Rail group ready for growth to bring visitors to Perry and Spencer counties

A fundraising reception Friday at the Tell City Depot shed some light on the group’s plans for 2017 and into 2018.

Formed about three years ago, Scenic Lincoln Way has board members in Perry and Spencer counties and sponsored several train rides last year, including popular treks to Troy during Schweizer Fest as well as children’s rides and story-time experiences.

Rides were also held later in the fall and before Christmas. Rides were well received although the group did not sell as many tickets for its Christmas rides as it hoped.

The group is working with the Perry County Port Authority, which owns the Tell City to Lincoln City line and operates the Hoosier Southern Railroad. The railroad serves Waupaca Foundry and other industrial customers. It has agreed to allow Scenic Lincoln Way to use the line but the tourism venture has to reimburse the port and railroad for expenses such as track inspections. The rail group leased passenger cars from Tennessee last year and those cars are still in the area. The Hoosier Southern Railroad provided use of its engines.

Scenic Lincoln Way still hopes to pass off the operation of trains to a for-profit group, although board member Katie Pappano said that may not happen until 2018 or later. “We’ve worked a lot of hours, received a lot of help and want to see the effort succeed,” she said Friday. She added that last year’s train rides were attended by locals but also drew people from Evansville, Bowling Green, Indianapolis and even Canada. Train rides, included story-telling and an ugly sweater contest.

A privately funded group calling itself Mistletoe Holdings is working to locate a depot near Santa Claus that could tap into the busy Holiday World influx of visitors, mostly in the summer, and provide rides from Santa Claus to Tell City or westward toward Lincoln City. However, the town is gaining popularity as a Christmas destination with attractions such as Santa’s Land of Lights and a multi-week December celebration.

Pappano and Perry County Convention and Visitors Bureau Director Betty Cash said Christmas rides could connect the two communities or could be offered separately.

Other train rides such as the Polar Express in French Lick are wildly popular and financially lucrative.

There are also hopes to locate a depot near Lincoln Boyhood Memorial and train rides could transport rail fans from Tell City to Lincoln City and the nearby amphitheater. However, one of the group’s needs is a bus to transport people after their trip since it takes about two hours for a train leaving Tell City to reach Lincoln City.

“Everything we’ve been told is that four hours round-trip is too long for someone to be in a train,” she added.

Working with the Hoosier Southern Railroad and the owners of the existing cars, Scenic Lincoln Way hopes to secure the staff of volunteers it will need to return train rides to this year’s Schweizer Fest, set for Aug. 9-13. Kids story times and rides later in the fall, including a ride to Lincoln City for a Lincoln Amphitheatre performance are also in the cards.