fillmore & western railway company

We thought the decorations were great, but there can always be more. Our grandsons-8 & almost 4, seemed to have an enjoyable time. The "elf" assigned to our club car was incredibly enthusiastic! "Elf" Jacob was fun, full of energy and appeared to be enjoying himself, which truly makes for a memorable experience. Everyone around us appeared to be in the moment-laughing and singing. Trash receptacles would have been a huge help, I think, considering the horrible mess left behind by the guests. Santa was jolly, but it would have been a nice touch to have the opportunity for him to have visited with the children a little longer. Everyone we encountered was very positive and it enhanced our experience. I would like to have had something to view from the windows of the train-illuminated Christmas scenes, elves working, etc. I think there are missed opportunites for refreshments, souvenirs, more interaction with elves and Santa's helpers. The ladies restroom was in need of constant attention, especially since most of us traveled a long distance for this experience. Unfortunately for myself, by the time I was in need of the facilities, it was unusable. Perhaps a printed list of local restaurants to visit before or following the North Pole Express.

This train trip was not worth it at all. My kids didnt even enjoy it, our personal home was more decorated then there supposed North pole. When we arrived to a dump of a north pole it smelled like the reindeer had died I and other adults and kids had almost thou up. Its not worth the 2 hour drive from orange county

Right in the centre of Fillmore, Its perfectly placed with lots of photo opportunities. Look at the website to peruse the various trips on the historical trains. Christmas, Halloween, Mystery & speciality are all run throughout the year. The sidings are regularly used by film companies, so you might even see a movie being made. Parking is easy & a number of food outlets are nearby, so why not visit & see the trains, enjoy Fillmore & relax.

This company offers dinners , tours and also puts on an enacted robbery mystery that you participate in and if you are able to guess correctly who the real villain is you win a prizeThe ride itself is a slow ride from Fillmore to the west past Santa Paula and there is a brief stop at a place where you can buy stroll around a garden of old antiquitiesThe meal was average but the whole mystery show was well acted and fun to be involved in..recommended...you need to book in advance and it will depend on the amount of customers who sign up if the train leaves the station

My family and I headed to Fillmore based on an advertisement I had seen in the westways magazine. We had a day free so we took the train along the route and tasted fresh fruit nuts and honey. It was a nice day to spend away from the heat of the Central Valley. Paying for tickets and boarding the train were simple. The interior of the train was dusty but I guess that's part of its charm. Good trip for families with young kids who like trains.

We took our two grandchildren on the Fillmore train ride to the pumpkin patch and corn maze. It was an incredible time. The girls are 5 and 9. The corn maze was so much fun. The kids were running through it, laughing just having a great adventure. The corn was quite an attraction as well. A special hybrid with beautiful red stocks. It looked fake it was so vibrant. Then we went on a hay ride which was a blast. Molly, (a beautiful little Queensland Heller and belongs to Dan - who was manning the corn maze), jumped on the truck bed with us and it was such a fun ride. The tractor pulled our hay bed through the Christmas tree lot - it was a nice long ride and smelled so nice! After the hayride, the girls and Molly played a little frisbee! There were activities and very well priced boutique items, including wonderful handmade wooden trains, cars and planes all locally made. We picked up some nice Christmas presents. The pumpkins were so beautiful. I don't think we have ever seen such a diverse array of pumpkins. The train ride itself was really terrific. It was a very nice long ride running from Fillmore all the way to Santa Paula. I read some of the other reviews and ultimately so happy we did not listen to them. This was a really special occasion that I'm sure our grandchildren will look back on with fond memories. We had so much fun - we were the last to board the train back to Fillmore. It was hard to leave - a magical place!

Don't waste your time on this nasty dirty smelly poor excuse of a business the whole train smelled like a sewer and it was disgustingly dirty, in one car they had Halloween decorations up that looked like they had been there since last year, what little staff they have is over worked waited 20 minutes to get a $2.00 coke in a can not even on ice and it was hot( had my meal before I ever received my drink), the mean lady walking around taking pictures was so very rude and disrespectful asked where the restroom was and was told that there was only 2 men's restrooms on the whole train one of them was clear at the end of the train in the opposite direction, she could not tell me where the closest one was, all she did was walk around taking pictures and playing on her phone, and the food was of poor quality and it was cold the plates that the lunch was served on was chipped you would think for 60+ dollars for a ticket on this train they could make some sort of effort, and the murder mystery show was a joke you can not hear them when they are at the other end of the car, they do not have microphones, we asked one actor why they didn't have microphone and was told the owners would not buy them for the shows since they are not employed by the railroad, so our table of 4 had no clue as to what was going on in the show, had we been able to hear them in a packed train car we might have had a decent time, the stop was a place called the loose caboose asked the lady working here what kind of place this was and she said fruit stand,garden emporium, gift store, and antiques( in fact it's a JUNK STORE) she also told us that this store was owned by Fillmore and western not only are they getting our money for the train ride they are getting your money by stopping at their own store. The best part of the trip was getting off the train. If you want a real train ride go to Napa valley where they take pride in the product they are selling

We had a wonderful afternoon. We saw the history of algriculture. Its a must for children both young and old as it captures history as an experience in a fun filled manner that is unforgettable. With the santa Paula hands-on museum children and adults learn the history of this beautiful area's agriculture. The conductor sings out all aboard punches your ticket and the nostalgia begins. The wonder in the children's eyes is well worth this trip back in time. Please don't close this place down if you truly care about our children.

