Hill City, South Dakota

We rode the 1880 Black Hills Central Railroad Train today from Hill City to Keystone and back.

It’s a beautiful train and a beautiful ride.

We saw lots of deer, a badger, and clutch of wild turkeys. Apparently I didn’t look close enough at the baby turkeys because one of them is an albino!

There were two types of cars to choose to ride in: open windowed or closed windowed. Rich said he didn’t care where we sat as long as it wasn’t by the two screaming kids and their hollering parents in front of us in line. 🙂

The train runs on used motor oil. And periodically they shoot sand up the smoke stack when the train is running at full throttle. The sand cleans the creosote build up.

We passed over 20 streets and with each crossing the train’s whistle blew two longs, one short, and one long. That indicates to drivers and pedestrians that a train is neat and will be crossing soon.

All of the cars in the train are refurbished originals. They are stunning. The seat backs flip so that riders can face either way because the cars don’t turn around at the end of the track.

To celebrate our journey, Rich took his first selfie!