October 20, 2022
The Potomac Eagle * First Class * Dining Car * Lunch
https://potomaceagle.com/experiences/equipment/
https://potomaceagle.com/experiences/history/

The Potomac Eagle is based out of Romney, WV which is only 30 miles south of Cumberland, MD. In terms of location, this is like getting two trains in one for me. It also helps that I really liked where I was staying at the Best Western in nearby LaVale, so two nights there was a real treat. Great hotel, great rooms, great location.

Arriving in Romney about an hour before train time, I was presented with parking in a big grassy lot, crisscrossed with the occasional dirt track. Thankfully, parking was abundant so any fears I had of trouble finding parking were quickly quashed. The “station” was an equally rustic affair, consisting of a wooden ramp and platform built next to the train. A small tent provided a modicum of shade for a few of the passengers. I opted to stay in my car and listen to music until about fifteen minutes prior to departure.



Parking at the “station” in Romney, WV


I was happy to see that the locomotive power for today’s journey up the Potomac River was an EMD F7 looking quite fetching in the Baltimore & Ohio’s handsome blue and grey livery. I’ve always considered this to be one of the best looking liveries ever, and when it was applied to an entire train – as it was the B&O’s Capitol Limited, the entire consist was a thing of beauty.



Baltimore & Ohio’s handsome F7A


Today’s trip is a pleasant three hour ride up the south branch of the Potomac River, the highlight being a six mile long narrow section known as The Trough. The train takes its name from the fact that bald eagles are apparently regular visitors to The Trough.



Rolling up the Potomac River Valley”
Photo courtesy of the Potomac Eagle Railway


Rolling up the Potomac River Valley”
Photo courtesy of the Potomac Eagle Railway


Seating options range from hard backed seating in an open-air car to standard coaches to dining cars offering either a boxed lunch or a three or four course meal enroute. You know me – only the best. As such, I was booked the Superior Dining option (four course) and was assigned a seat by myself in a 1947 vintage dining car that was nowhere near as nice as the dining car associated with Superior Dining as depicted on the railroad’s website. That car featured couch/loveseat style seating with tables. Mine had just tables and basic chairs. Oh well – it’s still a table and I would expect the meal will not be affected.



First Class Dining Car on the Potomac Eagle


Departure was announced with a noisy jolt as the engine powered up and any slack between cars was taken up. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and I must give thanks to how incredibly fortunate I’ve been with the weather on all these train rides. It was cloudy only once – on the Colebrookdale Railroad – but even then the temperatures were pleasant and the food fantastic.

Scenery along the Potomac River is pretty much what you’d expect – lots of green trees and blue sky. The proximity of the trees to the track and the sheer number of them meant you had to be ready with your camera when the occasional clearing came up or you’d get either a scenic blur or some pretty tree shots with the river in the background.



Scenic Blur


Tree-free shots are hard to come by on the Potomac Eagle


The luncheon service started with drinks and an appetizer. I opted for a ginger ale and wasted no time tucking into my crab stuffed mushroom appetizer. It was quite tasty.



Stuffed Mushroom Appetizer


Next up was the salad. As salads go, it was pretty basic – some shredded romaine lettuce with four croutons and Italian dressing. While I’ve generally never met a salad I didn’t like, for a meal billed as “Superior Dining”, I would have expected just a little more – some shredded carrots, a cherry tomato or two, some onions…



Pretty “simple” salad


Right – on to the main course! Hmm… what’s this? A plate of boiled chicken, a scoop of pre-fab mashed potatoes and some canned green beans. I’d pre-ordered my meal at the time of booking and although I don’t recall exactly what I ordered, I’m pretty sure it sounded somewhat nicer than a plate of boiled chicken breast. There wasn’t even any gravy. This wasn’t a bad offering by rescue mission standards, but it was well below the standard I would associate or expect from a meal billed as “Superior Dining”. In an apparent attempt to dress the meal up a bit, some parsley had been sprinkled over everything.



