Rhythm on the rails: Music train draws fans from all over

The destination was the East Coast's first visit by the "Roots on the Rails" series, which since 2003 has developed a cult-like following that combines rail trips with music, while bonding passengers to one another and to the musicians.

Since the program began, he has run about 40 trips on what he calls "a carefully curated mini-music festival on board a train."

"The rhythms of American music are inexorably tied in with the rhythms of the rails," said Hunter on the Nov. 7 Vermont trip as the train — seven cars including four passenger cars — rattled over the tracks along the 50-mile route between Bellows Falls and Rutland.

Jack and Claudia Gaffey, of Kensington, Maryland, members of the American Association of Private Railroad Car Owners, rode the Amtrak Vermonter to Vermont so they could ride the music train.