Austin Steam Train Association Museum — Attraction in Cedar Park

My son was so excited to go on this trip for his birthday and unfortunately it was not a good experience. He couldn’t sleep well for weeks, he love trains. Issues began as soon as we went to pick up tickets. I guess something was wrong with our train car and Kat ended up moving my son and I to a compartment in the adult only car. When handing me the tickets she said if anyone gave me trouble about it to say she assigned it. Why put us somewhere that people are going to give us a problem about anything?

Next problem is when we arrive, the compartment was full. Not sure what to do about that but okay. So we went to talk to the lady that was working in the car. She was rude to our faces and turned her back to us and made an incredibly long speech to all the guests in the car in front of my son and I that we weren’t allowed there and she wasn’t going to allow us to sit down. It was a very unfriendly conversation around our presence, which was making it known to everyone including us that we weren’t welcome. How dare we go to the place we were assigned to? She clearly did not want to deal with us and wanted us gone. The guests were craning their heads to look at us as she talked about us to them, we weren’t allowed out of the basically couple feet wide hallway. She was very intentionally blocking the path. She told me she didn’t know where we could sit but we couldn’t sit there and kept trying to put my tickets back in my hands. I could hear a guy complaining about how he paid such and such dollars to not have kids around and people were chiming in right in front of us. It was incredibly embarrassing. I had to keep asking the lady to help me, where were we supposed to sit? Like I’m so sorry we paid money to be here too, I bought seats so what else are we going to do-stand?! She ushered us out to the loud area between cars because we weren’t allowed to stay inside and asked us to wait there, it was very cold and my son has autism and cannot handle the noise for long. The train has already been moving for a while now, I beg for a place to sit just until we know where to go. Literally anywhere. Clearly frustrated we go back in, she gave another huge speech in front of us to the people in the compartment that was assigned to us, just so apologetic that we were such an inconvenience to those sitting in the place we were supposed to sit. Of course she didn’t try to make us feel better all the while, and honestly how could we be made to feel worse than we already did? Like this is literally the place we were assigned to but it turned into such a huge deal for us to even sit in there for a few minutes. There were an endless amount of ways that this could have been handled so much better and with any ounce of kindness directed towards us. If we weren’t held captive by a moving train we would have left then and there.

Everyone made us feel EXTREMELY unwelcome and uncomfortable. I was treated like it was my fault when I was doing everything I was told to do by the people that worked there. Not a good experience, especially for a kid on his birthday. I know she was trying to focus on the people in her car but technically we were assigned to it too and the experience should matter to us too, otherwise what the heck did I pay for?

We shouldn’t feel guilty for simply existing in the space. I would go as far to say the experience was humiliating. I almost started crying at one point but kept trying to make the experience happy for my son but it was not easy. That was a bad decision to put us there. None of the staff were happy to interact with children, other than the concession area with toys to buy this is not a kid friendly experience. They really should consider hiring some young, energetic staff and make just a few cars for kids because that is a huge part of the crowd that was there today put them all together so they aren’t such an annoyance to everyone. Conductor was unfriendly, especially to kids. Most of the bathrooms weren’t working. I don’t recommend this for young children. Definitely not...

My family and I took a ride on the Hill Country Flyer and this a brief overview of our experience and I recommend you heed this review well.

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I visited and rode the September 7th 10:00 am to 5:00 pm ride to Burnett going out of Cedar Park with the Austin Steam Train Association and I’d like to share my experience that day.

To begin the train left 20 minutes late from the terminal when it was communicated the train would be leaving promptly and on time consistently. Which is fine although it did negatively impact the quality of time spent in Burnett and exploring the town which was a key experience in the advertised outing. Another large disappointment was the lack of the advertised western gun fight. We saw no mention of it, nor display of it. Apparently that was another misrepresentation of the trip. It was advertised we would have two hours to explore downtown Burnett and have lunch. This was barely enough time to visit a local restaurant flooding with business from both local lunchtime and other passengers. With barely an hour in Burnett without enough time to eat we actually had to leave the restaurant we were at in a manic frenzy without eating, apologize to the staff at the restaurant for our rush due to this,and return to the train. Then upon returning at the specified time we still not even begin the process of departing until nearly 30 minutes past the time we were told to return! The. On the return trip we didn’t even get above 10 mph on the speed making for a grueling and arduous journey back creating an atmosphere on complete misery on the entire train. On top of all of that the trains expected time to return was 5:00 we did not return until after 5:30! This is insane it officially help derail our entire vacation plan and helped out more of a strain on our time off. Meaning we had to rush and adjust our original plans.

