Rating : 5 star. A complete train experience at Stearns, KY , 4-May-2007
Reviewer: Jim Nowell from Fullerton, CA
We arrived 90 minutes prior to the train leaving so you can take an hour to visit their excellent Appalachia Museum which includes interviews with people who have worked in this coal/lumber company town. The museum also has a replica one room school house among many other artifacts. Twenty minutes prior to the train leaving there's a good two man musical show. The sixteen mile roundtrip through the forest, along the emerald green Big South Fork River (which is one of the six in the world that flows North); you will see caves, a tunnel, coal on the mountainside and the Barthell Mining Camp before descending 600 feet into the gorge (3 1/2 percent grade) to the Blue Heron Coal Mining Camp. This is run by the National Park Service and is an excellent interpretive site on a coal mining company town spot. The three hour adventure includes a 75 minute layover. The train is pulled by a 1942 ALCO diesel switch engine and has one open air car with a roof; two semi open air cars with plastic windows which can be rolled up, and two indoor coaches. In the open air car you will find the only swivel chairs we have seen. During the trip there is discriptive narration which is better heard at the beginning in the coach car. On the return trip there is less narration and it is better to be in the open air car. The station is located on the main line from Chattanooga, TN with many trains to be seen.

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