At 5:30 on a Friday, a handful of railbikes roll out from behind the Andrews Train Depot on Locust Street, the same depot that's stood there since 1890. Riders pedal a light electric assist out past the edge of town, across nine open-deck trestle bridges, through the hand-carved Valley River Tunnel that Southern Railway crews finished in 1894, and back. The whole loop takes two to two and a half hours. That math puts most riders back at the depot somewhere between 7:30 and 8 p.m.
The new 5:30 departure joins the regular 8:30, 11:30, and 3:00 runs as the evening option.
The new Friday and Saturday departure
Andrews Valley Rail Tours has run out of the depot since Judy Fitzpatrick started the operation for the Andrews Chamber of Commerce back in the fall of 2022, first as a cart pulled along the old rail bed, then with dedicated railbikes once the response justified buying them for the 2023 season. The tours run daily, May 1 through November 1, and this year the operators added a Friday and Saturday 5:30 p.m. Twilight run to the lineup.
The new departure makes the breweries' posted hours a useful point of comparison.
Snowbird Mountains Brewery, just up Locust Street from the depot, has been pouring beer since Terry and Linda Vaughn opened it over Memorial Day weekend in 2019. It's a small operation, open Friday and Saturday only, and it closes at 6 p.m. both nights. Hoppy Trout Brewing Company, over on Main Street, keeps its ovens and taps running well past that, into the 10 p.m. range on Fridays and Saturdays as of this summer, with wood-fired Sicilian pizza and a Wednesday trivia night that regulars build their week around.
The table below puts the return time alongside each brewery's posted hours.
| Spot | Friday/Saturday hours | What's actually happening there |
|---|---|---|
| Andrews Valley Rail Tours, Twilight run | Departs 5:30 p.m., back roughly 7:30-8 p.m. | New this season, Fridays and Saturdays only |
| Snowbird Mountains Brewery | Fri 2-6 p.m., Sat 12:30-6 p.m. | Closed the rest of the week, live music while it's open |
| Hoppy Trout Brewing Company | Open into the evening both nights | Wood-fired pizza, trivia every Wednesday |
Two breweries, two different nights
The two breweries have different schedules. Snowbird is open from 2 to 6 p.m. on Fridays, while Hoppy Trout stays open into the evening. A rider returning after 7:30 p.m. will find Snowbird closed and Hoppy Trout open.
The schedule comparison is about timing, not about which brewery riders choose.
Here's roughly how a Friday breaks down under the current schedule:
- 8:30 a.m. First rail tour of the day departs. Riders who want breakfast beforehand tend to land at Morning Fog Coffee & Eats on Main Street, run out of a farmhouse built in 1920 that the family spent years renovating before opening.
- 11:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. The regular daytime runs, same as they've been for the past few seasons.
- 2:00 p.m. Snowbird opens for its short Friday window.
- 5:30 p.m. The new Twilight run heads out.
- 6:00 p.m. Snowbird closes for the night.
- 7:30-8:00 p.m. Twilight riders return to the depot after Snowbird closes.
- Into the evening Hoppy Trout keeps serving pizza and pouring beer, absorbing whatever foot traffic the tunnel run sends its way.
Before the ride existed
It's worth remembering that none of this infrastructure is old. Snowbird has been part of the Locust Street scene since 2019. The rail tours didn't exist in any form until 2022, and the railbikes themselves only came along for the 2023 season. Before that, a Friday night in downtown Andrews was a much simpler equation. You had two breweries on different streets downtown, each with their own regulars, and no scheduled 5:30 rail-tour departure with an evening return.
The Twilight run is the newest addition to the rail-tour schedule. The timing may be incidental; the departure time may have been chosen for tourism reasons, perhaps to catch golden-hour light on the ride out to the tunnel. That schedule places the tour's return after Snowbird's closing time and during Hoppy Trout's evening hours.
Where this goes through the fall
The rail tours keep running through November 1, which means this particular rhythm has a shelf life this year. It'll play out through Oktoberfest on Main Street, set for Saturday, September 26, and likely fade out once the tunnel run goes on its winter break. Whether the operators keep the Twilight slot next season, or shift the time, or drop it, will decide whether this becomes a permanent fixture of a Friday in Andrews or just a one-season quirk.
One more detail worth knowing if you end up on that ride: the community near the tunnel is called Rhodo, and the story goes that it's a worn-down version of "raw dough," a nod to biscuits that never quite finished baking before the train needed to move on. It's the kind of small-town detail that doesn't show up anywhere except from people who've actually taken the ride, or talked to the people who run it.
Living in a town this size means paying attention to details like a single new departure time and what it does to the rest of the evening. That's the same kind of attention I bring to the Lake Chatuge corridor and the towns around it, whether the question is where to grab dinner or when a piece of property might make sense for you. If you're curious about what else is shifting around Andrews, or thinking ahead about property in the area, reach out to Melissa Jenkins Stillwell and schedule a free consultation.