Another issue with the experience was there little to no a/c in rear car named Rippling Stream on a day with temperatures rising above 95 degrees! Although the next car over had perfect a/c with a lower priced ticket. Paying for six tickets @55 dollars to sit in the heat in pool of our own sweat was not the idea of a luxury car provided by marketing materials. We actually had to use the pamphlets provided to make fans in order to be comfortable during the ride and continuously go into the other cars for refuge from the sweltering heat. Upon informing staff of the issue we were told once the train is moving we can go to other cars and stand in the cool air to gain some reprise from the heat.This is insane as we bought out the entire private room to have a bonding family experience we certainly were unable to enjoy. Also this car represented itself as a purchase of an adults only car ticket and children were running through the car. We wanted an experience that would supply with a relaxing adult atmosphere that was negatively impacted by this not being enforced.

Another major concern of mine is lack of communication from staff with the private areas of the train. Announcements regarding safety, departure time, arrival, landmarks etc were unheard in the private room and no effort was made by train personnel to inform us of anything. We were left alone with no information about anything given without having to seek out an attendant regularly. To mention with sound there was also an almost constant excessively loud screeching noise as we moved along at a slugs pace that I feel each passenger will hear in their nightmares of this ride for years to come.

This experience wound up being more stressful due to the previously mentioned circumstances causing our trip to be unenjoyable. Due to the dishonest representation of a truly climate controlled car, and times for departure misrepresented. Unfortunately this is not an outing that we would attended again or recommend to others visiting the Austin/Hill Country area. This is not something we would recommend for anyone trying to relax or...

This is not a horrible experience, not is it life altering. It just wasn't what I expected when compared to the brochure I read. I went on the Halloween train which went to the end of the line and back. On the ride out there, there was nothing Halloweenish about it. Adults and kids were dressed up but no decorations were on the train to enhance the experience. On the way back there was a conductor handing out candy to the kids. That was about as far as Halloween went on this ride. The staff was very nice and seemed to truly enjoy volunteering to work the rail. The theme I expected never happened. Not sure why it was called a Halloween ride. The town we stopped at had nothing unique to offer us Train Trippers so it was kind of weird walking around the town dressed up in costume whilst the population went about their daily lives. The trip itself had practically nothing to look at. This is nobodys fault of course; we have what nature gave us. Just don't expect cool waterfalls or scenic sights of any sort. Mostly you'll have trees about 20 feet away from the windows obscuring further view. Or, you'll have wide open terrain with nothing particular to look at. Pretty unremarkable, so bring a book or expect to converse with those inside the car. The town of Burnet is the furthest thing from excitement. I don't know why they stop there. It wasn't a partial ghost town nor wild west-ish or interesting in any sort of way. One building was built in 1865 I think it was...but that's about it. The rest is a working city independent of the train tour that stops there. A scant few other buildings have the stone façade of the wild west too. Underwhelming at best. Overpriced I thought, but since everyone is a volunteer I suppose that keeps costs down pretty well too. My family of four was $140 in October 2016. This isn't something I would do again, regardless of the promotion, but it wasn't a total bust either. Between the pictures in brochures, the write up and my wife telling me about it, I had higher expectations. I would give it 2 1/2 stars but that isn't possible; it was 50/50 of an experience. The middle rail car sells drinks and snacks for pretty reasonable prices, I would like to add. They didn't jack the prices 200% like other businesses might, so I appreciate that. Cash and credit was accepted. Oh, regardless the price option you choose, its the same experience. You'll either get a few more inches of leg room or a private cabin like in those train movies from the 1940's. You see the same things and aren't waited on any different than the other lower class cars. For safety reasons (irresponsible Americans?) windows don't open so all your pictures will have the pane of glass. If you forget your food or just don't want to lug it around, there is a HEB at the end of the line. Its about 200 feet away so even the little kids can make the walk. I would eat there since the restaurants in town...