I just posted in Flimsies that the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad has cancelled the remaining runs of its PE trains because of an increase of COVID-19 cases in Northeast Ohio. The cancellation represents a “notable” financial loss, and the railroad is seeking donations.

Thanks for posting this, I've been thinking about visiting Durango this winter if I can find a good price on a monthly rental. This is encouraging me!

Unfortunately, I think D&S may be dreaming, Colorado is nearing its hospital capacity and La Plata county is already a "red" county under Colorado's new system:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wpq8Mr ... _wFR2/view

We pulled the plug on Santa back on the 4th due to the increasing spread of the virus. There was just no way to accommodate social distancing and we didn’t want to get Santa infected. The railroad will be put to bed for the winter and we’ll continue our track rehab over the winter with materials on hand as weather and a severely tight budget permits. Fingers are crossed that we can resume some sort of event schedule sometime next year.

The Colorado Railroad museum started running the Polar Express train last week and it will continue through December. Not sure if it is sold out yet but it normally does sell out even at close to a hundred dollars a ticket. Place is packed with people. Not sure if they don't give a damn or are desperate for cash, but many other businesses around Denver are very limited to how many people are allowed inside. Seems like small, narrow gauge, passenger cars filled with actors singing is a bad idea at this point in time.

Grand Canyon Railway is in it's 3rd week of Polar Express Operations. REI has provided guidelines for operating Polar Express during this pandemic, which go along with the latest CDC guidelines.

We are running the same number of cars (15) and only filling them to 1/3. Ticket will-call has been separated from the retail area, the retail store is counting heads, all actors roam the platform for guest interaction instead of on the train, and everyone has masks - including Santa.

It's not going to be a record setting year, and it's not what we hoped for our 20th consecutive year for Polar Express. In fact, at 450 per train, that's about the same capacity as our 1st year, when we only were running 6 cars each night.

At least we should break even.

Eric

I'm over at the Chehalis (WA) Museum and RR, and we have Polar Express licensing.
We were fully prepared to handle the PE trains according to state guidelines, but on November 14, the Governor declared a 4-week 'semi-lockdown' that shuts us down for that time.
At this time, we're planning on starting PE trains on Dec 18, the first Friday after the lockdown is supposed to end. We're now scheduling PE trains on the weekend after Christmas as well, to try to recover as much as we can from this disappointment.
I personally wouldn't bet against this lockdown being extended past Dec 14, though, due to a massive upsurge in COVID cases with fall, which anyone in the health field saw coming.
People like blaming this on politics, but that's silly. Human behavior is the reason we're in the mess we're in.
People just didn't take this seriously at first. Just another Chinese virus, many said, we didn't have a big threat from the others, so why this one?
I had to study infectious diseases when I was an Army officer as part of my extra duties as my unit's Nuclear-Biological-Chemical warfare person. Once I realized how virulent this thing really was, I was in a mild state of panic for some time. I, along with a friend who is the local fire chief, were the only people in our circle who understood what this thing could do.
The issue everyone seems to miss is that yeah, it doesn't have a high mortality rate, but it's insanely infectious and the worry has always been that your aunt might die from her heart condition because she couldn't get into the ER which was choked with COVID patients. That's still the big concern, and it's been largely missed by America at large.
it's not political, it's societal.
The other day, my wife and I did a grocery run and we saw many people either not wearing masks at all (in violation of the law), or having them carefully placed to protect their chins only. One guy was hacking and coughing open mouth, maybe with COVID, his mask covering his Adam's apple only. And nobody from the store is going to say anything as people are so militant now against masks that they are killing folks for bring this up (you only have to search Google to find countless news items of this happening).
This grocery store was less than a mile and a half from our depot.
Many people riding our trains during the pandemic would take their masks off when they board, or ask with fake innocence/ignorance, "Do we have to wear masks on this train?" while standing right next to the sign saying they do.
it's not just at Chehalis, or even the US. This is happening in other countries as well. Criminal levels of wishful thinking and avoidance of the reality is a large part of how we're here now.
If I hear one more person say, "I shouldn't have to put my life on hold," I'd be tempted to grab them and scream, "Yes, you should! This thing is killing people and acting like COVID isn't still here is assuring this disruption of your life will continue until people take this seriously!"

Lee, I wish I could give you a five star like for that!

The thing that people refuse to understand is that yes, the mortality rate may be low, but what about the possible life altering conditions for the survivors? There are a lot of survivors out there who are wishing that they had taken this more seriously.

