Riverside and Great Northern Railway

In Wisconsin Dells, the Riverside and Great Northern Railway has been hauling passengers on a miniature steam railroad near the Dells since nineteen fifty-two. The railway runs on fifteen-inch gauge track, a miniature railroad in the tradition of the amusement railways that once appeared at fairs and resorts across the country. Wisconsin Dells built its entire identity on tourism beginning in the eighteen seventies, when photographer H.

H. Bennett's dramatic images of the sandstone dells of the Wisconsin River brought visitors north by train from Chicago and Milwaukee. The Riverside Railway sits inside that century-and-a-half tradition of Dells attraction-building.

Passengers ride behind authentic steam locomotives through wooded terrain along the Wisconsin River. The line is one of the few still operating regularly scheduled steam rides in the Midwest, making it a genuine piece of railroad history dressed up as a tourist attraction.