All aboard the moving museum

By PAMELA DAVIS

© St. Petersburg Times, published October 19, 2000

PARRISH -- Passengers gather in an empty field to wait for a train that goes nowhere.

They board a mobile museum -- the Florida Gulf Coast Railroad Museum -- made up of three diesel electric locomotives, one air-conditioned coach, two lounge cars and one caboose. Two open-air coaches, normally in use, are out of service for repairs.

After collecting and maintaining railroad equipment and memorabilia for 10 years, the Florida Gulf Coast Railroad museum members began offering short trips to the public in 1993 when the group acquired track time.

There's no train station or ticket booth at the museum site. The rail cars are the entire museum.

Tickets are sold in the caboose that sits on a separate track. The caboose is attached to a 1953 Pullman Short Leaf Pine (formerly part of a Ringling Bros. train) that serves as the gift shop. Riders can buy engineer caps, postcards, pins, plastic toys and T-shirts.

The track is an abandoned Seaboard Railroad main line owned by Florida Power & Light. The no-frills train ride lasts about an hour and 30 minutes and carries passengers on a 12-mile round-trip trek from the small town of Parrish in Manatee County to the smaller, almost non-existent town of Willow and back.

Usually, the journey is low on thrills, though charming. At a top speed of 9 mph, the train passes through orange groves, palmetto scrub, grazing land and a small cypress swamp.

It slows down at mile marker 857, also known as Nichols Station. In Willow, the train stops and the engine uncouples and comes around the train on a siding track. It then recouples to the opposite end and takes the train back to Parrish.

This weekend, however, riders are in for some excitement. A group of Wild West re-enactors will perform train robberies during the rides at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. Sunday.

Tickets for these rides are $12 adults, $7 ages 3-11.

Santa will ride the rails with the museum Dec. 9-10.

Both lounge cars are air-conditioned. The Cape Tormentine was built in 1954 and has four sleeping rooms, complete with sinks and a place where passengers used to leave their shoes for an overnight shoeshine.

The Kentucky Club car, purchased from the Royal American Carnival, was built in the 1920s and modernized around 1954. The walls are painted carnival pink, the windows are covered by red velvet curtains, and the car has its own stainless steel bar.

Lounge cars were designed for long-distance travel and offer passengers more space to move around. The coaches are limited, with their "head-hauler" seating arrangements, and are designed to hold a lot of people side by side.

Each open-window coach holds 70 people. One of them still has original wicker seat backs.

One of the main attractions at the railroad museum, members say, are the cabooses, because railroads don't use them anymore. Back in the '40s and '50s there was one on every freight train. The Gulf Coast Railroad Museum cabooses are mainly chartered for parties. Regular passengers must ride in the coach or lounge cars.

No matter which car passengers choose for the ride, the experience is similar. Squeaky wheels bang along the tracks, and passengers bump along with the movement.

IF YOU GO

The Gulf Coast Railroad Museum is in the Manatee County town of Parrish. From Pinellas, take I-275 south to I-75, then north on I-75 toward Tampa to exit 45 (Moccasin Wallow Road). From Hillsborough, take I-75 south to exit 45. Turn south on U.S. 301 and go 1/4 mile. Go left on 83rd St. E. Now through Dec. 30, train rides are available on Saturdays at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. and Sundays at 1 and 3 p.m. Fares are $10 for adults and $6 for children 3 to 11. Fares for the train robbery weekend are $12 for adults and $7 for children. For more information or group pricing, or to volunteer, call (941) 365-5738. The train is not wheelchair accessible.

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