historic jefferson railway

A 45 minute ride along the bayou past lighted vignettes and trees in an antique train. Entertainingly narrated and you can get hot chocolate to drink on board.

The light show was great, if a little hokey... It's geared to kids, but my wife (a kid at heart) loved it too.They could use some help with the narrator's script, and the sound system had a short, but the operators were all good-hearted folks and weren't in the "rush you through" business at all. They seemed concerned that everyone enjoy themselves, and that's a big plus!

Was excited about the Rail of Lights Christmas tour! The depot is quite nice, with a Child hugging Santa and nice decorations. That's about as far as we should have gone. Is obviously past it's prime. Small displays every so often, Lights could have been put up by a 10 yr old, very disappointed in this. Go to Santa Land in Lindale instead!! Def not worth the money!!!

We purchased tickets for this attraction a month ago. This was for the Christmas Train.An incredibly horrible ride. The Tracks need to be leveled and repaired. We paid extra for the enclosed car, vs. the open air cars. They have a pre-recorded narration of the trip and there are lights at various places on the ride.Their pictured Steam Locomotive is Broken, so you won't have that pulling your cars. They use a Lame Diesel powered engine for the trip.NOPE, CAN'T RECOMMEND THIS ONE! KEEP YOUR MONEY!

We were in town for the Thanksgiving weekend and already planned on attending the Christmas parade. We found the train ride online and attempted to buy tickets via the internet. No matter what time I tried to get tickets for or whether or not I tried to get an open air or closed car, there was always only one ticket available. I found that if you call the number on the website, you can speak to a live person!!! I was immediately told there were plenty of seats on all rides for the evening. I reserved our tickets, which did not require a credit card to hold. I also inquired about our dog and was told she could ride too, as long as she was well-behaved. My husband, pup and I arrived about 20 minutes early. We checked-in, paid for and obtained our tickets very quickly. A short time later we boarded the train (with a dog, you must ride in the open air cars). To make a long story short, the ride was okay. There were some lights and displays to be seen along the ride, but honestly, not anything more than you could see in your own neighborhood. If you have never been on a train or have a young child, then I would recommend going. If not, I think I would pass. Just my 2¢.

Geared to young children, and enjoyable for all ages. I guess anyone who is expecting a huge horror ride would be disappointed. It is not choreographed to produce terror. This is a family ride that is a hit in a dozen different ways. Nighttime fun for everyone. As many laughs as screams. Beautiful ride through the bottomlands of the Big Cypress Bayou. I have already bought my tickets for their Rail of Lights Christmas train. If you want to ride, buy your tickets ahead or call the train people. It sells out.

I was thinking about taking my kids to ride on the Halloween fright train last weekend but was checking on getting tickets and it was sold completely out. I bought tickets a week in advance for the next weekend, I assumed it must be really good if the train is sold out. I have to say the ticket buying process online was easy and I printed my email and gave it to the ticket booth. They gave me my 4 boarding pass tickets that cost me $72.00.The trains were sold out this weekend also, the weekend before Halloween weekend. They had a few activities out there with a jumpy house and stuff like that for really young children. I'd say if you have kids under 8 years old then they might enjoy this. The steam engine was out for repairs so they had a small Diesel engine to pull the train around. I think this train ride has very great potential to be something magnificent but my opinion right now is that it needs a new direction or management of vision for this particular attraction.If it sells out right now the way it is, I can only imagine how successful it COULD be if they put more effort and money into this and ran it every night for the two weeks before Halloween. It appears very, very low budget and there is nothing scary in particular. They had a kid that would jump on the train and startle a few and the classic chain saw always gets a scream or two. Other than that I felt disappointed about paying $72 for that ride. I don't understand how it sells out all the scheduled train rides. It's seems geared for very little kids to me. The events were fairly spaced apart with nothing much in between except a woman reading a paper scripted story over the intercom and an occasional spot light from the train shining off into the woods. I won't spend $72 for 4 people on this particular train ride again. But there must be some draw to it that sells it out, maybe it just being on a train in the dark woods or lots of curious people like me. Lol

We rode the train during the May Civilwar Days this past Spring. The Locomotive Chase was super fun with fighting all around the train. And at one point the train stopped and we were treated to their new Naval Gunboat firing on the troops on shore around the train. It truly was a BLAST, experiencing all the action all around the train so much so that even the passengers were whooten and hollering for the soldiers.

The kids will love this. Maybe we are kids at heart, because we loved it too. We were there for their National Day of The cowboy celebration. Sure, the railway was the only place for the celebration- the rest of the town had no clue, and the locomotive was in for repairs, so our engine was somewhat cartoonish, but everything else was great. They have a tour guide who gives a good talk about the history of the railway and the town, and the actors who pulled off the train robbery were great. They really added the most fun to the ride. Knowing how hot they must have been in those costumes made us appreciate their performance even more.

Regular train is broken but it is a fun little ride. We did ghost train but no ghost, just a lot of deers. Stories were all the same stuff you read online.

While in Jefferson we went for the 8pm ghost train one evening. The ride was very fun. Saw a lot of history and wildlife after listening to several ghost stories before hand. They spent a lot of time talking about big foot being sighted in the woods. I thought they might have a "sighting" for us to enjoy...... would be a fun and great way to finish the ride. Just a suggestion. Otherwise it was a great tour.

We are in train mode at our house because of our train loving toddler.We made the trip with our toddler and my husband's parents Mother's day weekend. The cost is a little high, but the ride is longer than most we have been on. The steam engine is out of service so the diesel engine (my mil called it a tractor) is being used, we didn't mind.We were the first to arrive and the train engineer and his helper made sure our son got to climb in the engine, blow the whistle, and touch everything in reach! Very friendly and made our trip even better.My toddler picked out the front row and it was a bit smelly at times, but the movement and wind kept it from being a nuisance. We had a wonderful trip on the train.

Like others have said, their regular train is out for repair. This did not bother us. It was our 4 year old's first train ride, so we were not picky. It was the perfect length of time, and the skit they put on is entertaining. We were there during their annual "train days" so the tickets were $15 for adults, which seems pricy, and I don't really think we got anything extra for it. But again, it was perfect for a child's first train experience.

I took an enjoyable ride on this train last Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, the steam locomotive is waiting for a boiler repair, so a small (diesel-powered?) yard tug pulled the 3 or 4 cars. A lack of funds is evident at this attraction. I gave them a $50 donation toward fixing the locomotive. I enjoyed my visit, but they need to get that steam engine running soon.

I took my kids to this last year around this time. It was fun. We were told real stories and accounts of things that actually happened in Jefferson. This time.... it was ridiculous. The lady read out of a book for the ghost stories. I don't even know what the book was. Had nothing to do with Jefferson. And the train ride was awful. We were told big foot and gator ghost spirits were fighting on the train. Very stupid. Even to my little kids. The train was very loud and slammed with a loud noise the whole time. Would not recommend you waste your money.