
Ride country star Merle Haggard's vintage dome train through Virginia
Virginians can now hop aboard a vintage dome train car for a three-hour sightseeing excursion through the Blue Ridge Mountains and Shenandoah Valley.
Why it matters: Passengers can take in 360-degree views while sipping local wines and beers — all aboard a train car once owned by country music legend Merle Haggard.
The big picture: Virginia Scenic Railway, which has been running sightseeing train rides out of Staunton for decades, this month added a Vista-Dome car to its collection.
Vista-Dome cars are deluxe coaches that have a glass compartment rising out of the roof, which allows riders to take in panoramic views while riding in style.
This one was built nearly 80 years ago for Western Pacific Railroad's California Zephyr route, which runs between Chicago and San Francisco.
The intrigue: Haggard, who had a " lifelong love affair with trains," bought the train car in the mid-1980s and added a bed and shower, per the news release.
Sadly, Haggard's bed and shower are gone, but you can still see the outline of the fold-down bed in the lower-level lounge area, even after a full renovation of the interior.
And in its place, there's a walk-up bar, plus lounge and cafe seating.
Zoom in: But the best seat in the house is on the upper deck and inside the dome for those 360-degree views through the region, including into rock cuts and dark tunnels.
Just 24 seats are available in the dome on the railway's Thursday-Sunday trips, and the section is for adults only.
Riders can buy and sip Virginia-made wine and beer (King Family Vineyards and Basic City Beer Co.) from the first-floor bar and/or sign up for a boxed lunch or charcuterie box.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Staunton's Frontier Culture Museum is expanding with the addition of an indoor space
A major expansion is underway at Staunton's Frontier Culture Museum. The largest open-air living history museum in the Shenandoah Valley will soon include a new indoor gallery space. The American Journey Gallery is expected to be open fall 2027. "We're an outdoor museum so when wintertime comes or we have inclement weather, visitors just drop off," said Butch Smiley, the museum's chief executive officer. In January the museum had 690 visitors. A month later 800 people came through the gates. In March, when the weather was starting to become warmer, 8,500 people visited the museum. "So it's a vast difference," Smiley said. "We've always had the goal as a museum to have an indoor facility so when the weather is bad, people will still be inclined to come." The 40,000-square-foot facility will include a permanent exhibit gallery, rotating exhibit areas, a research library, flexible education rooms and an indoor/outdoor pavilion. The facility will cost $70 million and state funding has been secured to support the project. The Frontier Culture Museum is a state agency under the guidance of the Virginia Department of Education. Cliff Edwards, the museum's deputy director, said the idea for the facility began in earnest in 2018 and is now coming to life before the eyes of the staff who see it every day. "We stopped counting at 400 hours of Zoom meetings on design through COVID," Edwards said. Excavation work is currently taking place at the site. The new gallery will be just to the left of the current visitors center and museum entrance. The work that passersby can see from Frontier Drive will be additional parking, an increase of 300 spots for both buses and cars. The Frontier Culture Museum attracted 66,000 visitors in 2024. Smiley is optimistic that once the new facility is open the museum can double that number. Just over a third of those visitors are students. Forty school divisions in Virginia — including Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County — and two in West Virginia have received funding through The Trailblazers Grant Program to attend the museum. Operated under the nonprofit arm of the museum, the grant program has awarded nearly $136,000 to date. The current outdoor space features costumed historical interpreters demonstrating the life and customs of the indigenous Native American tribes in Virginia, the arrival of the German, English and Irish settlers along the Great Wagon Road, and the painful journey of the enslaved Africans to the first permanent British colony in North America. The gallery will be very interactive, Smiley said, as the museum works to continue its mission of telling the story of the blending of European, African, and indigenous peoples into the United States. "What we're really cognizant of is making sure we've got source material to be able to tell the story about folks that came over," Smiley said. "We have engaged 16 scholars throughout the nation as well as in Europe to help us tell that story." Dorette Sobolewski, the museum's director of research, called the permanent exhibit the crown jewel of the indoor facility. Staff has been working on that for about 18 months. It will take up about 7,000 square feet of the facility. The exhibit will cover the story that the Virginia frontier played in the creation of the United States. Visitors will follow the timeline from the earliest days until present time. "We've recruited the scholars to make sure we get the content right," Sobolewski said. "It's a large story. It's a complicated story. The scholars don't always agree on some of this. We need to base our final edits, our final content on the most recent scholarship that is available." Sobolewski worries about getting the stories accurate. She met with the Virginia Indian advisor recently, saying the advisor is intimately knowledgeable on interpreting the story of the Indigenous people of what would become Virginia. "That's their story to tell," Sobolewski said. "It's not our story to tell. We have to make sure their perspective is represented respectfully and accurately." The permanent exhibit will change very little, perhaps occasionally as they learn more information. The rotating exhibits will change every 18 months to two years. "All the people that came before me, the ones who got this started, dreamed of having an indoor facility," Smiley said. "We're able to enjoy the benefits and see the finished product of what their goal was." More: Edgecomb reflects on two decades as Fort tennis coach as Indians advance to state tourney More: A large structure is being built near I-81 in Staunton. What exactly is it? — Patrick Hite is a reporter at The News Leader. Story ideas and tips always welcome. Connect with Patrick (he/him/his) at phite@ and on Instagram @hitepatrick. Subscribe to us at This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Staunton's Frontier Culture Museum undergoing major expansion
