Ride on the Chatanooga

Always on the hunt to discover some new adventure or hidden attraction, I found a posting for open hours to ride a train in the heart of Youngstown's decaying steel mills. The thought intrigued me so one Sunday morning over the holiday weekend I am headed to the East side of Youngstown to the Youngstown Steel Heritage Museum for my very own train ride. 

I am not going to lie, on arrival it looked as decayed as the rest of the steel mill areas through the outskirts of Youngstown. I seriously was sitting in my car wondering what I had just drove myself into, unsure I was even at the right location due to lack of signage. As other vehicles began to pull in for the public hours, I realized I was in fact in the right place.

The museum was opened to preserve the heritage of the steel mill industry in the area. They had many relics available for show and preservation.

Now don't get me wrong, if it weren't for these men joining together this history may be lost to the future. However, we were visiting based on the train ride.... the area outside also was dedicated to preserving the steel mill industry and its railroad system. There were many areas on display to preserve this....

The next step was to actually board this train and take the ride... which I thought would be traveling through some of the shut down mill areas. The tracks were also every narrow, surprisingly narrow compared to those you would cross on the road in current use. The engineer explained that they were called Narrow Gauge tracks and in fact were only 24" across. 

The crowd who came on this open house Sunday all boarded the train and imagine all of our surprise when we chugged along forward about 150ft and then backwards the same 150ft of track three times! While this might give you a chuckle, as it did me, I am by no means downplaying the valiant effort of these men who banned together to preserve this piece of local history. The museum has only been in effect for less than a year and I truly look forward to their expansion in the coming years with more donations and funding. Besides.... where else in the city borders of Youngstown would you be able to hop on the back of a caboose for a photo op?

Top and shorts JCrew Factory, shoes Sperry