Which two N&W lightweights are in Hurlock?

Thanks in advance.

Del-Mar-Va is a lousy place to run a regular excursion. Except for special festivals, the towns away from the beach strip are sleepy little towns. A special events operation might be a better idea.

The first thing working against such an operation is that people come to Del-Mar-Va for the beach and secondly every line down there is flat, straight, and offers nothing but views of the same farm fields you see from the road. In many cases the railroad is right next to the road for miles on end. Imagine driving to the station in your car and seeing the track right next to the road and then paying $15 to ride 10MPH on the same track you just drove in next to for a few miles and then rumble back. That was the problem with another failed Del-Mar-Va operation.

Rainer:

The numbers on the cars are 1721 and 1730. The latter features the name Carlos Fabian Barroso on its sides. Except for the annual fall festival held on the first Saturday of each October, I think the cars remain parked in Hurlock. They appear a little scruffier each year so I'm not sure what, if any, maintenance they receive during the year.

Not a problem with Berlin-Snow Hill, as a quick perusal of good maps will show. It more closely resembles the Strasburg in road angles and crossings, if not curves and topography.

Thanks, Tim, for the info!

Sandy:

You asked, "Has anyone heard anything out of Cape Charles' Bay Creek Railway's excursion operations lately?" According to the Wikipedia website at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_Coast_ ... ek_Railway

its dining car was posted for sale by December 2011 and about two months ago it left Cape Charles. There's no mention of who the buyer was. The website

http://www.baycreekrailway.com

is no longer active. You'll find a picture of the car here:

http://www.dailypress.com/features/fami ... 5768.story

I don't know of any other current passenger operations over the Bay Coast Railroad.

If they really only use it once a year I wonder what would happen if somebody offered them $20k for one of the cars. Seems like the trips are quite well attended though.

The excursion rides at Hurlock's annual fall festival are the center of attention and a huge draw. Train tickets go on sale prior to the date of the festival and soon sell out during the festival itself. If the town sold the cars and didn't offer train rides, there would be far fewer people coming to the festival. Regardless of their actual value, they act as a magnet to draw in the crowds, so I doubt the town would be interested in selling them.

Since the cars don't go anywhere for 364 days of the year, perhaps the town would be willing to lease them (to include some much-needed maintenance) to the proposed start-up operation elsewhere on the Delmarva Peninsula as long as they're back each year for the festival. I leave that up to the parties involved to work out if they're interested in such an arrangement.

Should we introduce the town of Hurlock to the Gramlings and Flagg 75?

It couldn't hurt. Trains are currently pulled by old, rebuilt diesels and I don't think most of the locals really care what's at the head end, but it's possible a steam locomotive might draw even more to Hurlock for the day. Currently the Gramlings are spending several weeks on the Walkersville Southern and I don't know how they'd feel about a single day's outing in Hurlock, but there's no harm in asking. Their schedule at

http://www.haveenginewilltravel.com/

shows them being in Georgia during the first Saturday of October but perhaps next year will be possible.

More details on the proposed train from the May 21 Ocean Pines INDEPENDENT.

"Badger said he was approached by officials from the Strasburg Rail Road and the Maryland and Delaware Railroad earlier this year about the possibility of setting up an excursion train in Worcester County."

Now we know who approached whom with this idea.

BTW a portion of the Maryland and Delaware RR is laid with welded rail in the area of Berlin.

Wesley

From my days an an expediter for MARC Train in 1992, at the Enola Hump, with the Midnight Humpmiester:


Steve

(I was hired onto this overhaul project (about 30 PRR Zulu's at ABB in Elmira Heights) after Conrail tore the end out of one of the cars at Baltimore Bayview)

Some years ago, two friends of mine were hired as riders when a crew car (converted RPO) got shipped from NJ to MD. In spite of DO NOT HUMP placards, waybills and the two of them on the car yelling at the yard conductor and pin puller, the car got humped. So, halfway down the hump, they wound up the handbrake and brought the whole yard to a standstill! I wasn't there for this (I relieved one of them the next day) but in retrospect, its a good thing they didn't get hit by something following them over the hump.

I suspect some good stories will come out of getting some of the Streamliners to Spencer. Time will tell...

Here is a question, since this proposed line will be run by strasburg, will it be steam operated?

I believe the car in question that was totaled at Bayview was NJT 64 seat coach-12 seat smoker #5433, ex-#1518, exx-PC #1518, exxx-PRR #1518, nee-21RM sleeper #8259 E.T. Weir (originally named Grand Rapids Inn) (Budd, Lot #9667-024, Plan #9513, 1949, converted to coach 1963). Wrecked in July 1990.