LOVING TRAINS... isn't something that ceases when you grow up and stow the beloved wooden sets and choo-choo sticker books of your youth, of course. In fact, many a train buff would accurately claim that a fascination with the rails, with historic engines and how trains played a role in history, continues to puff, like so much steam, throughout a person's life. And while a lot of rides on vintage trains are open to adults, there are a number around the fall that have a kid-cute sweetness to them, and a Halloween theme, too. But what if you're a bit of a maven of the macabre, in addition to digging trains, and you're searching for an adult-fun train event that is both spirited, as in Halloween-fun, and spirited, as in what people are sipping? You only need to gaze in the direction of the Central Pacific Freight Depot in Sacramento, where...
SIPS & SPIRITS: THE TRAIN RIDE... will toot-toot on Friday, Oct. 27. It's a single-night kind of deal, one that's a fundraiser for the California State Railroad Museum, Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, and the still-to-come California Railroad Technology Museum. The drink on board is "a blood-shot cocktail," and hard cider will be available, too, as well as small bites from Fat's Catering. There will be a mad scientist on the train, we fear telling you, and a few of the scientist's minions, so do beware. As for the trio of cars serving as the conveyance for the party? Be ready to step into the El Dorado lounge car, the Audubon dining car, "...and the French Quarter lounge car from the 1950s that served as the famed Southern Pacific Sunset Limited service." It's history, and Halloween high jinks, and some hard cider, all wrapped into one atmosphere-laden trip along the Sacramento Southern Railroad.
