From Wilmington & Western's website (see below link)...

The railroad will be hosting two "Steam Meets Steam" weekends in October. The dates are Saturday 10/16, Sunday 10/17, Saturday 10/31, and Sunday 10/31. Two trains will make 1/2 hour departures each day from 12:30 to 3:00 pm. Freshly-shopped 4-4-0 98 will power one train and 0-6-0 58 will power the other. The trains will meet at the Greenbank station.

A great chance to come out and support the railroad and see an old favorite (98) return to service!

http://www.wwrr.com/98/return_to_service.htm


Regards,
Jim Robinson

That will definitely be worth the trip. Maybe all 4 days. Do you know if there have been any repairs completed to the washed out sections? Or is it way too soon for that?

How come the W & W doesn't operate steam more often? I looked at the schedule, and saw steam indicated for only one day in May and June, and two days in July, August and September. October has steam every weekend.

More steam might boost their ticket sales. When I visited there was a lot of unsold capacity. And with the exception of the abbreviated trip because of the washouts, everything was really top notch: equipment, people and facilities. Speaking of equipment: do they have extra coaches for the second train or will they divide the coaches in half?

I believe the W&W has about 2 1/2 miles of undamaged / repaired track to operate on at present time. About an equal distance west from their Greenbank station to the Brandywine Springs Park and east to their Marshallton yard and enginehouse. AFAIK, no additonal track has been reopened as of now. The ROW is damaged at Brandywine Springs--once this is repaired they'll be able to go a bit (another 3/4 mile-1 mile??) further to Hercules, the site of the first destroyed bridge.

As for running steam more often, long before the floods the railroad operated steam only on select days. Often it's for special event trains (like train robberies) and during the fall follage season. I ASSUME this was/is to minimize wear and tear on the locomotive(s). Also, one can argue that while steam can bring in more people than a diesel, steam's over-all higher operating costs may mess up the equation.

Regards,
Jim Robinson

Actually, as a former volunteer at the W&W (1989-2001) and still a memeber, I can shed some light with regard to their operation of Steam.

Back prior to the first flooding in 1999, they had only just gotten the 58 up and running as the 98 had been down for about a year, so they really didnt have much time between the 58 entering service (April of 99) and the FLOYED flooding and resulting damamge (Sept 99). After that, their revenues decreased drastically as they were not able to operate to the Picnic Grove which is one of their best draws. When all is said and done, the average family wanting a nice day out wants to see the scenery and go have a picnic. The current trackage that is in service (after Tropical storm Henri in Sept 03) while nice, in no way compares to the right of way west of Brandywine Springs. The line really opens up past Faukland and just gets better as you head north up the valley (railroad west). With a shortend route, numbers have dropped off.

This also occured back in 1981 when the Chessie System (who still owned the trackage at that time) decided to do major work on the line in their effort to sell it and told them they could only operate between Greenbank and the Marshallton Yard.

Prior to 1998 , which is when 98 was taken out of service (just befor the Easter Trains that year) they operated her at least every Sunday, most Saturdays and all major holidays and sepcial events. Take for example Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends, they would operate 98 on Saturday- 3 trips to Mt Cuba Picnic grove, Sunday - 3 trips to the grove, and Monday - 2 trips to Hockessin (end of the line)

She also operated on many charters (one fondly remembered and worked event was the AUDI charter that lasted a week, 98 operated for 9 days in a row - regular weekend runs, then 5 days of the charter operation, then the regular weekend runs again) and of course all the themed trains like Wild West days, Civil War, Childrens day, Easter, Christmas...etc. Just about every weekend down there was/is "themed."

The W&W definately operated steam on a weekly basis prior to the flooding in 1999. After Floyed, they had to recoupe some of their lost revenue and weren't able to operate 58 all the time since it does cost a lot more to operate steam as Jim pointed out, and also they did want to save on the wear and tear of the enigne as at that point, no one knew as to when 98 would be returning. They are very aware that steam is a draw but it is kind of a catch 22 -- Get a lot of people out when they run steam but then face the possability that if it rains or something, no one will show and they will loose money big time (That was often the case when they did run steam all the time, if it rained, hardly anybody came out to ride)

When the 37 was in operation, again they ran her for everything that happend on the weekends.

Once the line is fully repaired (they may be in operation to the Hercules Bridge for the October trips), I am sure you will see more steam operated, at least every Sunday and maybe more than that. Just give them some time, thats all! (maybe a little donation too :)

Well, according to what I know its owned by Historic Red Clay Valley, Inc. See: http://www.steamlocomotive.info/vlocomotive.cfm?Display=316

Ok- its not listed on the W&W site tho.

Joshua

Josh -

was 98 actually steamed up and operating the service train? The web site says Oct. 16 is the first revenue run - is that wrong? Just curious.

How did the cosmetics turn out? If you have an image, I'm probably not the only one who'd like to see it.

JAC

John, all-

Power on the train was an ex Cheesie SW-1, I was sort of hoping for the ex Lehigh unit. #98 was sitting pretty in the repair shop- boiler partially lagged. There was no lettering on the engine or tender. Sorry I don't have an image to share- hope to buy a digital camera in the next month or so. #58 was sitting outside the "barn" on display. According to the staff, the 0-6-0 was going to be steaming today at the Wilmington AMTK station- transportation festival. Was unable to go.

I joined the Historic Red Clay Valley Inc. and hope to start volunteering on the weekends soon.

Joshua

Josh,
The #37 that operated on the W&W in the late 80's was never owned by HRCV / W&W, it was only leased. The loco needed major boiler work, the lease expired and there she sat. The engine was put up for sale and I hear it was sold to a group out in CA. They so far sealed the engine up, and now are waiting for shipping. But I guess they still need to raise the cash to ship it out west, not cheap.
Now for the #98, she has been steamed a few times. But the lagging needs to be finished, from what I know she hasn't been up the line yet, still testing. We will have to wait to the 16th!

Ed