We've gone on the Pumpkinliner a few times as well as a Christmas tree farm trip and the day excursion, with our young son. He loved the whole experience. Where else can you not only see but BOARD an old train? Try both the open air and the covered trains--both different equally fun. We got to see areas we'd have just driven thru and missed had it not been for the scenic ride. Museums and antiques shops, small restaurants and a bakery, loose caboose, the pumpkin patch and tree farm...the pumpkinliner also has a maze/hayride/bbq/ contests for kids. We got our unusual pumpkins from those trips and a lot of great photos of our little guy among the pumpkins. If you or anyone wants to ride a train for fun this is it. Otherwise a modern commercial one but thats got to cost more and is purely transport not recreation.

My husband and I love trains! We decided to do the Murder Mystery on the Filmore & Western. We have done the day trip before and loved it but this trip was a over nighter because it was a night trip.The actors were so personable. They went out of their way to talk to everyone, I was so impressed because we thought there were at least 200 people and four cars to cover. I would not hesitate to recommend this train for special occasions, but encourage large groups to attend because there is down time due to the actors moving throughout the four trains doing sceens. Two things that I must say even after giving this 5*s. There was only one ladies room and one Mens room. The prime rib was great but very red and everyone ordered med rare. Other than that it was fantastic fun and I would love to do the Polar Express for Christmas!

This was billed as a "Magical Evening aboard the New Years Eve Train" and at $110 per person I was expecting something pretty memorable. I have travelled on trains all over the world and although not anticipating the Orient Express, I was hoping for a certain ambience, as were some of the other people who had clearly dressed for a special evening.We were promised an "Elegant dinner" which consisted of a limp salad, tri-tip with a baked potato and vegetables ,which were cold and barely cooked (the people opposite me had the Chicken Cordon Bleu, it had gravy which was a bit of a mystery. Drinks, which were not included in the price, were served in plastic glasses and the Chef's special dessert was a couple of postage stamp size frozen cheese cakes, washed down with coffee served in Styrofoam cups, also COLD! If they had even attempted to dim the lights in the rail cars to create a little romance it might have helped but sadly this was not to be either!At this point we realized that perhaps this was not going to be the evening we had hoped for, but we were excited at the prospect of being entertained by "Character actors playing Hollywood Celebrities" and I'm quoting the advertising literally here. First up came our first "Hollywood Celebrity" in the guise of...GENERAL PATON, now the last time I checked this guy was a General in World War 2 and my guess is, if you asked anyone to name a Hollywood Celebrity, this would not be a name that would spring to mind, like ever!!Then came another celebrity named TERRY TEASDALE, who no-one had ever heard of and even the waitress didn't know who it was when we asked her! We finally were told by the celebrities themselves that they were in fact playing characters from the murder mystery tours that play on the train. We didn't have a murder, but we had solved the celebrity mystery!The evening continued with surprises when we reached the dance car only to find the DJ playing country and western music from her computer, which is fine in certain circumstances but not getting the party started on New Years Eve! To be fair she did play a couple of tracks we requested but when we suggested Abba might get the dance floor going and she didn't have any, I had to seriously question a party DJ who doesn't have Dancing Queen in their repertoire!We finished the night with the "champagne toast" (sparkling wine), and had it not been for the fact that it was New Years Eve and we were determined to make the best of it, we would have been pretty upset. However, the evening was so completely the opposite of what it claimed to be in the advertising it was memorable and funny for all the wrong reasons, but not enough to make me want to pay $110 to do it again and if anyone does want to try it, then at least you'll know what to expect!

I wanted to spend some time with my 6 year old daughter so I took her on the Weekend Scenic tour. I'm from the area, so I had no illusions about the ride being especially scenic, unless farmland and ramshackle ranch-hand housing could be considered scenic. Nice views of the local mountains, though. Our railcar was kind of dirty. My cheeseburger was soggy, mediocre, but not horrible. Food service was pretty unimpressive. The menu implies that a drink is included with a kids meal but we were charged $2 for it. I was undercharged by $1 for a premium beer, so it was almost a wash. The Agriculture Museum in Santa Paul was big hit with my daughter- but that it is a topic for a separate review. All in all, it wasn't a bad day and it was nice to get out and do something with daughter but I didn't walk away feeling like I got my money's worth.

We were a group of 21 and I thought it was excellent. We were running a little late and they were very helpful in helping us get there in time . We had kids ranging from 6 months to 13 and they all enjoyed it. I had read some not very good reviews so I was a little nervous but was pleasantly surprised. We had been on the Polar Express in Arizona so it had a lot to live up to and it did not let us down. I thought it was every bit as good as there and it was a plus being 5 hours closer. We had excellent elves and I honestly could care less if they sang off key but I don't recall that they did because we were enjoying singing with them and each other so much. He read a story that he had pretty much memorized and I thought that was really good. The train was packed and with so many people I thought the cookies and chocolate milk were fine. Oh and the train was fine with reclining seats Santa came on the train and talked to the kids as he passed out candy canes. No complaints about him. I didn't use the restrooms so I don't know about those but the kids enjoyed themselves along with the adults and they didn't want to leave. At the end they passed out a nice size bell that the kids loved even the baby.. The kids would have loved to go on the merry go round and go sit on Santa's lap for pictures but we had a reservation at a restaurant. Overall I was very happy with our experience on the North Pole Express! Thank You...we will be back!

Was so excited to take my family. The train was dirty, employees looked so uncomfortable and the North Pole was nothing more than 2 little shacks with some broken lights and Santa waved. It was $30 for adults and $20 for children. The best part was getting off the train and spending time with family

Don't bother spending the money and the time to travel there. Took the train at night with my 4 and 7 year old. There was nothing to see out the windows....pitch black. The Elves handed out cold chocolate milk and packaged cookies. 1/2 way into the ride the train stops to pick up a not so good looking Santa who hands out broken candy canes. The Elves sing christmas carols out of key! The bathrooms were so dirty!! We were all very disappointed. :-(