Dog House Ramblings

I still like trains

Both the wife and I have the week off for the holiday. And since we've mostly been sitting around the house doing our own little projects, it was time to get out for awhile.

So my wife got the idea that we should take a train ride. But not just a commuter train. There's something called the Grapevine Vintage Railroad. It runs between Main St in Grapevine, TX and The Stockyards in Fort Worth.

Grapevine use to be one of those sleepy communities on the outskirts of Dallas. Its claim to fame is the wineries around town and the annual Grapefest event. I don't believe I've actually had any wine made in Grapevine, but it is supposed to be good.

The train is pretty cool, but you can tell it's run on a pretty tight budget. It's got fairly old cars and there's even a steam locomotive that pulls it on weekends. Since this was a Friday, we got a "vintage" diesel electric locomotive. At one point, it could have been a fairly scenic ride from Grapevine to Fort Worth. The crazy growth of the Metroplex has pretty much taken care of that. Still, there are parts of the ride that are interesting.

The Stockyards is definitely a tourist trap. But it has some redeeming qualities. When we arrived, we wandered a bit, finally stopping at Trail Boss Burgers for some chow and beers. The burgers were good, fries were crisp and the beer was cold. They even had Sam Adams Winter Lager on draft. It's definitely one of the few places I've been to that does Buffalo burgers right.

Would I do it again? - probably. But only if I were entertaining people. It would have been nice if the windows in the passenger cars were cleaned every once in awhile (they probably do it Saturday morning). And the return trip would have been more enjoyable had we not been sitting next to the surly teenage staff that should have been serving the patrons, instead of whining about serving the patrons (why is it that teenagers of this era feel so "entitled"?). And the parents who wouldn't control their kids are always a let down. Otherwise, we had a pleasant ride.

If you want to do something touristy, I can recommend it.

posted by The Dog @ 7:32 PM