Heber Valley Railroad

Like the Nevada Northern in Ely, the Heber Valley Railroad is the remnant of a real railroad that was saved from destruction. Lots of the infrastructure of the railroad remains though not nearly as much as in Ely.

Running through the lush Heber Valley bordering Deer Creek Reservoir then, below the dam, running alongside the Provo River, the scenery is hard to beat. As the train winds down the canyon, snow covered peaks appear and disappear from view. Kayakers, fishermen and campers wave as the train goes by. At Vivian Park, the track comes to an abrupt end and the right-of-way becomes a hike and bike trail. There's a siding at Vivian Park, with just enough room past the switch to clear up the engine and run it around to the north end of the train for the trip home.

This is the Provo Canyon Limited trip and takes about 3 hours. Another trip, called the Soldier Hollow Express, follows the same track but turns back sooner and only takes about 90 minutes. During the 2002 Winter Olympics, two of the venues were near Soldier Hollow and spectators were shuttled to and from that location by steam train.

By chance, I happened to encounter Craig Lacey, the executive director of the organization, and had a nice conversation. He, like all the other employees I met, was open and friendly. They were ending a five day "Day Out With Thomas" event and it was fun to compare how they operate and how the Austin Steam Train works the event. I was actually surprised to find that they were running their regular train along with nine Thomas trains.