Riding The Rails

There's something about the sound of a train that's very romantic and nostalgic and hopeful.   ~Paul Simon
We’ve heard of these train excursions to and from the Cookeville Depot, but we’ve never experienced one until today. Neil thought it would be a fun thing to do, especially for the grandkids [and especially for Knox, who loves trains right now]. The Chamber of Commerce sponsored the excursion through the Tennessee Central Railway Museum ~ “Cookeville Super Fall Foliage Excursion Nashville Cookeville” according to the TCRM Facebook page. 

Ready to ride the rails ~ hubby Neil, granddaughter Shelby, daughter Holly, grandson Elijah, daughter Kelly, grandson Knox, and moi [FYI: this photo has a little secret to it and I’ll tell you what it is at the end of the post]

The Cookeville Depot Museum has an awesome replica of how the West Side around the depot used to look back when folks traveled by train. Knox loves to watch the train go around the tracks.

The iconic neon Cream City sign across the street from the depot

Bird’s eye view

Waiting for the train

And here it comes!


You don’t realize how huge they are until you’re standing next to one. This train pulled into the depot and kept on rolling by. It was insanely long. Never did see the tail end of it.

Doesn’t he look like the quintessential train conductor?

Line up here and show your ticket.

We were in car #9400 [and that train was so long I wouldn’t be surprised if there had actually been 9400 cars]. Our seats were in the “dome”. Pretty cool.

The seven of us were a bit spread out but that was fine. There were about 25 other travelers under the dome. Great views from all around the car.

Leaving the depot and looking out the rear window ~ this was a short trip to Algood and back which took about an hour

Nice view from my window

We chugga chugged along the track slowly. The car swayed from side to side, at times strongly enough that we all swayed in our seats. [I’m happy to report I did not get train car sick]



Kelly took a couple of panoramic shots with her iPhone camera


Because the leaves are turning so late this year, it wasn’t a particularly pretty ride. The lady with Tennessee Central who rode in our car said the trip from Nashville was beautiful. I imagine so, since there was probably so much more farmland. Our trip took us through mostly business and residential areas. There was a house or two that sat only a few feet from the tracks. I can only imagine what that must sound like when one of the L&N trains come rumbling through their neighborhood, carrying freight.

Algood does not have a depot. We stopped here [right by this beautiful orange maple tree in someone’s front yard] and had to wait a few minutes while they disconnected the engine cars and turned them around to hook up to the back of the train so they could pull us back to Cookeville.

This engine was at the front of the train [and there were several engine cars, I guess you’d call them] that pulled us to Algood. Here he is going in reverse to the back of the train to hook up for the trip back to Cookeville.


Going back in time…well, not really…just going backwards which was kind of a strange sensation at first ~ that’s the smoke stack at TTU

You can see the old post office up there on the left next to the Baptist church on Broad Street

Almost home ~ you can see the roof of the depot ~ I still can’t believe how L-O-N-G this train was! I think our car was somewhere in the middle. Someone said there were between 400 and 500 people on board.

Crossing Cedar Street

Took this picture as we passed through the train car below our dome on the way out ~ felt like I had just arrived at Hogwarts ~ riding the rails was such a neat experience, something I wouldn’t mind doing again someday. Knox said “that train was pretty cool.” It was.

Shared a pizza for lunch at Momma Rosa’s

Loved being with my peeps today! Hope your ever lovin’ Saturday was a cool trip, too.

Here’s my little “secret” to the group shot at the top of the page. We couldn’t all be in the same shot together [I took this shot] …..

…. and Neil took this shot ~ so using a little digital magic, I Photoshopped myself into the picture just above this one. Scroll back to the top group shot and check it out. I’m not an expert at Photoshop but it was a nice way for all of us to be in the same shot. Happy Saturday, y’all!