By Anna Guido
Enquirer contributor

LOWER PRICE HILL - It's 8 a.m. on a recent Saturday at the old Amtrak station on River Road. Traffic is slow under the Eighth Street Viaduct, still a gateway to the West Side.

But like a window into the past, the train station is bustling with activity. Nearly 100 people - ages 18 to 89 - are waiting to board a tourist train to Batesville, Ind., for RaspberryFest.

Duane Dillon, 68, is among the crowd, moving about and chatting with others, waiting for the train's 9 a.m. departure.

UPCOMING TRIPS

FROM DOWNTOWN • Oct. 16-17 is the new fall foliage trip from Cincinnati to Sunman, Ind. Trains will depart at 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Saturday, and at 1 p.m. Sunday for a four-hour round trip. • Oct. 23 is the first riverfront murder mystery dinner train. Passengers will be presented with a murder mystery as they ride along the Ohio River. They'll return to the Montgomery Inn Boathouse, where they will solve the mystery over dinner (choice of five entrees). FROM LEBANON • Saturday, Sunday, Aug. 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, 22 - Picnic at the Southwest Golf Ranch. A one-hour round trip with a 45-minute layover. Golfing, cornhole and other games and activities will be available. Passengers on the 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. trains are invited to stay at the ranch to hit a bucket of balls or play mini-golf and can return on a later train. For more information, call the Cincinnati Railway Co. at (513) 933-8022, or visit www.cincinnatirailway.com.

"I'm a complete train nut," said Dillon, a Springfield Township resident and member of the Cincinnati Railroad Club who was taking the trip with his friend Frank Rebman.

"Most people sit in their seats, but Frank and I like to stand at the vestibule and stick our heads out. Train nuts like us want to hear the clickety-clack."

The Batesville excursion train operated with two locomotives, one to pull in either direction of the trip: a GP-30 that once served the Norfolk & Western Railway, and an F-40 passenger locomotive built for Amtrak in 1981.

With retired Cincinnati firefighter Jack Seibert as conductor, the train promptly began its scenic three-hour journey west along the Ohio River.

In out-of-the-way corners of the country, rail passenger travel such as the Batesville excursion - operated by the Cincinnati Railway Co. - is thriving. Train aficionados of all ages are taking pleasure in the growing industry, which is rebounding nicely after 9-11 put a dent in all modes of travel.

Young fans of Thomas the Tank Engine, from the Railway Series of books, boosted business last fall for the Cincinnati Railway Co. Nearly 25,000 children and adults climbed aboard Thomas at the company's station in Lebanon - more than half the company's ridership last year.

This year's second visit by Thomas, Sept. 10-12 and Sept. 17-19, is expected to draw even more riders.

"It's a big event," said spokeswoman Michelle Curley. "Thomas is done all over the world, and most train depots are struggling railroad museums using the event as a fund-raiser. Thomas really has injected life back into those museums."

Theme train rides and day trips on local, short-line railroads aren't the only allure in passenger rail travel these days.

Amtrak is the nation's passenger railroad system, created by the federal government in 1971. Last year, Amtrak served more than 24 million passengers, a record. In 2002, despite a national downturn in travel, Amtrak served 23.4 million passengers.

"Amtrak is coming off its best year ever, ridership-wise; and traveling by train is more popular than it's ever been," said Patrick Henry, a member of Amtrak's customer advisory board and the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners.

The Cincinnati Railway Co., which operates on more than 500 miles of track owned and dispatched by the Indiana & Ohio Railroad, also offers long-distance private car trips by connecting its Amtrak-compliant cars (through Chicago or Washington) onto regularly scheduled Amtrak routes.

Company president Tom McOwen, a Cincinnati native formerly with Procter & Gamble, said the company carried 40,000 passengers last year, and business is good.

"We've discovered that you can't just do the same old thing. We're focusing on themes, and our new wrinkle this year is destinations."

Dan Ranger, executive director of the Tourist Railway Association in New Mexico - an industry organization with about 230 members - said many of the nation's tourist railways suffered after Sept. 11.

As the investment market softened, insurance companies started raising their rates.

Rate increases in liability insurance jumped as high as 300 percent within months of the 9/11 attacks for some tourist railways, he said.

Small operations, including two in Northeast Ohio and one in Cincinnati, have had to make drastic reductions or shut down because they couldn't afford the insurance, according to Ranger.

"We were running for two years until 9/11, then our insurance rates went through the roof," said Linda Rose, former owner of Queen City Rail Tours in Cincinnati and president of the Ohio Rail Tourism Association.

Ranger said the Cincinnati Railway Co.'s business approach - offering theme rides, day trips and long-distance private car trips - is probably what kept it afloat.

"The more diversification in venue, the better off you are," Ranger said.

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