] The museum eventually removed all artifacts and became a gift shop and ticket pick up area for the French Lick Scenic Railway which still operates today.
There is no longer a museum at the French Lick Scenic Railway, but its collection included more than 65 pieces of rolling stock and locomotives. The museum had three steam locomotives on display that are not operational and three operational diesel locomotives.
You can still ride the rails to this day! Excursions are typically powered by a diesel locomotive. The train could consist of an ALCO RS-1 or EMD GP16 pulling 3 ex Chicago and North Western Railroad bi-level commuter cars, a concession car, 4 ex Rock Island passenger cars, an ex Northern Pacific Budd dome car, and an ex Illinois Central caboose.
IRM #4 - ALCO RS-1 - Ex Algers, Winslow and Western Railway #4, Built as Duluth, South Shore and Atlantic #103 [2]
IRM #6 - GE 80 Ton - Ex US Navy #65-00356 [3]
IRM #78 - ALCO S-2 - Ex Michigan Southern #78 [4]
IRM #97 - Baldwin 2-6-0 - Built as Mobile and Gulf #97 [5]
IRM 101 - ALCO S-4 - Ex Algers, Winslow and Western Railway #1 [6]
IRM 208 [7] - Baldwin 2-6-0, built as Angelina and Neches River Railroad #208 [8]
IRM 1813 - EMD GP16 - Ex INRD 1813, built as Seaboard Air Line #1810 [9]
SFRTA 704 - Colorado Railcar DMU - Ex Tri Rail 704, acquired and delivered in 2024 along with unpowered cars 7001-7002. [10] [11]
SFRTA 706 - Colorado Railcar DMU - Ex Tri Rail 706, acquired and delivered in 2024. [12]
The museum operates the 10-mile stretch of the line between French Lick and Gradman station as a heritage railroad known as French Lick Scenic Railway.
Scenic excursions are based on a 20-mile round trip through portions of the scenic Hoosier National Forest and the 2200 foot Burton Tunnel and takes approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes.
Other special events are run year round. There is the dinosaur adventure train, the Easter bunny express, and the award winning Polar express.
There are also tasting trains for ages 21+. Wine, beer, tequila, and chocolate are a few of these tasting trains
The American Locomotive Company was an American manufacturer that operated from 1901 to 1969, initially specializing in the production of locomotives but later diversifying and fabricating at various times diesel generators, automobiles, steel, tanks, munitions, oil-production equipment, as well as heat exchangers for nuclear power plants.
The Southern Pacific was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the names Southern Pacific Railroad, Southern Pacific Company and Southern Pacific Transportation Company.
Tri-Rail is a commuter rail service linking Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach in Florida, United States. The Tri prefix in the name refers to the three counties served by the railroad: Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade. Tri-Rail is managed by the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority (SFRTA) along CSX Transportation's former Miami Subdivision; the line is now wholly owned by the Florida DOT. The 80.0-mile-long (128.7 km) system has 19 stations along the Southeast Florida coast, and connects directly to Amtrak at numerous stations, to Metrorail at the Metrorail Transfer station, Miami Airport station, and MiamiCentral, and to Brightline at MiamiCentral.
The EMD GP30 is a 2,250 hp (1,680 kW) four-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division of La Grange, Illinois between July 1961 and November 1963. A total of 948 units were built for railroads in the United States and Canada, including 40 cabless B units for the Union Pacific Railroad.
The EMD SW1 is a 600-horsepower (450 kW) diesel-electric switcher locomotive built by General Motors' Electro-Motive Corporation between December 1938 and November 1953. Final assembly was at EMD's plant at LaGrange (McCook) Illinois. The SW1 was the second generation of 3,402 cu in (55.75 L) switcher from EMD, succeeding the SC and SW. The most significant change from those earlier models was the use of an engine of EMD's own design, the then-new 567 engine, here in 600 hp (450 kW) V6 form. 661 locomotives of this design were built, with a gap in production between March 1943 and September 1945 due to World War II.
The EMD GP35 is a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by General Motors Electro-Motive Division between July 1963 and December 1965 and by General Motors Diesel between May 1964 and January 1966. 1251 examples were built for American railroads, 26 were built for Canadian railroads and 57 were built for Mexican railroads. Power was provided by a turbocharged EMD 567D3A 16-cylinder engine which generated 2,500 horsepower (1,860 kW).
