Imagine you’re aboard a 1950s-era passenger car somewhere between Goshen and Staunton. A volunteer in a porter’s uniform calls out the next station in the long, drawn-out cadence of an old-time conductor.
That’s Sam Watkins, and he lives for those moments.
Watkins retired from the Virginia Department of Taxation in 2018 after 37 years as a field auditor. He now volunteers as a car host on the steam-engine excursion trains operated by Virginia Scenic Railway, recreating the role of a mid-century railroad porter.
Those trips run on state-owned track between Goshen and Louisa, part of the former CSX Transportation line that once connected Richmond and Clifton Forge. The railway also offers year-round dinner trains and themed events.
As a car host, Watkins welcomes riders, serves in the dining car and recreates the feel of 1940s and ’50s passenger rail travel. He assembles his own period uniform, researching the correct hat, badge, jacket and buttons for the railroad and era he’s representing.
“It’s very important to be exact,” he says, because passengers are paying for more than a train ride. They’re stepping into a piece of history.
The excursions draw all ages, including riders old enough to remember train rides in their youth when they dined on real china.
“The look on their face … it comes alive,” Watkins says. “All those memories of traveling on the train with their mother and father.” For younger passengers, Watkins explains what long-distance travel looked like before flying became the norm.
Last fall, the steam excursions carried approximately 20,000 passengers over five weekends. Watkins was there for most of them, camping on the station grounds from Wednesday to Monday.
He’s also recruiting new volunteers. He keeps spare vintage uniforms on the train, and when a new helper shows up in plainclothes, Watkins hands them a jacket and tells them to try it on. “After the first compliment they get from a passenger, they’re hooked,” he says. “And they won’t take it off.”
A Half-Century Passion for the ‘Iron Horse’
Watkins first fell in love with trains in 1971. He watched a steam locomotive pull through Petersburg on the last day the nation’s private railroads would run their own passenger service.
The next day, the newly created national rail service, Amtrak, took over.
“To see that headlight appear and that plume of smoke just roaring toward you,” he says. “You see a living, breathing animal coming down that track. They don’t call it the iron horse for nothing.”
A member of the National Railway Historical Society since the 1980s, Watkins has volunteered on excursion trains for decades, working with multiple heritage rail operations in Virginia before joining Virginia Scenic Railway.
When the organization later offered him a paid position on its dinner train, he turned it down. He prefers living on his own schedule these days, with support from his VRS pension and Social Security.
From Father’s Advice to a Family Legacy
State service runs in Watkins’ family. His father retired from the Virginia Department of Transportation and encouraged him early on to pursue a government career, telling him the long-term value of a state pension made the path worth it. Watkins followed the advice and calls his VRS membership “a tremendous reward.” His own son took the same path and is now an auditor with another state agency.
Outside of train season, Watkins pursues his interests in Civil War and World War II living history, often driving a 1931 Model A Ford. He and his father restored the car after finding it in a cornfield 50 years ago. But when the steam excursions run, everything else gives way.
“Waiting on passengers hand and foot, it’s an adrenaline rush,” he says. “That’s what keeps you going all day long.”
