Texas State Railroad Palestine Depot — Attraction in Palestine

It's fun but boring at the same time. Last Friday I took a 6, 7 and 8 year old on the train ride. We sat in the upper dome car, called a birds eye view. Snacks and drinks on the train were good. They have liquor, soda, candies and popcorn. The food in Rusk was horrible, two of us got the burger, it was lukewarm, precooked and fully dressed ( you cannot add or take anything off the burger) she reached into a warmer to get the burgers. The girls had Mac n Cheese, they both took one bite, said it was awful. Wasted money. We didn't eat the burgers either. Also they tell you to pre-order your food. We just walked right up to order, people that pre-ordered food waited in a long line for quite some time. I think a wrap would have been a better choice for us.

We sat at a table/booth, it was very comfortable and plenty of room for us. The kids were bored on the train after about 15 minutes. Our car held 66 people and I think all but 2 seats were full. One poor guy had this train car all by himself, trying to take care of all these people, reminded me a bit of an airplane. There was no music on the train. This guy would holler out things once in a while, but not much information given. I have to give this guy kudos though... he worked in the gift shop before the train took off and back in the gift shop afterwards. He had a lot on his plate.

I will tell you what the kids said to me. There is nothing to look at or do while on the train. You will go thru one very small town, but other than that there is really nothing at all to see. There is nothing but woods and trees, every once in a while we would see a cowmor horse. The boy, won't name names... said, why is this train going so slow? I asked the guy, how fast does the train go? 25 miles an hour. Why so slow, it would tip over on the tracks if we went faster.. 🙄.

You do not get to get too close to the train. There is no one out there to talk to about the train or engage the children. This on my opinion is not a good activity for young children. I mean if they would engage with the kids, that would be great, I mean even a train book or coloring book... something.

My opinion, too expensive! I paid $75 for my seat and $50 for the kids each. Bad food. Boring. Can't see or do anything. Now what's better, but still not worth it, get 4 adults, ride the train, talk, drink... that would be better, but really... still not fun.

I really had high hopes for this train ride. I have even read some reviews where some cowboys came and robbed the train... tied up the host an all, all acting ... but would have been fun for the kids. But unfortunately we had nothing like that.

All in all the kids said it was fun. I would recommend ditch the train ride and book early for the Polar Express... haven't been on that yet, but hey... Christmas, Santa and hot chocolate has to be...

So a few thoughts here. Bear in mind I went during summer months during 2021 but I'm used to the heat. My party took the dome car. Side note: if you have a party larger than four for the dome car, you will be split up and the seating is a tight fit for 4 adults. If you like trees, you'll see plenty of them. The track generally runs a good distance from a main road so mostly you're watching trees go by. Also if you are mobility impaired, I wouldn't recommend the trip. Moving about the train while it's moving takes solid footing.

The good: if you like trains and don't have an opportunity to ride one for a while, this might work. The staff is friendly and they seem to want to help. The ride would likely be better in the cooler months. The gift shop has some fun toys for kids and train lovers and there's some neat history there if that's your thing.

The bad: so there's no outside food or drinks allowed. Normally this would be fine except that the food quality of the station in Rusk is pretty bad. None of my party finished any part of their meals except for their drinks. They had burgers and such and cookies available to purchase but none of it had flavor. Additionally you may have to wait a long time to order depending on how fast you get off the train and it fills out quickly. You can get snacks like candy and drinks on the train but if you want any decent food, eat beforehand. Also there is no real cool place on the train during summer. I get the open air car would be hot but there was no place on the train that was less than 80 degrees F. Dome car and first class were also very warm. And the air circulation was not good either. The restrooms were fairly dirty and we could smell them from the middle of the train car. Also the station in Rusk is just a train yard with restrooms, a gift shop, and an outside dining area. There is some history stuff but the video room was not functioning. This is not the town of Rusk that you are visiting but the station where the train engine can move to take you back. So it's basically a place to eat with no good food.

Summary: I don't feel it's worth what we paid for and unless a lot changes, we don't have any reason to...

Ok, this is a mixed review, so read on. The one star represents the way the ticket operators handled my situation. I tried to book tickets on line for two different family groups on two different weekends. And I made some mistakes. Total, I paid for 10 people to go. I specifically wanted the dome car. When I realized I made the mistake, I called the office and talked to a Jeanette. She was sweet and I thought helpful and supposedly worked it out on her end, then told me that I would get confirmations in my email. Because we traveled from Austin, I wanted to make sure it was right. The next day I didn't get an email so I called again and talked to a Joanna. The names are important, because when we got there the lady, (she said manager, ) tried to gaslight me saying that I had made the mistake (I will explain that in a minute,) not them, we went round and round with her telling me I had done it and I kept explaining,I specifically called and talked to two people so they could get it corrected and I Ultimately thought it was. The mistake was, I asked to purchase the dome car for both weekends, on the weekend more of my family came they had us in first class, not dome. She kept gaslighting me, intimating I was lying until I called her out and said, then how do I know these two women's names. I made the first mistake on line, called them to correct it. We ended up on the wrong car. But more importantly was how they treated me. They need customer service training. We won't go back to Palestine with those hateful women. There is one out of Galveston, and that will be our only choice next time. The mixed part is the kids working on the train were cute and worked hard to give the littles a fun time. So, summary, if you want to do a polar express excursion, go to Galveston. There's nothing else to do in Palestine, not nice people (at least some of them) theres A Lot to do in Galveston, and the customer care there can ONLY be an improvement. All...