Archived Feature:
The Tarantula, Fort Worth, Texas
For some of us there is just nothing like the sights and sounds associated with the golden age of steam railroad travel. Running between Fort Worth and Grapevine, Texas is a vintage locomotive (ca. 1896) and pleasure cars known as the Tarantula.
The nickname Tarantula is said to have originated when someone looked at a map of the north Texas area and thought the network of railroad lines converging on Fort Worth looked like nothing so much as a giant tarantula centered on the city.
Today's Tarantula makes regular runs between Fort Worth and nearby Grapevine. The most popular run is on Saturday, when you can leave Grapevine in the morning and travel to Ft Worth, where you disembark and explore the Historic Stockyards District. There's plenty to see and lots of places to have lunch. Then in the early afternoon you return to the Grapevine Depot at a leisurely pace.
Grapevine is about 25 miles northeast of Ft Worth on highway 26.
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