News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Baxter Fall Festival Excursion and Del Monaco Wine Train will not happen this year. Tennessee Central Railway Museum President Terry Bebout said the museum will focus on shorter trips in precaution to Covid.
“It is a longer ride from the Nashville area to Putnam County,” Bebout said. “Couple that with some slow orders along the track in certain areas, it would just make the trips too long for us this year.”
Bebout said the 10 hour round trip from Baxter to Nashville creates restless passengers. Promoting social distancing becomes a challenge as people move around in the cabin.
“We are working with the metro health department and developing some guidelines, along with some other museums who have reopened throughout the country, and trying to copy some of their good practices and make it fit our train set to try to keep people safe.”
The Tennessee Central Railway Museum is a volunteer, non-profit organization. The museum was forced to cut some expenses to stay in operation. Bebout said luckily, the organization had enough funds saved to keep the museum running.
“When we do open our excursions, we should have enough revenue to last through the year. We are just being very careful with our expenses right now,” Bebout said. “We still have to make revenue to keep our trains running and looking nice.
The Tennessee Central Railway Museum will reopen on September 3rd. Excursions will only be available in Wilson County. Since 1989, The Tennessee Central Railway Museum has conducted passenger excursions from Nashville to Lebanon, Watertown, Baxter, Cookeville and Monterey.
