Scenic Train Rides from Lee's Summit???

S.,

I unfortunately can not help you with this one, but I am interested to see if anyone knows how to find the information. My 3 year old and 2 year old sons love trains and my husband and I have been wanting to take them on a train ride, but haven't had any luck finding anything.

I don't know about this (although I have heard about train rides between here and Kansas City) but I didn't know if you knew of three wonderful Train things right here:

- Museum of Transportation (kirkwood)http://transportmuseumassociation.org/
- Whittle Shortline Railroad (Valley Park) - Thomas the tank engine type toy builders - had an awesome party room for birthdays with three levels of tracks (I thihk we had 16 kids in there!) http://woodentrain.com/
- Wabash and Pacific Model Railroad (Wildwood) this is a miniature steam railroad that you can ride...does a loop by the river during the spring through the fall. Very fun!
http://www.wfprr.com/

My son was crazy for trains too!

Don't know if you got your answer or not.. but if not, yes, you can go from LS trainstation to the union station area and then take the return trip back. It is nice because there is a little "Hut/ House" waiting area at the LS train station and it is fun to run around outside there. The train comes around 2:00 if I remember right. Just call the Amtrac ticket office and tell them you want from Lee's Summit to Kansas City round trip. The first time we went, the train was late and we basically had to turn around and come right back, the next two times was fine. Just enough time to jump off, walk over to crown center, grab a snack and toy and come back to board the train. I would recommend it.

I haven't heard of this but why not take a trip to Sedalia, Jefferson City or Hermann? I beleive Amtrak gives discounts to children traveling in accompaniment with an adult. Occasionally, they have an observer car which is the glass domed one that is super cool for watching the scenery go by.

In Jefferson City, the Amtrak station is literally one block Northeast from the Capitol (i.e. just down the hill) and there are MANY things within walking distance. The downtown shops are all open during the week and Saturdays (although most are closed on Sunday). The Capitol, Union Hotel, and Jefferson Landing are open everyday except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. The Governor's Manion does do tours but are limited so if you are interested I would call ahead...if you go sometime in April all the Capitol grounds should be blooming with tulips...it's really quiet beautiful and a nice walk around.

Also, the old Santa Fe Train Depot up in Atchison, KS is now a Visitor's Center and the local Chamber of Commerce and it has a train yard that the kids can get on and off some old trains and look around. Usually on Saturdays (weather permitting) the local train club runs an outdoor train that you can ride for a donation (it's literally a grown up version of an HO train that has about a 1/2 mile of track).

I know this may not interest you, but there is a small town south of Lawrence, KS and that have an older train that has a scenic train ride and they also sponser the "day out with Thomas" event. My son was into trains when he was 3 and 4 and he was super excited when he got to see Thomas and that Thomas got to pull our train. Here's a website to the city and then there is a link there to the railway and tells you about Thomas too. It looked like Union Station was just an Amtrak thing, so I thought this may be helpful to you. http://www.baldwincity.org/community/midlandrailway/

http://www.unionstation.org/

My son is obsessed with trains ever since he was 1 years old. We should have bought stock in Thomas the tank Engine, we owned every videotape that came out, every model, then he moved up to the bigger trains. He STILL is obsessed with trains at 16years old; he does plan to be a train engineer, that is his sole purpose in life. My husband got new job last year at...Union Pacific Railroad!! I believe it was so my son could have a reference to get in when he turns 18! He has never swayed away from it. We spent many a days at the Museum of Transportation, we had a season pass; 2 years ago I won a scenic train excursion in Branson, so for him, we took a trip to Branson. You get on a real train and it rides you to Arkansas and back, it's very scenic, and it had the glass domed cars so you could see out. He was so excited. We still haven't taken him on an Amtrak trip yet, but check with that those Excursions on the internet.

We took our grandson to the Tomas the Train event down in Baldwin, KS a few years ago, he's 6 now and still remembers it! The price is pretty steep $25/person with not child discounts and you rode in a passenger type car, it was a very short ride. They did sell rides in the engine, but I think they were in the $200 range, this is the big fund raising event for the railroad down there. It is fun just to be there and look at all the Tomas things and do the activities they have there.
We haven't done the train ride from Lee's Summit, but we have seen the Christmas train at Union Station. We have also planned train vacations, going to Eureka Springs, Colorado to ride on the Pike's Peak train and the Royal Gorge train was awesome, open train cars where you stood and looked at the beautiful canyon walls! That was probably our favorite train ride! Now we have to take the grandkids with us on that one.

There is the Amtrack in Lee's Summit. Or you can go to Baldwin KS and ride their train. They also host Thomas when he comes. My Grandparents took my son and I to Baldwin and we got to ride it. I've rode the Amtrack to STL before as well. You could always take it to Indep. or Warrensburg etc... Depending how well he does? My son was a lil freaked at how loud the real train was, the Amtrack is quiter though...

We took my kids on it a few years ago. We picked it up
at the Amtrack depo in LS at 3rd and Main, and it dropped us
off at Union Station. You would need to check the
Amtrack schedule for the times. I will tell you that we
left a car at Union Station ahead of itme and only took it one way because the times weren't good as far as having any time down there before we had to be back on it to come home. My kids thought it was very cool.

It's an Amtrak train ride. They do them from Lee's Summmit or the Independence stations.

There is a steam engine train rides that last approx. 45 minutes its May through i think Oct. But it at beltonrailroad.org one word, Hope this helps.

I am not sure about the lees summit but know that it doesn't go to union station more like kirkwood then there. That is all commercial now with business an stuff in there, more a tourist thing now.Kirwood I know is a stop. Hope that helps.

We looked into this too. We ended up doing a shorter ride from just the Kirkwood station to Union Station. It was short, but long enough to get the gist of a train ride. We then walked to Union Station; a couple blocks away, and spent a few hours there. We then hopped back on the train to Kirkwood. Simple and fun. Not too pricey either. I hope you find something that suits you.