PARRISH – Just east of the outlet mall in Ellenton in Manatee County is the Florida Railroad Museum. It’s a museum of real trains put together by volunteers, and on weekends they take an old diesel engine, pull a couple of passenger cars, and ride up the rail to an abandoned logging “town” called Willow.
The trips take just over an hour; you get to see a few orange groves, creeks and strawberry fields. The railroad right of way is owned by Florida Power and Light; a conductor said that while the plant is fired by natural gas (pumped across the Gulf of Mexico, wow!), the rail line is preserved in case they ever need to refire the plant with coal in an emergency.