The ALCO RS-1 was a 4-axle diesel-electric locomotive built by Alco-GE between 1941 and 1953 and the American Locomotive Company from 1953 to 1960. ALCO subsidiary Montreal Locomotive Works built an additional three RS-1s in 1954. This model has the distinction of having the longest production run of any diesel locomotive for the North American market. The RS-1 was in production for 19 years from the first unit Rock Island #748 in March 1941 to the last unit National of Mexico #5663 in March 1960.
The Illinois Railway Museum is the largest railroad museum in the United States. It is located in the Chicago metropolitan area at 7000 Olson Road in Union, Illinois, 55 miles (89 km) northwest of downtown Chicago.
The Plymouth & Lincoln Railroad is a class III shortline railroad operating on the Concord-Lincoln rail line in central New Hampshire, United States. The railroad consists of two distinct passenger operations, the Granite State Scenic Railway, which offers passenger excursion trains in the White Mountains, and the Winnipesaukee Scenic Railroad, which operates passenger excursion trains along the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. In addition to passenger operations, the railroad owns the Lincoln Shops, a railroad equipment maintenance and repair facility located in Lincoln, New Hampshire.
The EMD GP16 is a series of rebuilt diesel-electric locomotives, a result of a remanufacturing program initiated by the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad (SCL) in an effort to spare the cost of purchasing new motive power in the late 1970s. This involved the rebuilding of their aging fleet of EMD GP7, GP9 and GP18 road switchers. 155 locomotives were rebuilt by the SCL.
A control car, cab car, control trailer, or driving trailer is a non-powered rail vehicle from which a train can be operated. As dedicated vehicles or regular passenger cars, they have one or two driver compartments with all the controls and gauges required to remotely operate the locomotive, including exterior locomotive equipment such as horns, bells, ploughs, and lights. They also have communications and safety systems such as GSM-R or European Train Control System (ETCS). Control cars enable push-pull operation when located on the end of a train opposite its locomotive by allowing the train to reverse direction at a terminus without moving the locomotive or turning the train around.
The Virginia Museum of Transportation (VMT) is a museum in Downtown Roanoke, Virginia, that is devoted to the topic of transportation.
The National New York Central Railroad Museum is a railroad museum located in Elkhart, Indiana dedicated to the preservation of the New York Central Railroad (NYC).
The Fort Eustis Military Railroad is an intra-plant United States Army rail transportation system existing entirely within the post boundaries of the United States Army Transportation Center and Fort Eustis (USATCFE), Fort Eustis, Virginia. It has served to provide railroad operation and maintenance training to the US Army and to carry out selected material movement missions both within the post and in interchange with the US national railroad system via a junction at Lee Hall, Virginia. It consists of 31 miles (50 km) of track broken into three subdivisions with numerous sidings, spurs, stations and facilities.
The Indiana Southern Railroad is a Class III, short line railroad operating in the United States state of Indiana. It began operations in 1992 as a RailTex property and was acquired by RailAmerica in 2000. RailAmerica was itself acquired by Genesee & Wyoming in December 2012.
Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad is a Class III railroad operating diesel-electric and steam-powered excursion trains through Peninsula, Ohio, in the Cuyahoga Valley, primarily through the scenic Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
The ALCO RS-3m is a diesel-electric locomotive rebuilt from an ALCO RS-3 road switcher. These 98 locomotives were rebuilt to replace their original ALCO prime mover with the more reliable EMD 567B engine and fan assemblies taken from retired E8s. Many of these rebuilds were performed by the ex NYC DeWitt shop with 56 completed at the ex PRR Juniata shop. The RS3m rebuild program started in 1972 and continued until 1978 under Conrail.
Southern Appalachia Railway Museum is a railway museum headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States.
The Colebrookdale Railroad, also known as the Secret Valley Line or colloquially as The Colebrookdale, is a tourist railroad located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The railroad operates between Boyertown in Berks County and Pottstown in Montgomery County.
The Colorado Railcar DMU is a diesel multiple unit train that was manufactured by Colorado Railcar from 2002 to 2008. The DMU was offered in single-level and bi-level versions. The DMU was discontinued after Colorado Railcar shut down in 2008.
38°33′18″N86°37′01″W / 38.5550°N 86.6170°W
| Preceding station | Monon Railroad | Following station | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| West Baden toward Orleans | Orleans - French Lick | Terminus | ||
| Preceding station | Southern Railway | Following station | ||
| Cuzco toward Huntingburg | Huntingburg – French Lick | Terminus | ||