A fter having their credit card-sized golden tickets punched by conductor (and engineer) John Simanton, Inland Northwest Rail Museum visitors exit the main museum building just outside Reardan. Simanton leads them past three rail cars filled with memorabilia and several others in various stages of restoration. He then turns a corner and into view comes a 2-foot-gauge train dubbed the Reardan Rocket, on which a 1.5-mile ride is included with museum admission.

"We call it the Reardan Rocket because it's the fastest passenger train ride in Lincoln County," says Dale Swant, president of the Inland Empire Railway Historical Society. Swant is quick to acknowledge that it's also the only passenger train in the county.

"It's not the smoothest ride in the world, but neither were the old [

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