Texas State Railroad, Palestine, Texas

 We went to Palestine, Texas at the end of September to ride on the Texas State Railroad, a historic train ride through the area around Palestine.  As we were planning our trip, I called the train office as we couldn't find anything on their website about accessibility.  I was told that the train could not handle any power chairs because they weighed too much and the isles were too narrow.  I don't own a manual chair, but I was told the Texas State Railroad had one we could borrow for the day.  I was not ready to make reservations, so she told me I could either make them online or call back when I was ready.  FYI, you cannot make ADA reservations online.  They must be made over the phone.  ADA reservations can only be made for the First-class car.

Parking:  There is plenty of parking there, with lots of van accessible parking too.  If you need parking that is close, you won't find it.  All of the accessible parking is quite a distance from the depot.  I'm not really sure why that is.  You also have to cross over the train tracks, but they do put something over the tracks so you don't have to step over the elevated tracks or worry about tripping over any of the tracks or slats or anything like that.  It is perfectly safe, even for someone not that stable.  

Bathrooms:  I used the bathroom at the depot prior to us checking in so I could still use my power chair.  With the number of people there, the line into the bathroom was rather long, so I'm glad I did this.  The accessible stall was difficult to use.  It was a big stall, but only because it was long.  It was no wider than the regular stalls.  It wasn't wide enough for my chair to turn around it.  I could stand at this time, so I didn't have to slide over to the toilet, but that would have been a challenge.  Getting out of the stall was a huge challenge though.  I had to open the door from behind me since I had to back out of the stall, and try to maneuver the door while backing out of the stall, and all the way past the other stalls in a crowded bathroom.  Thankfully people are usually very accommodating of me in my wheelchair and will move out of the way.

The train:  We checked in at the train depot and were directed to the office to get the manual wheelchair.  They brought out a manual wheelchair with only one foot rest, left it and said we could just leave my power chair right there in the hall.  I was not comfortable just leaving my power chair just sitting in the hall since it is basically my legs, and it costs the same amount as a small car, so I had my husband take it to our van after I transferred into the manual chair.  As I was sitting there, I caught the person who brought out the chair and asked if they had another wheelchair.  She said they didn't.  I told her that a manual chair with a broken foot rest was unacceptable.  It was dangerous for a person to sit without a foot rest on one side because they either had to sit with their leg dangling for extended periods of time, or they had to put both of their feet on one foot rest, which causes back pain from sitting off to the side that way.  She shrugged her shoulders and said "sorry".  It obviously wasn't her job and she didn't care.

Once on the train, we were taken to "first class".  First class was a joke.  It was a room with a bunch of mismatched, old, wooden table and chairs.  We were the only ones in the car.  We could see in the car ahead of us.  There was nice couches and tables in that car.  There was one worse though.  They have an open air car.  As we got onto the train, there is a large open space, then a snack bar off to the right that we had to pass to get to our car.  My chair would have fit down the isle in the "First class" car.  I'm pretty sure it would have fit past the snack bar too.  That is the only place it would have been tight.  If there had been fitting issued, I think it would have been feasible to load my chair on the train, then transfer me over to the manual at this point for the trip.  This way I could have my power chair for the stop over depot at the half-way point of the trip.  I really don't buy their excuse that a power chair weighs too much.  This is a train people.  It was designed to carry both people and frieght, even in the 1860s.  Plus, if weight was truly a concern, they would have to ask the weight of the passengers prior to boarding.  There was a man on our train that probably weighed just as much as my power chair, and was just as wide as it was (I am not body shaming here, just using it as a point that if he could be on this train, then so could my power chair)  

The stop over was a big problem for me.  My husband was able to push me around most of the time, but the bathroom was an issue.  I was all on my own here.  I have upper body weakness, which is why I have a power chair and not a manual chair in the 1st place.  In addition to the weakness, I am very petite, being only 5' tall, so the manual chair was really too big for me too, meaning I could only move it a little bit at a time.  It took me forever to get down the bathroom stall, and no one was willing to help me.  I got stuck going over the threshold into the bathroom as it has a really big bump at the entrance.  Thankfully someone helped me there.  As just a general review of the stop-over, it was boring.  We were there for 90 minutes.  There was a small gift shop, a continuous running video about the train,  a bunch of pictures and stories on the wall that was their "museum", and a box lunch caboose.  You are not allowed to bring your own food so that you can have an "authentic experience", yet the only food offered are hardly authentic 1860s food.  They are things like hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken tenders, fries, served in a box, and eaten on benches outside the depot.  There is a picnic area, but it was not accessible on that particular day.  It was raining and the area was not covered.  It was muddy and would have been difficult to get to in a power chair, let alone in a manual chair.  The lunch experience was anything but authentic.  I think being allowed to bring a picnic lunch would  have been much more romantic and authentic.  Their rules were not about being authentic, they were about making money.  The food was not even that good.

I have fibromyalgia and arthritis.  The train ride in the manual wheelchair with all the bumping and jaring was not good for my body.  By the time we got back to our van, I was in a lot of pain.

Overall, I would not recommend this train ride for someone in a wheelchair, or someone with chronic pain.  It was obvious to me that the people in charge of the train made no effort to make sure the disabled people riding the train had an enjoyable time too.  Better effort could have been made to make things accessible without ruining an antique train in the process.