Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad

TALKBack

Save To Del.icio.us

IOWATravel

EssentialIowa

TRAVELLinks

QUICK GUIDES

Guides To Iowa Towns

Adel

Boone

Clear Lake

Decorah

Dyersville

Fort Madison

Humboldt

Keokuk

Rock Rapids

Mount Vernon / Lisbon

Rock Rapids

Sioux City

Spencer

Waverly

IOWA TRAIN ATTRACTIONS:

Seeing Iowa Through the Window of a Fast-Moving Passenger Train

The thrill of Iowa's best train ride

The Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad was started in 1983 by a group of volunteers who wanted to preserve a scenic section of the former Fort Dodge, Des Moines and Southern Railroad. It runs approximately twelve miles from Boone through the small town of Fraser, Iowa and ends at the site of the former town of Wolf.

The Railroad was an immediate success and has expanded regularly since its founding. A permanent station/museum/ticket office building was built with considerable parking areas for the busy summer season.

The railroad now owns numerous locomotives and dozens of cars. It gained notoriety in the late 1980s when is acquired one of the last new 2-8-2 Mikado steam locomotives built in China. In 2003 the BSVY acquired and restored a passenger locomotive from VIA Rail, Canada. It was painted in Chicago and North Western Railway inspired colors and powers the line's dinner and dessert trains. The railroad also runs a short trolley ride.

If you have children or grandchildren between the ages of four and ten you no doubt are familiar with Thomas the Tank Engine. He visits the railroad in Boone for two weekends each September. Thomas, for the unitiated, stars in his own television show that runs daily on Iowa Public Television, a series based on the Railroad Series books written by British author the Rev. W.V. Awdry.

Thomas’s visit to Boone includes a train ride plus tons of interactive activities, including performances by a magician, arts and crafts, and a chance to play with a giant model train resembling Thomas. The event typically attracts about 14,000 people, the biggest event of the year, and has resulted in the creation of other special events at Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad. In October, the railroad hosts its popular pumpkin train rides. Participants are ferried aboard a train to a garden and allowed to pick out a pumpkin to take home. On the last weekend in November and the first weekend in December the railroad hosts Polar Express rides, a tribute to the popular children’s book about a trip aboard a magic train to Santa’s Village at the North Pole.

“We’ve come a long way from the day when all we offered was the regular train ride,” said Fenner Stevenson, manager of the Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad. The railroad attracts about 55,000 people a year, but officials at the railroad hope that the construction of a new museum will boost those numbers. The $7 million project will include additional gallery space, a model railroad, a comprehensive railroad library, a theater, interactive exhibits and a meeting room.

The Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad features excursions through the Des Moines River Valley. It also hosts several special events over the years.

Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad: Official website of the B&SVR. PLUS: Our guide to the B&SVR

Amtrak in Iowa: Our guide to Amtrak routes through Iowa including information on boarding times and costs.

The Kate Shelley Story: Read our account of the night a central Iowa girl risked her life to stop a passenger train from certain disaster.

The Mystery of Dubuque's Temperence Fountain: When a California man offered to build a monument to Kate Shelley in Dubuque, locals embraced the idea. But when it turned into a monument to prohibition, the fountain met its end.

The Court Case that Linked Iowa Rail Lines to the World: A steamboat rammed the only railroad bridge crossing the Mississippi. The accident led to a court case that defined where bridges can be built.

The Race to Build the Railroad in Iowa: In 1881, Iowa's network of railroads was finally completed after an interuption due to the Civil War and a court battle over the ownership of right-of-ways.

Grenville Dodge: Dodge was the father of the transcontintal railroad, a skilled engineer who made Council Bluffs an important terminus on the rail line that stretched across the country.