If you’re looking for a day trip idea that’s not to far, sounds fun and relaxing, and may involve a sweet treat, consider the Sugar Express.
With the closest station in Sebring, the Sugar Express steam locomotive No. 148, a 4-6-2 type steam engine, is a 100-year-old icon of American ingenuity. No. 148 is now again back operating on the U.S. Sugar rail lines, after it has seen multiple owners, and many uses over its hundred year career.
Thanks to the vision of U.S. Sugar CEO Robert H. Buker, Jr., No. 148 was re-acquired by U.S. Sugar for restoration to operation in 2016. A team of outside railroad preservation experts and more than two dozen U.S. Sugar employees completed the project in April 2020.
The Sugar Express travels between Sebring, Lake Placid, and Clewiston, depending on the excursion.
The 2025 season will begin with three weekends of events in January featuring Sugar Express steam locomotive no. 148, including the Lake Placid Local out of Lake Placid, Clewiston Comet between Lake Placid and Clewiston, Highlands County Crescent out of Sebring, Lake Placid Limited between Clewiston and Lake Placid, and the Palmdale Pioneer Ice Cream Train.
For details, tickets, times, and bookings, visit www.sugarexpress.com.
