I recently noticed that I haven’t seen or heard much about WM/C&O 1309 this spring/summer. When checking out the wmsr’s website, I see that it says, “The train will be powered by diesel until further notice. During the month of October steam will operate Wednesday – Sunday.”

Does anyone have any information on the absence of 1309 this summer? Is this a financial decision or is the locomotive undergoing additional repairs/restoration? Perhaps some other reason…

Fire hazard? Is it very dry there?

We are in wild fire risk, but Everett, ebt, and Cass are still running steam.

Did a search on their facebook page and found only these two comments:
https://www.facebook.com/WMSRailroad/po ... 2vd1WVpL1l

"[Name redacted]
Bought 3 (Dome) tickets for Father's Day weekend only to get an email that they are only running Diesel June 16-30, so now have to reschedule for July. Very bummed you aren't running Steam!!!!

Reply
4d

[Name redacted]
the steam engine is down for maintenance she will be back July 1st."

But not planned maintenance correct? Why not just tell people what’s up? That’s the professional and honest thing to do and it also kills all the rumor mills.

That’s what is so funny about this industry…always complaining about rail fans spreading rumors and speculation. You know what kills rumors…. The truth and honesty!

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You went to the website of the organization in question and didn't use the website to contact said organization?

Easier to complain. Sigh.

This presumes that you would actually get a straight answer returned to you via the website, anything beyond "the steam engine is down for maintenance she will be back July 1st."

99% of the public either doesn't care that much, or won't understand something like "a leaking staybolt" or "defective feedwater heater" or "maladjusted journal box" or whatever ails 1309. There's always the danger that some innocent bit of information will get mutated into "THE ENGINE ALMOST BLEW UP!!!" by some idiot that will garner too many views.

And frankly, the odds are great the person typing a response to your e-mail inquiry won't even know the finer points of the issue, anyway. I don't expect the folks at a ticket counter at the Grand Canyon Railway in Williams to have a weekly shop report, and I don't ask their CMO for ticket booking either.

So, they've opted to perform what they deem as necessary maintainance on their locomotive vs. running it yet you think you're owed more? LOL ok...

You are preciesly the reason why organizations choose not to broadcast their every move on social media. Nothing is ever good enough no matter how much or little is shared.

I think they've already proven that they know what they're doing down there, and if Bensman & Co. have discovered something he doesn't like, they just need to fix it.

It wasn't a road failure, and it's being dealt with, and after what they've accomplished, have a little faith here.

I was already impressed with what I saw during the rebuild process, and management has pulled it out of the dive they were once in, so at this point, I'd personally err on the side of support.

Just because it was Baldwin's last doesn't mean it was Baldwin's best..... things do happen.
This really hasn't been around long enough to get a full grip on anticipating things.

The potential issue here is that the blurb on their website that “The train will be powered by diesel until further notice" contradicts the schedule calendar which clearly denotes diesel through June and steam on Friday-Saturday beginning July 1st. If the blurb is accurate then no further information is necessary. However, if a person plans a trip around a scheduled steam date per the calendar then that might warrant a bit more transparency. There is a big difference between cancelling a steam move vs. never scheduling it to begin with.

Its not a complaint or a knock on the fact that the locomotive may need some unscheduled maintenance. As you said, things happen, particularly with a locomotive that was just recently restored to service after 50+years. Rather, the concern was, is there another reason the locomotive is not operating (i.e. financial issues, infrastructure concerns, etc.).

However, the way it was phrased on the ticketing portion of the site, it implies that there would be no steam operating until October. Perhaps that's just a poor choice of wording. Moreover, if there was some type of maintenance issue, wouldn't you think that there would be some type of announcement (even something non-specific in nature) on the "News" section of their site or on one of their social media accounts? As far as I can tell, there hasn't been anything publicly stated regarding the lack of steam power or even a vague statement that the locomotive is not currently operating (you have to do some digging to even find that out). Nonetheless, since the locomotive hasn't operated in a few months (as far as I can tell, since at least the beginning of April), it implies there may be a more serious issue than a leaky stay bolt or malfunctioning feed water pump.

At the end of the day, I could not find any information as to why it was not operating on their website or their social media accounts, so I wondered if anyone a) was aware that it was not operating, b)saw some announcement / reasoning that I may have missed, or c)had any additional information. Sure I could reach out to get via their website, but given the fact that they have made no formal announcement about the absence of steam that I can find, I had my doubts that they would share any additional information.

Strasburg, Cumbres, Illinois Railway Museum, and even Durango have been pretty open and honest about repairs, restorations, etc.

Hi
My friend and I rode the train last year in October, it looks like they are using the same schedule as they did last year. The WMSR ran Steam Wednesday thru Sunday on the regular route.
When we rode the train last year our plan was to Ride on Thursday and go to Helmsetters curve the following day, Friday and take photos and head to Reading, Pa, and ride the Reading 2102 on Saturday.Pat.