{"id":1977324,"date":"2025-08-24T14:05:51","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T14:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=1977324"},"modified":"2025-08-24T14:05:51","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T14:05:51","slug":"baton-rouge-zoo-train-has-been-running-its-track-since-1970-entertainment-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/baton-rouge-zoo-train-has-been-running-its-track-since-1970-entertainment-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Baton Rouge Zoo train has been running its track since 1970 | Entertainment\/Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Conductor Seth Rusnak drives passengers through Baton Rouge Zoo.<\/p>\n

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\n Javier Gallegos<\/span>
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Cue Johnny Cash:<\/p>\n

I hear that train a-comin’, a comin’ round the bend…<\/em><\/p>\n

Only, at the Baton Rouge Zoo, the train delivers a different kind of spectacle.\u00a0What comes around the bend is a gang of white geese, marching single file and looking for trouble.<\/em><\/p>\n

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A gang of white geese walk in a line around the bend of the Baton Rouge Zoo train. They’re one of the sights seen along the train route.<\/p>\n

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Wait, that’s not a verse in Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues,” but it is what riders on BREC’s Baton Rouge Zoo train see when rounding the bend somewhere near the giraffe habitat.<\/p>\n

“There are days when they get in there with the giraffes and won’t leave,” Brittany Tully said. “They’re kind of a little gang around here.”<\/p>\n

Tully is the zoo’s senior communication manager. She’s taken this ride before, and she’s the first to admit that it never gets old.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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Conductor David Mills explains the control panel before leading a train ride at Baton Rouge Zoo.<\/p>\n

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\n Javier Gallegos<\/span>
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There’s just something about taking the train trip around the zoo, how it gives you a behind-the-scenes tour of its universe and how its wheels beat out a rhythm on the track that does, indeed, bring the first verse of Cash’s classic tune to mind.<\/p>\n

But it’s the notorious geese that seem to rule at this moment, scowling at the visitors, letting them know that passersby are treading on their territory.<\/p>\n

They’re the ones who live on these grounds, after all. And Tully can’t help but laugh.<\/p>\n

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Families get onboard the train cars before ride at Baton Rouge Zoo.<\/p>\n

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\n Javier Gallegos<\/span>
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She knows them well, and they’ve become a part of the show that is this train ride. Even conductor David Mills points them out along the way, and he’s probably the person who knows the route best.<\/p>\n

Mills has been riding the zoo’s train since childhood. He became one of six conductors in 2019, when he helped zoo personnel write the script.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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After all, a train ride through any park setting would be incomplete without narration. Visitors love a story about the tour, and Mills delivers plenty of tales about the animals, their habitats and the history of the zoo.<\/p>\n

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The Baton Rouge Zoo’s train pictured in 1970, the year the zoo opened in north Baton Rouge.<\/p>\n

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\n PROVIDED PHOTO BY THE STATE LIBRARY OF LOUISIANA<\/span>
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It’s a history that includes the train, which began running in 1970, the year the zoo opened in north Baton Rouge near Baker. In those days, the train’s depot was located at the original zoo entrance on Thomas Road.<\/p>\n

Remnants of the original ride can be seen in old tracks leading to nowhere from the former ticket booth across from a sign marking the Cypress Bayou Railroad Station. It was here that the train began running with a diesel engine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That entrance was closed in 2024 after the zoo redesigned its park with a new entrance at Greenwood Park. The train had stopped running in 2021 during the COVID pandemic, so the redesign\u2019s grand opening also marked the train\u2019s return, complete with a new route.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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A sign marks the original depot for the Baton Rouge Zoo train, known as the Cypress Bayou Train Station, remnants of its old train tracks at the zoo’s original entrance at Thomas Road.<\/p>\n

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\n STAFF PHOTO BY ROBIN MILLER<\/span>
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“The train runs clockwise now, but it ran counterclockwise when it started out,” Tully said.<\/p>\n

The diesel engine gave way to a gas engine in 2010. Today, the train is pulled by an electric engine.<\/p>\n

“The locomotive was manufactured between 2021 and 2022,” Mills said. “But our cars are older. We have a handicapped car built in 2012, and the other three are from the old Fun Fair Park.”<\/p>\n

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Riders get a view at a pair of bovine during a train ride at Baton Rouge Zoo.<\/p>\n

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\n Javier Gallegos<\/span>
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Any mention of the late amusement park at the corner of Florida Boulevard and Airline Highway will spark memories for many. Fun Fair Park operated from 1963 to 1999, featuring such popular attractions as the Galixi and Wild Mouse roller coasters.<\/p>\n

And, of course, there was the Bayou Safari Train, operated by park owner Sam Haynes, which hosted countless birthday party rides through the years.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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Many of the attractions were moved to Dixie Landin’ after Fun Fair Park’s closure, but the zoo engine pulls three of the former park’s train cars, each with six seats that can hold two to four riders.<\/p>\n

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A close up of a turtle seen during a train ride at Baton Rouge Zoo.<\/p>\n

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\n Javier Gallegos<\/span>
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For a $3 ticket, riders experience a relaxing ride around the zoo and relive a few childhood memories made at a beloved Baton Rouge amusement park.<\/p>\n

And they have opportunities to make new memories every half hour between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day.<\/p>\n

Mills stands next to the engine at the train depot just beyond the new zoo entrance. Once riders have boarded, he takes his place in the engine seat, instructs riders to keep their hands inside the car and takes off.<\/p>\n

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