Back in the old days, when the railroad sold a ticket, the passenger was required to sign the contract that was printed on the face of each ticket. In a situation like this, reverting to something like that might be appropriate, to include a section that says that the passenger understands that in signing the contract, they agree that they will follow the railroad's COVID-19 protocol and that they understand that if they do not follow the protocol, that they will be subject to removal from the train and that the fare will not be refunded. The other alternative is to shut down and inform the public that while you regret having to make that decision, the idiots who insist in violating the rules gave you no other option.

Locally (here in Arizona), my observation has been that in the Tucson and Phoenix areas, most people are observing the mask ordinances. The local transit agencies are enforcing NO MASK-NO RIDE policies, most local businesses have put their foot down about masks-if you're willing to put the health of our other customers and employees at risk, we don't want your business. The Federal Transit Administration has helped local transit authorities by clarifying that local/state health orders preempt transit ADA requirements.

Myself, I have the advantage of working for the Clerk of the Superior Court. The Arizona Supreme Court has mandated since March that ALL PERSONS ENTERING A COURTHOUSE IN ARIZONA ARE REQUIRED TO WEAR A MASK/FACE COVERING AT ALL TIMES THAT THEY ARE IN THE COURTHOUSE AND WILL BE SCREENED FOR FEVER AND OTHER SYMPTOMS. If they refuse, the nice men with badges and guns will come and address the matter. Court employees are required to wear a mask or face covering anytime they leave their immediate work area or if they work in a common work area and cannot social distance from other employees.

The “contract” also acted as a waiver of liability.

Same here. Lee, your post was just the kind of thing I needed to read today. Be well. - Rob

Sadly a complete lack of leadership at the federal level has allowed the whole mask issue to become a tribal symbol instead of a important, simple and effective way to slow the spread. Hopefully when the new administration takes charge we will finally have a one national policy and war plan to combat this killer.

As to Santa Trains we are taking reservations starting on Black Friday through Christmas eve ( http://www.newhoperailroad.com) and the response is better than I thought it would be. We're observing all the CDC guidelines and thus cutting our capacity about 50% to achieve social distancing. We've bought professional grade sprayers to sanitize the cars after each trip, take everyone's temps on boarding etc.

With the virus numbers spiking I fear we may well get shut down again before Santa comes?? Hope not but it sure doesn't look good.

It continues to mystify me when anyone continues to run these Christmas season trains using the PE name which requires paying a huge royalty when changing the name to North Pole Express or Santa's Steam Spectacular etc. works every bit as well with the public and you keep your revenues. Our first year ( 1995) we did the PE thing and after the dust settled we found we paid out more in the royalty than we netted for ourselves. From year 2 to today we've used other generic names and set new revenue records every year through 2019. Far as I'm concerned anyone still paying this ransom ain't paying attention.

Thanks, Ross Rowland

Ross, while I deeply respect your contributions to railroad preservation and history, this still is exactly the silly thinking I mentioned earlier.
This isn't a blue/red state or even an American thing.
People all over the planet are wrapped in a cloak of avoidance of the reality over this thing and its spreading everywhere for the same simple reason:
People think if they act like it won't affect them, it'll go away eventually.
I've seen both insanely liberal and equally conservative people deciding to act like this pandemic isn't as important as they think it should be, as have friends of mine in other countries.
This attitude of politicizing something that obviously transcends politics and is based on the human drive of wanting things back to normal in the absence of all logic is the reason why we are where we are today.
Saying otherwise exhibits the same "bury the head in the sand" mindset that got us here.

I think Lee has summed it up well in his two posts. On a nationwide basis what really sealed our doom and made mask wearing a tribal symbol was of course our president who obviously prioritized his re-election over the nations well being. Shame on him forever.

With the new administration already announcing that they will implement a national mask mandate plus invoke the DPA to mass produce N95 masks and other PPE still in critical short supply in hospitals across the nation, plus the beginning availability in Q2 & Q3 of 2021 of several vaccines, we should start coming out of this nightmare by next summer or fall.

Hope springs eternal. Jan. 20 can't come fast enough.

Ross Rowland

Of course I e could live outside the US as I do, in what is thought of as the western ground zero for the virus. And see how "great" that national mask mandates and socialist bail outs are going. Ih the masks didnt stop a second lockdown lite, hmmmm I guess a piece of cloth generally worn incorrectly doesn't help. Or keeping tobacco shops open because smoking when there's a pandemic flu seems like a great idea. Oh yeah the economy is failing and this country is on the verge of economic collapse and could take out the EU in the process when you add a few other countries here.


I wish I was back in the US right now instead of living in a totalitarian state, but two years three months until my DEROS date.