Florida Railroad Museum — Attraction in Palmetto

Trains, Hot Dogs & Hobos....

I was the fortunate recipient of a wonderful Christmas present gifted to me by my Fab One. She bought 2 tickets to the Museum's Hobo Campfire Cookout train ride!

C'mon January 22nd!

The big day finally arrived. It was time for me to virtually unwrap my present. Driving like a safe Casey Jones, I guided my land locomotive into the depot of the Parrish landmark. Silver white streaks glinted across the windshield, reflected off stainless-steel railcars in the pre-dusk sunlight.

There was a small crowd of cold-weather coat in hand passengers queued at the gate. The mood was very upbeat. The unified pulse of excitement was palpable. As our boarding time arrived, so did the various train icons. The Conductor. The Train Master. The Engineers.

Boarding this rolling museum, we headed towards the rear of the train. In a railcar with an enormous amount of legroom between the rows of seats.

A post-trip conversation with Josh, the Train Master, taught me the exciting history of the railcar in which we rode. Every detail of this man showed his love for his work! Built in the early 1950's, our passenger car started life riding the tracks of the Union-Pacific Railroad. Then it moved north to the Alaska Railroad, which explained the huge amount of leg room within! Had to have plenty of room for those bundled up travelers, their boots/gear AND their sled dogs! Wow! After a while the car came back south to warm up on the Amtrak lines. Its last paydays were with the New Georgia Railroad, before the Florida Railroad Museum acquired it. We were literally riding in a museum masterpiece!

5:30 departure time. We felt a low clunk as that mighty Number 204 diesel engine five cars ahead of us eased out of the station. Slowly slipping past our vintage windows were other remnants of the glory days of rail travel. Steam engine. Baggage cars. Railyard artifacts.

The lullaby of the rail with its clickety clack lilt and the car's slow rocking tilt hypnotized and romanticized. For the next few hours, we were the baggage being handled with extreme care.

Giving way to the panorama of potato row, Florida flora and orange tree 'graveyard' at Periwinkle Junction (as explained by our car's guide and docent Caroline), we soon sighted Willow, our next stop, as ol' 204 began to brake. 220 passengers (as counted by Edward, the Conductor) began to disembark the train.

Oak-infused columns of campfire smoke triggered the olfactory OH!-factory of the mind. Inhaled remembrances of campfires past. Of food, fun and family.

Our detraining path took us to a table where we were presented with the icon of the hobo world, a red or blue bandana hanging off of a stick. Tucked safely inside was our hobo meal of a hot dog, bun, condiments and marshmallows. With a glance to the left, our hobo tables were set! Steel rings of fire surrounded by 4 bales of hay or 4 low benches. I did not count them all, but surely there were 20 or more of these blazing fire rings!

As did the other hobos, Fab One and I found a set of comfy bales to call our own, next to another hobo couple. Opening hobo sacks and unwrapping foil-wrapped weinies to kabob onto the sack stick was our next order of business. Believe me, there is something about cooking a hot dog over an open fire on a cold night with the murmur of ol' 204 in the background as ambiance. Graciously, this was an All-You-Can-Eat hobo feast!

The air was alive with an intoxicating mix of franks and marshmallows, music and mirth. Did I mention there was a 7-man Bluegrass band playing? Plenty of train tunes to pick and pluck.

With an "All Aboard" and campfires to our backs, this load of hobos was getting back ON the train. No need to ride in boxcar or under a car.

For 2 1/2 hours, 220 people plus crew were transported not only to a place of music, food & fires, but also to a place that inspires. A soothing stop in an oft-crowded station we call life.

Best Christmas present ever! Thank you Fab One AND the Florida...

The Railroad Museum of my childhood! I was super happy to return today after over 20 years of missing this place, it was certainly worth a great weekend drive to Parrish to relive the memories I had all those years ago. Everything was just how I remembered it to be and I'm proud to say I'll definitely be coming back to this spot more often when I can.

Today was a special day at the museum as the annual Day Out With Thomas event was in town and after recommendations from my neighbor to go check it out, my mother and I rushed out as fast as we could for this special road trip and boy, did it not disappoint. It certainly was super busy and crowded today, but the security and museum staff were very helpful throughout the event to ensure things ran smoothly throughout the day and I'm thankful for that.

As you enter the museum, you are greeted by a caboose painted in a splendid red paint scheme with a variety of equipment on display nearby including both steam and diesel locomotives, freight cars and passenger cars. The exhibits were very well maintained with a lot of love and care put into them, the gift shop was a delight to walk through filled with all forms of merchandise ranging from toys, shirts, mugs and of course some old railroad memorabilia to keep as souvenirs.

