WANT TO GO?
What: Rail Festival, a celebration of Dayton's rail transportation history, including live steam engines, model train displays, miniature train rides and historical exhibits
When: Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: Carillon Historical Park (directions)
Cost: Adults (18-59): $8, Seniors: (60+): $7, Children (3-17): $5, Children Under 3: Free, Dayton History Members: Free
Whether it’s by stagecoach, train, bus or airplane, the Dayton region has a rich history of transit.
More than a dozen different modes of transportation are on view at Carillon Historical Park's James F. Dicke Family Transportation Center. This history also will be on display this weekend at the annual Carillon Park Rail Festival.
>> RELATED: Find something for everyone at Rail Festival
Did you know?
1. The first public transportation system in Dayton in 1870 was a horse-drawn streetcar line that ran along West Third Street to Findlay Street.
This is the Abbot and Downing Concord Coach, built in 1870 for A.F. Downing of Montpelier, Vt. The stagecoach could hold up to nine people and was designed to be drawn by three horses, two abreast and one in front. It has the original paint, and the horse hair stuffing is visible in the seats.
2. Dayton has the longest continuously running electrically propelled transit line in the United States. The first electric street railway in Dayton, the White Line Electric Railway Co., started on Aug. 8, 1888.
3. In 1924, the first gasoline-powered buses started running in Dayton. They were used to move passengers from remote areas to existing streetcar lines.
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