Bucket List: Essex Steam Train and Riverboat

admin Posted OnJuly 6, 2021

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Bucket List: Essex Steam Train and Riverboat: The Essex Steam Train and Riverboat offers a variety of narrated tours of the pristine Connecticut River Valley that provide a great summer getaway on the water. Or a great fall colors excursion in October.

The Nature Conservancy called the Connecticut River Valley one of the “last great places on Earth.” Featuring tidal wetlands providing bountiful natural habitats for Cormorants, Ducks, Swans, Greenland Geese, Blue Heron, Egrets, and Red-winged Blackbirds. It all begins at the Essex Train Station built in 1892 about 90 minutes north of Armonk off I-95. There landlubbers can ride the Essex Clipper in restored Pullman cars from the 1920’s pulled by a vintage diesel locomotive. The Clipper offers one-hour narrated tours through the quaint New England towns of Deep River and Chester and past the wetlands of Pratt Cove and Chester Creek.

Essex Clipper Dinner Train

Or you can take the 2 1/2 hour Essex Clipper Dinner Train tour aboard refurbished Pullman Dining Cars. The “Dinner on the Diner” offers a four-course menu featuring prime rib, Chicken Francese or salmon in the summer. The dinner includes coffee and dessert and there are gluten free, vegan and vegetarian options. The fall menu features prime rib, Seafood Newberg, and Stuffed Chicken with Cranberry Orange Glaze.

Steam Train & Riverboat Excursion

But if you want to get out on the river than the 2 1/2 hour train and riverboat excursion is for you. You will start with a 12-mile, narrated round-trip into the heart of the unspoiled Connecticut River Valley. Then at Deep River Landing you will be escorted aboard the Becky Thatcher riverboat for a 1^1/4 hour cruise along the Connecticut River. Take in the serenity of the river valley with its deep water, coves, inlets, marshes, and rocky shoreline from Becky‘s multiple decks in the summer. And the fantastic fall colors in October.

Along the way you will see an impressive list of historic sites beginning with Gillette Castle, a 24 room mansion fashioned after a medieval castle built by the actor, director and playwright William Hooker Gillette. Gillette is known for introducing realistic sets and sound effects which supplanted the crude devices of 19th century melodrama that prevailed when he staged his Civil War drama Held By the Enemy in 1886. Gillette is also remembered for his over 1300 portrayals of Sherlock Holmes onstage and in a 1916 silent film. The modern day Gillette image of the detective can also be traced back to Gillette. He was the first to use the deer slayer hat and curved pipe so strongly associated with the Holmes character.

Also along the way you will see the Goodspeed Opera House, now known as Goodspeed by the River that still produces a full schedule of musicals. And the Haddam Swing Bridge, a three span, steel, moveable truss bridge built in 1913. It was the longest swing bridge of its kind at the time. When your River Boat returns to Deep River Landing, you will reboard the steam train for your return to Essex Station. Throughout the season the Essex Train and Riverboat offers special experience excursions including a Day Out with Thomas the Tank and Friends, a Pirate Cruise, a Muffins and Mimosas Cruse and a Taco and Tequila Cruise.

Rail Bike Adventures

In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the Essex Steam Train and Riverboat operations but it spawned a new adventure that they are continuing to this day. The popular Rail Bike adventures offer an eight mile round trip over moderate terrain. This seventy minute scenic tour on their two-seat or four seat recumbent rail bikes on the train line is a perfect moderate exertion getaway for people who like a little exercise with their sight seeing.