Tourism rail rides back on track as Tavares seals deal for trains
TAVARES — The announcement “All aboard!” will be returning to Tavares now that the city has struck a deal to bring in regular weekend rides and The Polar Express Train Ride from Warner Bros. during the Christmas season.
Air-conditioned rail cars from the 1950s will operate year-round from Tavares beginning August or September, Orlando & Northwestern Railway spokesman Neil Bagaus said.
The new riding adventure will be called the Royal Palm Railway Experience and travel to Mount Dora and Eustis for trips as long as two hours.
“This really punctuates Tavares as a destination,” said John Drury, city administrator of Tavares, which unanimously approved Orlando & Northwestern Railway to use its train station last week.
Each year, ridership for the seasonal Polar Express Train Ride — at potentially 40,000, according to Bagaus — is expected to match the city’s former steam-engine train, the Orange Blossom Cannonball, which closed Jan. 29.
Based off the children’s book and 2004 movie, the Warner Bros.-licensed “experience” is expected to be the gem of new train rides offered in Tavares.
“It’s a theatrical production on rails,” said Michael Brown, special events manager for Orlando & Northwestern Railway. “It includes a visit with Santa on the return trip, and each guest gets a special little gift.”
The company expects to ink the contract with Warner Bros., which runs the bookbased ride in Chicago and the Grand Canyon, by the end of the week to set up train rides holding as many as 500 passengers per run.
The 1950s-era passenger cars pulled by diesel locomotives, meanwhile, will run regularly and feature dining cars, “glass-enclosed” dome coaches and other specialevent and holiday trains. Part of the Royal Palm Railway Experience, each ride will have capacity for about 200 passengers.
Costs for regular rides will range from about $12 for children and $20 for adults and up to $99 for holiday dinner trains and other special events.
“It’s going to be heritage all the way,” said Bagaus, who added that excursion trips could include seaplane rides in Tavares or performances at the Historic State Theatre in Eustis.
Bagaus expects the railway experience to collaborate with local businesses and “strolling musicians,” a talent base aided by the region’s tourism economy.
“With Orlando here, it’s really easy to pick up musi-
cians,” he said.
To get the train running on time, Orlando & Northwestern officials have had to hustle.
“I’m working on the airconditioning unit today,” said Brown, talking by phone in Maryland. “It’s not exactly what I do, but I’m one of the few guys that knows about railroad air-conditioning units in the country.”
Classic streamliner cars from Indiana and Mississippi will soon head to Tavares by freight railroads, he said.
Tavares, which pegs itself as America’s Seaplane City, has also made a niche in offering old-timey train rides to residents and tourists. It invested $540,000 to build its own train station near Lake Dora. The Cannonball, a 110-year-old steam-powered train, discontinued
Classic streamliner cars from Indiana and Mississippi will soon head to Tavares by freight railroads, officials say.
its run in Lake County earlier this year.
“I get a lot of people asking, ‘When is the train coming? When is the train coming?’ ” Tavares Vice Mayor Troy Singer said.
The new trains lack the Cannonball’s signature steam engine, but Bagaus said in an email that “the company is ... visiting with various people who own steam locomotives.”
The Cannonball — featured in Hollywood movies including “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” — stopped after track owner Florida Central Railroad terminated its contract with the operator.
Tavares has a long history with tourist trains, including the Mount Dora Meteor and Dora Doodlebug, as well as visits by Thomas the Tank Engine, a kid magnet.
In 2010, the Meteor was temporarily stopped when it was discovered 1,000 railroad ties would have to be replaced along the route.
The state of disrepair was part of a reckoning of the region’s railways. Two separate stretches of tracks from the 1920s were upgraded in 2014 between Umatilla and Orlando and Tavares and Mount Dora.
“It’s really great to be here again,” Bagaus said.