Dinner on the Tioga Central Railroad

July 31st - Saturday - Beautiful day

August 12th is my husband's birthday and it is very difficult to plan something for him that he has not done before so once again I was faced with a couple of challenges. The first being we will be out of town on a SMART Muster on his birthday and what to do special for him.

I came up with the idea of dinner on the train. This is something that Lou had not done before; however, riding the train is "old hat" to my children and me. The boarding depot to the Tioga Central Railroad is approximately one mile over the hill from our home. The railroad was built in 1872 to carry coal out of Antrim, PA. It no longer carries coal by regular freight service between Wellsboro,PA and Corning, NY is maintained by the Wellsboro and Corning Railroad.

The train is equipped with two dining coaches, a coach that houses a fully functioning stainless steel kitchen, where all of the food served on the train is prepared. The only exception to this is the dessert that is served and that is purchased from a local concern.

The train also has other coaches for open air sight seeing, a coach that is named Canyon Club, which is the Snack Club that serves light fare and refreshments including beer and wine. Two locomotives are used on each train, one for moving the train north and the other for the southbound trip. A baggage car comes along for the ride and it is equipped with a diesel generator to provide head end power for lighting, heating and air conditioning.

The Train crew are all uniformed and each know their responsibility of seeing to their riders. The owner of the train, which resides in Downingtown, PA was very hospitable and stopped at each table to chat and answer any question that came up and simply to share information with each of us.

We boarded the train at 6:00 pm and were shown to our table that was complete with white linen tablecloth, napkins, gas oil lamp and fresh flowers. We dined with a couple from Ulysses, PA that were also celebrating a birthday. The gentleman was also a pilot, so you all know that Lou and he had much to talk about. His wife was a wonderful lady to chat with and she was so grateful for the "surprise" her husband had planned for her.

We were immediately served a cold drink to enjoy while the rest of the folks were seated. Once underway we were served a delightful light pasta salad and fresh homemade rolls and butter. It was not long before our main course was served with included fresh locally grown sweet corn, twice baked potatoes on their delightful crisp skins, barbecued ribs and a grilled chicken breast. It was a meal fit for a "working man", and we all had difficulty finishing our meal. For dessert we had our choice of fresh strawberry shortcake on homemade biscuit or a cheese cake tart.

The ride and the view was wonderful, and we had fun using the map provided to show each other where we were and what was coming up. Lou was astonished at how close to route 287 the train ran, he had not noticed it before, but you can bet he will now. Hammond Lake was a busy spot, many campers and boaters taking advantage of the perfect weather and evening. Many Wood and Mallard ducks were seen, some deer and a variety of birds.

We arrived back at the Depot at 8:30 pm and all agreed it was a wonderful evening and an experience that we would all remember.

I had mentioned that riding the train and eating on the train was old hat to my children and me and the reason for that is after we moved to Ohio, we came back and forth to Pennsylvania by train. It was a wonderful experience traveling with three small children for the twelve hours that it took for our journey. Mother and Daddy would come to Elmira, NY to pick us up and the kids had many stories to share with Grandpa and Grandma of their adventures of eating, sleeping and playing on the train. In fact, we rode the last train from Ohio to Pennsylvania prior to the flood in 1972. The end of an era.