Boiled chicken dinner


As we continued our journey through dense foliage and hints of river view, I couldn’t help but smile with amusement as I overheard a lady at the table behind me exclaim “It’s like a jungle out there!”



”It’s like a jungle out there!” one lady remarked


I should note here that the amateur theme I got from this operation extended to my waitress – a high school aged girl dressed in a pair of jeans and a West Virginia Mountaineers sweat shirt. She was pleasant enough, but it was abundantly clear that nothing about the meal service on the Potomac Eagle – Superior appellation notwithstanding – would bring back memories of the highly regarded dining once enjoyed aboard the Baltimore & Ohio streamliners that used to roll over these tracks.

The service redeemed itself slightly with the presentation of a Strawberry Cheesecake dessert – no doubt commercially produced on a large scale, but hey – have any of you ever had a bad strawberry cheesecake? They’re kind of hard to mess up.



Strawberry Cheesecake dessert


The rest of the ride rolled along pleasantly enough. It helped that it was such a beautiful day. Still, based upon this experience, I’d have a hard time generating any enthusiasm toward recommending this operation to anyone but the most fervent “foamer”. The scenery was just okay and the “Superior” meal upon which this trip was priced at a premium was lamentable at best. At least the air-conditioning worked… Overall though – two thumbs down.

Still, I never would have known unless I’d ridden it first. And now I have. It’s emphatically crossed off my list of West Virginia excursion railroads, of which there are many more.


* * * ~ X ~ * * *

My next train ride is three hundred miles away down in Huntington, West Virginia. Of all the trains I’ve booked for this trip, the upcoming ride aboard the Autumn Colors Express is the one I’ve been most looking forward to. It only operates over one three day weekend per year and I’ve booked myself a seat aboard one of my most cherished lounge cars ever. More on that later though.

For now, I’ve got a one hundred mile drive ahead of me to Morgantown, West Virginia. There, a room at the Quality Inn awaits.

I should note that as a Diamond level member in Choice Hotel’s Choice Privileges loyalty program, I couldn’t be more pleased with the overall quality of Choice Hotels’ mid and upper tier hotels. We’re talking Quality Inns, Sleep Inns and Comfort Inn and Suites for the most part but sometimes even an Econolodge or Clarion will surprise me with a surprisingly nice room. The points add up quickly and the roll-over benefit puts me in excellent position to retain my Diamond status next year as well.

Right. Well let’s hit the road! Once I get up to I-68 we’ll set the cruise control at 70mph, turn up the tunes and boogie on down the highway to Morgantown.


October 21, 2022
Morgantown, WV to Huntington, WV

West Virginia is said to have the highest proportion of obese people of any state in the nation. It’s easy to see why – at least along the Interstates. Fast food outlets are everywhere and there are a surprising number of All-You-Can-Eat Chinese Buffets, typically found in little strip malls off the interstate. I was thankful to find a pretty good Thai restaurant while I was in Morgantown.

West Virginia also appears to have a high density of Trump supporters. Trump signs are everywhere – on yards, on buildings, in windows, on car bumper stickers - even though the election was two years ago and – at the time I was visiting – the former president had yet to declare his intent to run in the 2024 election. I don’t believe I saw even one sign for Biden. Or Pat Paulson.

Huntington, WV is home to Marshall University and has an attractive downtown district. After checking into my motel, I went and scoped out where I needed to go the next morning. The Autumn Colors Express is a very well patronized event with hundreds of people descending upon Huntington with a need to park somewhere. The area around the train station offered very limited parking, but the folks organizing this excursion provided us with good information on alternative parking areas, one of which was located downtown by the arena. It cost $10 and there would be a shuttle busses running regularly to bring us to the station. That looked like the way to go, but since I couldn’t glean any information as to where we’d meet the shuttle bus, I took a drive over to the station we’d be departing from to check it out. A small lot across the street offered $10/day parking and there were even about a dozen free parking spots along the street. Hmm… maybe if I get here early enough – like 6:30am…

Dinner was a Subway sandwich, and I slept well in anticipation of tomorrow’s eleven hour excursion.