October 14, 2022
Adirondack Railroad * Utica to Thendara * First Class Dome Car

In my myriad peregrinations about the country over the years, I have been blessed to have driven many times through New York’s Adirondack State Park. Created in 1892, it is the largest park – national or otherwise - in the contiguous United States. At 6 million acres in size, it covers one-fifth of New York State and is nearly three times the size of Yellowstone National Park! Above all though, its mountains, lakes, streams and diverse hardwood forests make it one of the most beautiful landscapes in the world, particularly during the fall foliage season.

So then, to say that I was really looking forward to this ride aboard the Adirondack Scenic Railroad would be a bit of an understatement. Those of you who read and remember my last trip report, published in late 2019, may remember that it covered a number of very nice fall foliage train excursions in New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. I had tried to include this trip on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad at that time but was unable to procure First Class accommodations. It was disappointing at the time, because had I booked just a couple of weeks earlier when I’d first learned of the railroad, I would have had my First Class seat. I had underestimated the popularity of these fall foliage rail excursions around the northeast. I’ve since learned there are entire websites devoted to listing, rating and promoting them as well as regular seasonal articles in the Sunday Travel sections of the New York Times, Boston Globe, Washington Post, et al.

Alas, the day started off badly when, while parking the Rogue, I rolled up on a concrete parking block that was slightly higher than the front molding of my Rogue. Neither of the vehicles on either side of me were affected by it, but my Rogue was apparently just a bit lower. I scraped up on it pretty good, but the problem occurred when I tried to back off it. The molding caught somewhere along the concrete and then separated slightly from the rest of the car. The result was unsightly, but in no way diminished the safe operation of the vehicle.

Still… Sigh… I guess we’re gonna find out just how good that auxiliary insurance on my Chase Sapphire Card actually is…

Anyway, let’s head on into the station and prepare for the ride ahead.

Utica’s Union Station is a beautiful edifice, built over two and a half years between 1912 and 1914. Constructed in the Italianate style, it includes a rusticated granite first story with buff brick on the floors above. The 15,000 square foot waiting room features a 47-foot-high ceiling supported by 34 marble columns. Check it out!



Utica Union Station


The station, now known as the Boehlert Transportation Center at Union Station, also serves as the home office of the local DMV, something I inadvertently discovered after finding out that the line I’d been waiting in for five minutes was not the one for train ticket issuance but rather was for the issuance of new drivers licenses.

Ah, the line I was supposed to be in was the really long one that wrapped along the front of the station before curling most of the way to the back end. Sigh… Fortunately the wait wasn’t too long – maybe fifteen minutes – but clearly today’s excursion up to Thendara was to be aboard a full train.

Boarding was called a few minutes after I’d collected my ticket and free drink coupon from the ticket window. We had to take an elevator up to an elevated walkway and cross over a couple of tracks before descending to board our train. I paused on the walkway above to take a quick photo.



Train Time at Utica, NY


First Class tickets meant seats in the 1955 vintage dome car, built for the Union Pacific Railroad most likely as one of its famous dome diners. The most expensive seats were upstairs, under the glass where the view would be the best, but as I boarded I couldn’t help but notice that the most comfortable seats were located on the lower level of the dome where passengers relaxed in large, overstuffed lounge chairs. Hmmm… it left me to ponder – what’s more First Class? The panoramic view in the firm buffet table seats up top under the glass or the plush comfort of the big lounge chairs below…



My beautiful dome car awaits


Comfy downstairs seating


Seating upstairs under the dome


Full train notwithstanding, boarding proceeded fairly quickly – probably because people weren’t hauling gobs of carry-on baggage onboard like the airlines. I found my assigned seat located right at the very front of the dome. My fellow tablemates were a family of three from Long Island. Originally from India, they’d immigrated to the U.S. some thirty years earlier and had done quite well for themselves since. Their daughter was a math professor at a local university while the parents had retired some years earlier. They were visiting friends in the Finger Lakes region some 90 miles to the west, but had driven in to Utica this morning just to ride this train.

For my part, I was expecting scenery akin to what I’d experienced while driving the curvy, twisty roads around the mountains and lakes of the park. Alas, while our destination of Thendara is indeed within the boundaries of the Adirondack State Park, it was not in a very mountainous area of the park. In terms of scenery, we could just as easily have been rolling through Westchester County, just north of the city. New York City, that is. Also, in terms of the colors, it appeared we’d missed the peak colors by 3-5 days.

Ah well, unless you live in the region and can schedule accordingly, hitting the colors is a crap shoot at best. That said, the two and a half hour ride out to Thendara (five and a half round trip) was still pretty, rolling through forests and farmland with a few colorful trees along the way.



The view looking forward through the dome


Arrival into Thendara


Rolling through Empire State farmland


Living the good life under the dome


It was about 4:30pm as we eased back into Utica. Parked over on a siding looking grey and forlorn in its current livery was an EMD F-7A diesel locomotive numbered 1508, a locomotive I very likely once rode behind back in the 1970s when it wore the blue and gold of the Alaska Railroad.

All in all, I enjoyed my ride on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad. Should they ever run a train that pushes significantly farther into the state park, I’ll be sure to come back and book that ride.

For now however, I had a 110 mile drive ahead of me in order to position for tomorrow’s ride aboard the Stourbridge Railroad in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. My destination was Susquehanna, PA where a comfy room awaited at the Colonial Motor Lodge.