Praise from Metra and passengers as 2,500 ride The Joliet Rocket in our recap:

https://fortwaynerailroad.org/2017/07/s ... n-chicago/

Press coverage from our hometown newspaper on the trip and our Headwaters Junction project:

https://fortwaynerailroad.org/2017/07/b ... ngine-765/

I expected far more appreciation and kudos both for you and METRA for this.

Here's another. Thanks for a well crafted and classy event.

If any of you still don't understand that the future is in building events through strategic partnerships that allow us to sustainably pursue our missions by giving to the public the kinds of things they want to experience and making them happy they did, these guys can show you.

Kelly and FWRHS,

Great event. Can't wait to steal the idea on a smaller scale for an onsite event at our Museum.

Wesley

From all accounts a well planned and executed event, which was a credit to all involved.

As the pool of serious steam lovers gets smaller and smaller each year, creative events like this will be critical to keeping mainline steam alive.

Let's all hope that Metra was pleased with the media it generated as that's critical to their future participation.

Congratulations to the 765 team for a job well done.

Ross Rowland

Hi,

For my dad and I, the Joliet Rocket was our first mainline steam excursion and an event that we will never forget. I was so eager to get to Joliet that we got to the platform at 6:15 AM and ate breakfast with a couple other railfans who were already there!

Although we missed the photo runby opportunity at Tinley and an outbound Metra blocked our shots at the runby in Chicago, we still had a blast and hope that the 765 will do another excursion in the south suburbs in the near future. Thanks a million!!!!

Thomas Dyrek

P.S. We made up for the runbys and caught you doing 65 through Mokena on your second Saturday trip!

Coming from someone who was a volunteer for this event and embedded with the train crew the entire weekend, and a veteran of countless steam photo charters and railfan excursions; every person associated with FWRHS and Metra joined together to create a groundbreaking return of steam to Chicago on the Joliet Rocket. I hope this sets the precedence for NKP 765 and other organizations to continue making history with the machines from a bygone era in new and exciting ways.

Thank you to everyone who participated!
Matthew Malkiewicz

? Then who is buying all the tickets year after year? 4449, 261, 765, 844 and most of the 611 trips all sold out this year. That's a lot of tickets, and most of them were pretty high dollar.

I was in attendance for the 765 in chicago, and it was an excellent event all the way around. But I only see the General publics interest in steam growing, not dwindling.

Ross means "serious steam lovers" on the supply side -- the people with the knowledge and enthusiasm to keep big locomotives running safely and reliably.

There is a point beyond this, too, which is demonstrated by the Fort Wayne people -- the ability to communicate competence to 'for profit' railroads, and to exercise the "community organizing" skills to set up and run events, not just steam locomotives, safely, effectively, and well.

As Mr. Cook noted so well about the F40 designers, we are rapidly losing the people who had practical knowledge of big steam in service. What takes their place may look and operate very differently from historical excursioning - the revamping of the UP Heritage operation being one example - and it is interesting to consider just what mix of skills and abilities is needed, not only to get and then keep the locomotives running but to make and administer the opportunities to use them. (And, as we have often discussed here, to make them pay whatever part of their own way is necessary.)

I wouldn't be that worried about future generations of 'steam lovers' out there in the general public although I am definitely concerned about the number of people who would reliably pay excursion prices repeatedly for historically-typical kinds of "fantrip". At Fort Wayne, UP, and Strasburg (to name three obvious examples) we are seeing the necessary organization building and 'community development' needed to keep steam running long-term. I share Ross's expressed concern on the need to continue to develop, implement, and execute not just competence, but panache, on the supply side.

I'm not sure how to quantify kudos for this event. We could total up posts and articles, I guess, but my gut feeling is that in 5 or 10 years, these trips will be looked back on as a trend setter/bellweather. That will be the true measure, and I fully expect that we'll be having those conversations.