Like an expert seamstress getting the most out of an old, high-quality garment, Noblesville has found another use for the Nickel Plate railroad tracks that could be the area’s hottest new outdoor adventure.
Tickets for railbike rides, the city’s latest re-invention of the old tracks, are going fast, as the service enters a second summer at Hobbs Station in Forest Park.
“I was absolutely shocked, I knew it was different and unique but had no idea how it would be received,” said Emily Reynolds, executive director of the Nickel Plate Express, the passenger excursion trains run on the tracks. “Most people are just super excited to try something new.”
Nearly 7,000 rides were sold last year and many weekends are already getting booked this year.
It’s the latest application of the Nickel Plate corridor after the Indiana State Fair Train was terminated in 2017 and the Indiana Transportation Museum in Forest Park was closed a few years later. Besides running the Nickel Plate Express north of Forest Park in Noblesville, with 24,500 passengers in 2024, the city has converted the tracks south of Forest Park to the Nickel Plate Trail.
Express officials said the railbikes show signs of being a regional draw for day trips: 12% of its customers traveled more than 100 miles. On a recent Saturday, riders came from Muncie, Terre Haute, Elkhart, Kansas City, Missouri, and Mobile, Alabama, but most were from the 317 area code.
“I had never heard of anything like this but it sounded interesting,” said Jordan Fox, a 26-year-old hospital employee from Fortville. She and her boyfriend, Mason Meranda, 24, spent a day off to check it out. “It was scenic, a beautiful atmosphere, different landscapes.”
How the bike trips work
What are railbikes? If you’re familiar with those two-person, see-saw pump carts in Road Runner and Wiley Coyote cartoons, you’re on the right track. Those are called handcars.
But these are four-seat bikes with train wheels that need pedal power to run on the tracks, a mix of go-carts and pedalbars. Technically they are a quadricycle because they have four wheels, or velocipedes.
The bikes have hand brakes, emergency brakes, baskets on the sides, cup holders and small slots for phones. The tours take off in groups of eight bikes, depending on ticket sales, for two hours at speeds averaging about 5 mph. The rides cost $45 per person ($129 each for groups of four), take two hours and run the rails for seven-mile cruises north to 216th Street and back.
As few as two people can power one rail car and the route doesn’t have any serious uphill climbs.
Ben Walden, a 77-year-old retired farmer from Ellettsville, said he handed it with ease.
“It was no more stressful than chopping wood or anything else I do all the time,” Walden said.
Special tours
Reynolds said the bikes are much easier to maintain than the hulking steam engines and passenger train cars on the same train.
“It was a good return on the investment,” Reynolds said. “The bikes are $8,500 each and we spent $70,000 total for all of them.”
Last year the rides generated $250,000 in sales. The Express has bought four more railbikes this year to handle an expected increase in demand.
Rides are also offered Saturday morning into downtown Noblesville. The White River Family Cruise crosses a bridge for a 20-minute ride to the historic square where passengers get off for a one-hour visit.
The most popular business destinations for the riders are Alexander’s on the Square, which serves ice cream, and the Noblesville Antique Mall. The more adventurous tourists go to Syd’s Fine Food & Spirits, the longtime corner bar, which is right next to railbikes stop.
One couple, apparently, liked Syd’s so much they didn’t return after last being seen entering the 80-year-old watering hole.
“We were calling them and texting them on the phone number they left us but never answered,” said Director of Events Alsiha Findlay. “We waited as long as possible but finally had to return without them.”
That meant staffers had to hook the missing couple’s bike up to another and tow it back to Hobb’s Station empty – a ghost bike. Nickel Plate Express never did hear back from the couple. so the Family Cruise disappearance remains unexplained.
“They’re the only ones we lost last year,” Findlay said.
Call IndyStar reporter John Tuohy at 317-444-6418 or email him at john.tuohy@indystar.com. Follow him on Facebook and X/Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: On Noblesville’s newest recreational attraction, the rail is the trail
Reporting by John Tuohy, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