After exploring the Parrish grounds, you hop on board the train itself. The seats are first come first serve, so be sure to find a great spot when you can once you're on board whether it'd be in the breezy open air cars, the modern air conditioned passenger cars or even the caboose as well. The seats are very comfortable to relax in throughout each car as they offer a unique perspective of how rail travel once was in the golden age whether it'd be for tourism purposes, calm commutes or for long distance luxury. Depending on the days you ride or the events you pick, you'll either go as far as Pld Dickey Road through the lovely farm land country side or all the way up the line to Willow through scenic forests and swamp lands where an old depot as well as the rest of the equipment are on display and it even has a nice little campground you can explore which also doubles as a spot for their special events as I mentioned earlier, either way, the rides will never fail to impress as you glide on the tracks nicely and are entertained by the conductors and museum staff throughout which is something more train attractions should implement in the future.

Speaking of the conductors and museum staff, as much as I loved them all for how much of a good job they do, my favorites had to be Debbie and Dakota. Debbie was an incredibly nice lady who helped my mother and I get great pictures throughout the excursion and she was a joy to talk to as she walked up and down throughout our car. Dakota was an awesome gentleman to hang around with as well, a little fun fact about him is that he has a YouTube channel called Kotabeaner which I've been following for the past few years, so seeing him in person was definitely a surprise. He posts excellent train content on his channel ranging from rail fanning, chasing excursion trains and most importantly, his daily routines of working at the museum helping to keep all the equipment restored for many generations to come, how I would love to crave for a job like that as working on the railroad has always been a lifelong dream of mine before I got my current job at the zoo.

In conclusion, we had an incredible day out at the Florida Railroad museum and we are certainly looking forward to returning as much as possible to greatly support this hidden gem. I would highly recommend checking out their website as well as following Dakota's YouTube channel for updates. To all the good people at the Florida Railroad museum, thank you so much for making our day so special, your service is greatly...

We decided to try the Polar Express train ride this year with our children, age 7 & 4. It was an overpriced mediocre experience that we will not be repeating. We sat in a booth in a first class car and the ticket price was $390 for our family of four. For that kind of money, we expected more. The train ride itself was okay, they offered us snacks(potato chips & cookies) Gee thanks, it's dinner time and drinks(soda) on the way to the North Pole and zero drinks like water on the way home at 8:30pm. Upon arrival, the line to see Santa was 5 miles long, so we decided to eat first since we arrived around our normal dinner time(6pm). The food options were all carnival style fried foods(chicken fingers, hot dog, fries, etc) that you had to pay for on top of your ticket cost. The food was pricey and it wasn't even good. There are very few activities for the kids to do and you are left at the location for a whopping 2.5 hrs, when 1-1.5 hrs would suffice given the lack of entertainment. Our kids wanted to go on a tractor train type ride like the ones at the fall festivals where kids ride in little barrels pulled behind the tractor. Well, they were enjoying that until a man dressed in a Grinch costume ran over to "hijack" the train. He began driving erratically and much faster than the previous driver. Several of the younger kids, my 4 yr old included, began crying because they were scared and he did not stop the ride. He made 2 or 3 trips around the loop with the kids screaming/crying for it to stop. As a parent who did not give consent to this happening, it was infuriating to say the least. My daughter was beside herself wailing, as were 3 other small kids, when he finally parked the train and hopped off without saying a word, leaving parents to comfort their terrified children. They also had fake "snow" in one area, which we were excited about but it turned out to be disgusting soapy foam! Kids were running into it and getting completely drenched and sticky, since hello, it's SOAP SUDS. We did not allow our kids to play in it once we realized what it was. I felt so bad for the kids whose Christmas pajamas were drenched and likely had no change of clothes. Kids were walking around with foam all over their face and hair. It was absolutely disgusting. We walked past an "elf" worker who was literally hosing kids off to get the soap off their hair and clothes. I was in disbelief at that point. I couldn't believe we had paid basically $400 for this garbage. Our 7 yr old was in tears begging to go home by 7:45pm and we had to tell her that we were stuck there until the train returned at 8:20pm. So yeah, all in all, a total waste of time and money. Our kids didn't even get to meet Santa because the lines were consistently long all night and moving at snails pace. They claim that the train doesn't leave until everyone meets Santa but that's a lie. This whole thing is hyped up to be a nostalgic holiday experience, when in reality, you could have a similar experience in a Walmart...