Tom and Sharyn Garrett of Lititz said it has been a while since they last visited Jim Thorpe. So when they heard there were passenger trains running from Reading for the fall foliage weekends in the borough, they climbed aboard.

Sharyn is a Lehighton native and said she remembered the sleepy little town of Jim Thorpe. She wanted to see how it has changed.

“We came up for the overall experience (of the foliage festival), which is quite interesting,” she said while sitting on a park bench with her husband, watching the backed-up traffic and the hordes of people visiting the various vendors in the vicinity of the park.

The Fall Foliage Festival attracted literally thousands of people to Jim Thorpe both Saturday and Sunday. It’s the second of three festival weekends.

The crowds are so large that there isn’t enough parking area in the downtown to accommodate the visitors. As a result, shuttle buses operating on about 20 minute intervals transport visitors from Mauch Chunk Lake Park and from the Sam Miller baseball field on the Heights.

Many of the visitors took train rides, rode bicycles and hiked trails to experience the blazing colors up close.

Matt Fisher, manager of the Reading and Northern Railroad, which operates the Lehigh Gorge Scenic Railway, said his firm had four different trains operating. They were the regular runs to Penn Haven Junction, special runs to the High Bridge in Hometown, a train that ran from Reading to Jim Thorpe and a train which ran from Pottsville to Jim Thorpe. Nearly all the trains were filled to capacity.

The Penn Haven Junction trip, which has seven runs a day, has seven passenger cars. Fisher said the demand for the train rides was so great an eighth car had to be added on Saturday.

The Reading train was pulled by a steam engine built in 1928.

He didn’t have exact totals at the scene on the number of riders during the Fall Foliage weekend, but said it was several thousand. Throughout the day, long lines extended from the three ticket booth windows by people waiting to get on the trains.

“The festival is a big success and many people come her to ride the train,” he said.

Among them were Larry Marek and Barbara Remlinger, both of New Jersey, who were accompanied by Marek’s daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren, Matthew and Fawn Engler, Matt Engler and Shay Engler, all of Summit Hill.

Marek said they came specifically for the high bridge ride.

Jim Knox of West Chester also came to Jim Thorpe to see the steamer. He parked on the East Side of town and rode his bicycle to the train station.

“I came specifically for the trains and now I’ll get something to eat,” he said.

Knox brought up the dispute between the borough and the railroad over taxes, which threatens to have the trains leave Jim Thorpe.

“I hope this tax thing gets straightened out,” he said. “If you’re a rail fan, it’s all over Facebook.”

Not everybody came for the train rides.

Sisters Emily and Mackenzie Floreen of Topton said they come to the fall foliage event every year.

“We love to shop,” Emily said. “We like the antiques and the architecture.”

There was plenty of shopping available. The town boasts over 50 shops in the downtown area.

Restaurants were especially busy, with some having long waiting lines.

Jim Piscatelli of Dallas said he visited friends in the Philadelphia area and plans his trip to come to the foliage festival.

Besides the merchants, vendors sold handmade items, doughnuts, hot pretzels, Christmas decorations and souvenirs. An area next to the train station had several food trucks parked next to each other. Artists showed off their wares. Musicians played throughout the day.

Visitors to the Fall Foliage Festival also toured many of the historical sites of the town, such as St. Mark’s Church, the Mauch Chunk Opera House, the Asa Packer Mansion and the Dimmick Memorial Library.

The final weekend of the festival is next Saturday and Sunday.