Hooray for the Ski Train Revival
Hail to the new Boston to Wachusett Mountain ski train.
The Wachusett-Boston ski train, which join the Denver-Winter Park route as the nation’s second operating ski train service, is both a throwback and a step forward.
Ski trains.
Once upon a time they were the way to get to the country’s major ski areas. Yes, that was before even my time. But, during the 1930s, they were the ultimate—filled with fun, non-stop partying, and that certain je ne sais qua that lends an event a superior caché.
As noted in ski writer/historian John Fry’s book The Story of Modern Skiing, the Canadian Pacific and the Canadian National Railways first took skiers from Montreal to the Laurentian Mountains. He writes:
Over the winter of 1927, eleven thousand people and their wooden skis regularly journeyed north on special ski trains to the north. Four winters later, in January 1931, the first U.S. ski train ran out of Boston . . . By the mid-1930s, tens of thousands of enthusiast . . . were reaching hills by rail. New Yorkers and Bostonians filled weekend trains traveling to Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, the Berkshires and the Poconos . . .
Ski trains, too ran out of Chicago, Salt Lake City, Denver, San Francisco and Anchorage.
Most of those trains suspended service during World War II, and eventually disappeared altogether.
In recent years, only the Denver Ski Train has been operating. It runs on weekends from downtown Denver to Winter Park Resort, and is immensely popular.
And, of course, in Europe—especially Switzerland—there plenty of trains serve the ski resorts. Indeed, in Wengen and Grindelwald, you can use the passenger train as a lift.
But, now comes word that Wachusett Mountain, an extremely popular day and weekend ski area in Massachusetts, will re-institute the ski train from Boston.
Great news.
There’s something special about riding the train. And there’s something extra-special that comes with the camaraderie about riding with fellow snowsliders.
If you read accounts of those 1930s ski train rides, they sound like a combination of a singles bar, frat and sorority party, couples vacation and New Year’s eve celebration. And, that was only on the train.
I don’t expect that the Wachusett or Winter Park trains will rock with that kind of revelry. But this new train service is not only a step in the right direction, it’s almost enough to make a person break into a yodel.
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