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| Double Headed Steam in the Heartland https://www.rypn.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20998 |
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| Author: | steaminfo [ Tue Jul 18, 2006 1:19 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Double Headed Steam in the Heartland |
If you missed the sights and heart pounding sounds of double headed 2-10-2 steam locomotives storming up Inner Mongolia’s legendary Jingpeng Pass, another opportunity awaits….ONLY this time, right here in the U.S.A. The Friends of the 261, the Quad Cities Convention & Visitors Bureau and City of Rock Island, Illinois, in cooperation with the Iowa Interstate and Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad’s will operate a series of excursions out of Rock Island on September 14th thru the 17th, 2006. The excursions will be powered by two Chinese built QJ locomotives # 6988 and # 7081. Rail Development Corporation of Pittsburg, PA. recently purchased these locomotives for operation and resale in the U.S. The locomotives were built in China in 1985 and 1986 respectively. Locomotive # 7081 finished its career by having the honor of pulling the world’s last regularly scheduled steam powered passenger train. This event occurred on December 7, 2005 on the run between Daban and Chabuga China. Locomotive # 6988 finished its career powering the last steam revenue freight train over the same route on December 8, 2005. The excursions will be the culmination of a fantastic journey for the two locomotives which began in the Chinese port of Dalian on April 21, 2006. The two were transported by ship across the Pacific, through the Panama Canal and on to the Port of Houston, Texas where they were offloaded and transferred to flat cars for the balance of their journey to Iowa. The upcoming excursions will mark the debut of these locomotives in their new environment and may well be the only time that they will be used in tandem on a passenger special. The excursion train will include “Hiawatha” style Premium and First Class service which will include the full length glass top dome car “Super Dome” and the all glass round-end Sky Top observation car “Cedar Rapids”. The excursions will also include both open window and air conditioned coaches, along with an open door baggage car to maximize this once in a lifetime experience. Plans include photo run-bys and alternating the lead locomotive for the dyed in the wool railfans! The excursion trips will be an integral part of the RiverWay 2006 which is a celebration of the country’s first railroad bridge to cross the Mississippi River in 1856. The “River Way 2006” marks the 150th Anniversary of the first crossing. Tickets: Tickets can be purchased on-line at www.261.com or www.visitquadcities.com or by filling out the enclosed ticket order form and sending it to “The Friends of the 261”. Phone orders are available from 10:00 a.m. till 4:00 p.m. at 651-765-9812. |
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| Author: | Don C. [ Tue Jul 18, 2006 2:43 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Double Headed Steam in the Heartland |
Thursday, Sept 14: Dinner train in Rock Island area Friday, Sept 15: Rock Island to Homestead, IA and return on IAIS Saturday, Sept 16: Rock Island to Bureau Jct and return on IAIS Sunday, September 17: (Two segment trip) Rock Island/Davenport to Muscatine and return on ICE - segment one and Muscatine to Fruitland and return - segment two (train wyes at Fruitland, IA, and returns to Muscatine - Muscatine passengers off and Rock Island passengers back on). Don C. |
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| Author: | co614 [ Tue Jul 18, 2006 3:27 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Double Headed Steam in the Heartland |
I just reaffirmed how skill limited I am on this new fangled computer thing. I went to both the above web sites to order tickets and couldn't find the event on either one! I'll try the phone. Ross Rowland |
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| Author: | daniel3197 [ Wed Jul 19, 2006 10:46 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Double Headed Steam in the Heartland |
FYI as of 7:40pm PDT (here in CA) = 1040pm EDT on 7-19-06 there is NO - NO mention of any Chinese Steam trip (QJs) anywhere on the MILW 261 website. Ross the problem is NOT on your end of the internet, this very hot news is simply NOT on the official MILW 261 website yet. Things could very well change tomorrow morning (thursday 7-20-06). Anything is possible with the dynamic nature of the internet. --- Daniel co614 wrote: I just reaffirmed how skill limited I am on this new fangled computer thing. I went to both the above web sites to order tickets and couldn't find the event on either one! I'll try the phone.
Ross Rowland |
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| Author: | Don C. [ Thu Jul 20, 2006 10:30 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Double Headed Steam in the Heartland |
Daniel, The 261 website does not have the information on it as it has not been updated. "steaminfo" (Doug Bailey) is the webmaster and in his earlier post indicated that the ticket information would be on the site on Wednesday. I won't speculate why it was not done, Doug should be able to answer your question. It is very possible that he got involved in another matter yesterday and it didn't happen. It cannot be a simple task to build inventory and informational text for four trips with most having three classes of service. I will not comment on something with which I have no familiarity. As for the trips running or not, they will operate. Due to the negotiations being quite complicated and lengthy, the lead time between the finalization of negotiations and the actual trips is much shorter than normal. This is why Mr. Sandberg decided to issue a media release concerning the trips so interested parties could make plans as soon as possible. FO 261 prefers to have the website updated prior to any "official" announcement but, unfortunately, the short timeframe and the urgency to distribute the information caused it to be done in this manner. As information, you can order tickets by phone for the QJ trips now by calling 651-765-9812 between 1000am and 400pm, CDT. Sorry for any misunderstanding or confusion. Don C. |
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| Author: | steaminfo [ Thu Jul 20, 2006 10:35 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Double Headed Steam in the Heartland |
The QJ tickets are being entered into the store system as we speak and should be available in about 2 hours, plus any time I spend answering telephone calls about why they're not there yet. I do apologize for the delays, which mostly resulted from understaffing and a sudden glut of new business in the last two days. Regards, Doug |
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| Author: | steaminfo [ Thu Jul 20, 2006 1:21 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: Tickets Available |
Tickets are now available through www.261.com's online store for the September QJ double header trips. To get to the store page directly, use the following link: http://unix8.sunserver.com/milw261/Categories.bok?category=QJ+Excursions |
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