HINTON, WV (LOOTPRESS) – The three-day Hinton Railroad Days festival kicks off this Friday, and multiple attendees will be arriving at the festival by train this weekend.
This year’s Railroad Days festival will celebrate 150 years of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway which was completed through West Virginia in 1873.
The festival will feature three days of food trucks, 100+ vendors, 24 bands, a beer garden, a car show, a kid zone, and fireworks.
A major part of Railroad Days will be different this year as the annual Autumn Colors Express, formerly known as the New River Train, will not be running excursions this year.
The Autumn Colors Express would be pulled by Amtrak engines with several vintage private rail cars in tow. The excursion was once pulled by steam power for a period of time during its sixty-year-plus history.
Passengers boarded at Huntington and Charleston and took in the fall colors through the Kanawha Valley and New River Gorge with Hinton set as the destination.
Passengers would then have a few hours to explore the historic town of Hinton along with the many vendors and shops open during Railroad Days.
Unfortunately, the excursion will not be running this year and no formal explanation has been given.
Although the excursion train is not running, the Amtrak Cardinal still runs through the New River Gorge three times a week on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
According to the Amtrak website, tickets from Huntington to Hinton on Friday and Sunday is the festival are currently sold out with multiple riders expected to arrive in Hinton for the festival.
The Hinton Railroad Days Festival begins on Friday, October 13, and concludes on Sunday, October 15.