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
As expansion continues, summer drivers to see new looks at Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel
As the summer travel season picks up, visitors will have a much different view — and some different routes — at the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel as a result of the ongoing expansion project. Traffic counts at the primary route between the Peninsula and South Hampton Roads have grown steadily ever since it opened in the 1950s. In 2011, for example, the state transportation department reported that on a daily basis, more than 44,000 vehicles used the artery each way, and projected that number to rise to about 56,000 by 2040. Last year, according to the department, roughly 100,000 vehicles used it daily during the tourism season, which begins on Memorial Day weekend. As the $4 billion project continues this summer, there will three primary traffic shifts that motorists will see, the two biggest of which will come in August. Early that month, motorists heading west on Interstate 64 between Willoughby Spit and the South Island and will be moved onto a temporary bridge to allow crews to demolish the existing bridge and continue construction of the new portion of the bridge, according to Ryan Banas, project director for the HRBT Expansion Project. In late August, eastbound I-64 traffic from the South Island to Willoughby Spit will be shifted onto the new eight-lane bridge which will allow for the demolition of portions of the existing eastbound structure and continue. However, only two of the future eight lanes will be open to traffic, Banas said. 'We'll only have two new lanes up there, it ultimately has the capacity for eight, but in our current staging of construction we're only going to have two new lanes up on that bridge,' Banas said. 'No additional capacity across the harbor until substantial completion, which for us is February 2027.' However, he added, opening this portion of the bridge to traffic will offer a great deal of shoulder width which will allow for easier management of incidents such as accidents and breakdowns — and therefore lessen congestion. 'By having those shoulders it allows us to get them out of an active lane and keep traffic moving through on the existing lanes that we have,' Banas said. 'I do think that will be very helpful for us in high volume situations where we don't have to worry about someone breaking down because they've been sitting in traffic because of congestion, and then that breakdown can just lead to even more exacerbated delays.' Starting around the end of this month, motorists on I-64 from Willoughby Spit down to Patrol Road will shift from the left edge of the eastbound roadway to the right edge, now only newly widened pavement, to allow crews to do more construction work in the median. As for the project's main feature, the new tunnels, the enormous tunnel drilling machine doing the bulk of the heavy lifting for the HRBT project, has completed 65% of the way through her second tunnel as of Friday. She's expected to complete it by September, several weeks faster than she completed the first leg of her journey, according to Banas. Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806,
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
As expansion continues, summer drivers to see new looks at Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel
As the summer travel season picks up, visitors will have a much different view — and some different routes — at the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel as a result of the ongoing expansion project. Traffic counts at the primary route between the Peninsula and South Hampton Roads have grown steadily ever since it opened in the 1950s. In 2011, for example, the state transportation department reported that on a daily basis, more than 44,000 vehicles used the artery each way, and projected that number to rise to about 56,000 by 2040. Last year, according to the department, roughly 100,000 vehicles used it daily during the tourism season, which begins on Memorial Day weekend. As the $4 billion project continues this summer, there will three primary traffic shifts that motorists will see, the two biggest of which will come in August. Early that month, motorists heading west on Interstate 64 between Willoughby Spit and the South Island and will be moved onto a temporary bridge to allow crews to demolish the existing bridge and continue construction of the new portion of the bridge, according to Ryan Banas, project director for the HRBT Expansion Project. In late August, eastbound I-64 traffic from the South Island to Willoughby Spit will be shifted onto the new eight-lane bridge which will allow for the demolition of portions of the existing eastbound structure and continue. However, only two of the future eight lanes will be open to traffic, Banas said. 'We'll only have two new lanes up there, it ultimately has the capacity for eight, but in our current staging of construction we're only going to have two new lanes up on that bridge,' Banas said. 'No additional capacity across the harbor until substantial completion, which for us is February 2027.' However, he added, opening this portion of the bridge to traffic will offer a great deal of shoulder width which will allow for easier management of incidents such as accidents and breakdowns — and therefore lessen congestion. 'By having those shoulders it allows us to get them out of an active lane and keep traffic moving through on the existing lanes that we have,' Banas said. 'I do think that will be very helpful for us in high volume situations where we don't have to worry about someone breaking down because they've been sitting in traffic because of congestion, and then that breakdown can just lead to even more exacerbated delays.' Starting around the end of this month, motorists on I-64 from Willoughby Spit down to Patrol Road will shift from the left edge of the eastbound roadway to the right edge, now only newly widened pavement, to allow crews to do more construction work in the median. As for the project's main feature, the new tunnels, the enormous tunnel drilling machine doing the bulk of the heavy lifting for the HRBT project, has completed 65% of the way through her second tunnel as of Friday. She's expected to complete it by September, several weeks faster than she completed the first leg of her journey, according to Banas. Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806,