Whitewater Valley Railroad

On a Thursday I boarded the October fall foliage tour at 10:00am to Metamora. The train consisted of the SD-​10 532 locomotive power (originally built in 1954!), 3 coaches, and 2 cabooses. Tickets cost about $ 22 per adult.
There was a good crowd of people this day, but only 2 of the 3 coaches were used. I like children, however, I don’t have any. But when you cram lots of children in a bus, train, or plane, they usually get pretty noisy. On a train ride they like to imitate the train’s horn, and this gets old pretty fast. It would be nice if the conductors separated the children and families into a dedicated coach. Also, the train’s whistle drowns out the person on the overhead speaker narrating the sights and scenery. This was kind of a bummer as it typically went like this: «On your right, you can see [HORN!!!] [HOORRRNNNN!!!] [HOOORRRRNNNNNN!!!]», so unless you are sitting directly underneath the speaker and no children nearby, you might be able to hear the conductor’s spiel.
The journey is pretty bumpy and slow, as the track conditions are pretty bad. Trains shouldn’t exceed 10 or 15mph on these tracks. Keep in mind this railroad was originally built almost 150 years ago! And it was sold to the WVRR by the bankrupt Penn Central/​Conrail. It would cost millions of dollars to rehab the line to upgrade the speeds to compete with car travel.
Nothing amazing in terms of scenery, you do go through some woodsy areas and the tracks run parallel to the abandoned Whitewater Canal. Some of the locks are still recognizable. This is some interesting history and geography to look at. The railroad crosses over the Whitewater River midway through the trip.
By about 11:30 you arrive in Metamora, and the train departs so they can move the engine to the other end of the train at a nearby siding track. Metamora is an interesting town. I would describe it as a ghost town turned tourist trap. There are lots of antique stores, an ice cream shop, and a couple places to get food, but there are a lot of abandoned/​closed stores for sale or rent too.
At 1:20 or so the train honks its horn for departure. You make your way back to Connersville by around 3:00 or so, and you may feel like browsing the gift shop to support their operations. Overall, not a bad experience for a heritage railroad. I think railroads are an important piece of America’s history and they should be used and preserved as much as possible. If you enjoy the railroad experience, you should check out the WVRR.

We came as a group of 3 families with small children all 6 and under. The atmosphere, characters, everything was just awesome. We really enjoyed ourselves, getting to have santa sit with you and chat on the train was really great, our kids loved it. So many great photo opportunities. The only reason I didn’t give 5 stars is because the ride was just too long, especially for small kids 2 hrs sitting in a train is just too much. We all felt afterwards, that 60 – 90 min would have been a much better length, most people are driving probably at least an hour or so to get here, we actually drove 4 hrs. So when you have all that sitting, adding 2 more hours was a bit much.

We did the daytime «Wild West Train» from Connersville to Metamora. The ride itself is about 18 miles, taking around an hour and 15 minutes more or less each way on a vintage train car.. The scenery itself is not spectacular, just good old Indiana farm fields and woods.
The «Circle D Rangers» who make up the outlaws and lawmen are a hoot and you can tell they love what they do. I spoke with two of the oldest, ages 77 and 84 who are still full of enthusiasm for the rolls they play and who, by the way, get around better than I do at 30 years younger! It can be a rowdy, noisy, bumpy ride but it was all part of the fun. It culminates with a shoot out between the bad guys and the good guys outside the train which kind of freaked out a few toddlers but they were good with it when the «dead people» stood back up again. Coolers are allowed on the train if you care to take a picnic lunch or you can eat at one of the restaurants in Metamora. Metamora itself is an interesting place to visit and the two hour lay over just wasn’t enough time. Probably could have been if we had not stopped in a restaurant for lunch. It has some nice shops but many sold just downright stupid things or primitive décor, which I am not into. A few nice antique stores, the mill and fudge and candy stores were fun! The favorite of my grandkids was the Gem Mine where you can run buckets of sand through sluice boxes to find the gems inside. (or you can buy some awfully pretty ones in the gift shop).
All in all, it was a nice way to spend a day and I, along with my 6 and 11 year old grandchildren enjoyed it.