All aboard!

Secret City Train Ride will be Oak Ridge Festival event The Secret City Scenic Excursion Train will be available this year as a sanctioned event to Secret City Festival attendees. The Southern Appalachia Railway Museum will staff a booth at the popular Oak Ridge festival Friday and Saturday, June 16 and 17 and will accept reservations for the rides, which will run 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. June 17. The train is a short 15-minute drive straight on Oak Ridge Turnpike.Also on tap for the same weekend is the first-time addition of Central of Georgia Coach number 663 to the trains. Construction on the coach was completed in 1947 for the Central of Georgia Railway and was later painted in Illinois Central brown and orange for service on the City of Miami between Chicago and Miami. The 85-foot coach adds an extra 56 seats for the train’s excursion runs.The coach has undergone needed mechanical repairs and restoration by the Museum’s all-volunteer staff and is expected to be ready to carry riders on June 17.The Secret City Scenic Excursion Train runs every first and third Saturday each month throughout spring and summer, with one-hour rides at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. The rides are $15 for adults and $10 for children age 3-12. Reservations are not required but recommended and they may be made by calling the Museum at (865) 241-2140. More information is available on the museum’s Web site: www.southernappalachia.railway.museum.The train’s boarding site is at East Tennessee Technology Park off Highway 58, six miles north of I-40 exit 356, or 10 miles southwest of Oak Ridge.Southern Appalachia Railway Museum is a non-profit organization and all members are volunteers dedicated to the preservation of East Tennessee’s railroad history. All equipment used on the train was originally in service on southern railroads in the 1940s and ‘50s, and was restored and maintained by the museum’s volunteers, using funds derived from operation of the excursion train.