Florida Scenic Train Rides In Parrish!
Published: January 11, 2026
By: Adam Burns
The Florida Railroad Museum (FRRM) in Parrish offers something increasingly rare in today’s rail landscape: a chance to ride historic equipment over a surviving fragment of an early-20th-century mainline, with the scenery and “click-clack” pace that make heritage railroading feel timeless. Rather than being a static collection behind ropes, FRRM is a working museum—a place where locomotives, coaches, and cabooses still do what they were built to do: move people down the rails, tell stories, and create memories along the way.
Whether you’re planning a family day trip from Tampa Bay or you’re simply looking for a railfan-friendly weekend adventure, FRRM pairs the basics (regular excursion trains) with crowd-pleasing theme events—think pumpkin patches, holiday rides, old-west train robberies, and evening experiences like a murder mystery dinner train.
Seaboard Air Line RS3 #1633 - originally built for the New York Central as #8277 in 1951 - is preserved at the Florida Railroad Museum. The classic Alco is currently out of service. Phil Pique photo.From Seaboard Rails To A Preserved Right-Of-Way
The story of the Florida Railroad Museum begins with the line itself. The museum operates on a rail corridor built by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad in the early 1900s, creating what the museum notes was the first rail line through Manatee County.
Over time, corporate changes reshaped the region’s railroad map. When the Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line merged in 1967, the resulting system rationalized routes and downgraded secondary lines. According to FRRM’s history, the Parrish–Willow segment was ultimately abandoned in 1986—a fate shared by many lighter-density branches across the South in the late 20th century.
Rather than letting the rails disappear entirely, local preservationists helped build a new future for this remnant. The organization that became today’s Florida Railroad Museum was founded in 1981 (originally as the Florida Gulf Coast Railroad Museum) and later grew into an operating heritage railroad.
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