http://www.times-news.com/homepage/imag ... _photoview



And in the same issue:

http://www.times-news.com/local/local_s ... 21236.html

"CUMBERLAND — Board members of the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad are looking for ways to use the Great Allegheny Passage to its advantage by offering a better method to transport bicycles from the Cumberland station to Frostburg.

The railroad has one car that is able to transport 50-plus bicycles, but it is not secure and many people have complained about damage done to their bicycles and accessories. Because of this, the railroad asked Doug “Hutch” Hutchinson, of the Cumberland Trail Connection, and Mike Dreisbach, co-owner of Savage River Lodge, to speak to the members about possible options for secure transportation.

“When you’re transporting bikes on a train, you’ve got to think about securing them so they don’t get beat up and also about ash from the steam engine flying back and burning holes in seats and accessories,” Hutchinson said. “You also have to think about how to keep the bicycles separated, because if there are two touching they will rub against each other and damage the frames.” "

More on the bike story at the link--possible acquisition of a bigger baggage car?

Congrats on the barn! Wow!

Looking at what CalTrain has done is a prerequisite for anyone who aims to carry numerous bicycles on a train. They are the pioneer and the leader in bikes on trains.

Search "caltrain bicycles" and you'll get loads on what they did.

CalTrain's operation is basically a clone of Chicago Metra - gallery coaches in push-pull. The bike compartment is the cab end of the cab car.

The basic concept is that they rip out four walkover seats and put in its place a bicycle rack of simple construction. Four bikes are simply stacked atop one another, and strapped down with bungee cords. They started with four bike racks, then six, then eight and now ten per car. 40 bikes. And they still turn bicyclists away.

All cab cars are thus equipped. On about 30 of their trains they add a second bike car mid-train.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bike/33123 ... otostream/

A gallery coach has 48 seats downstairs and around 20 upstairs. (excluding the double at the end of the gallery; those don't exist on a cab car.) One bicycle rack (4 bikes) eliminates 4 seats. You see in the above picture to where they're down to only 8 seats left in the lower level (40 bikes) and now there's not enough seats left for the riders :) My hunch is their next step will actually be to back off, go back to 32 or even 24 bikes per compartment so people can sit near their bikes... and equip both compartments for bikes. I know the bikes can be annoying to the non-bikers using the other compartment.

With all those Amish gentlemen working on that barn, Stephen Hussar should be down there. Stephen's photography and videography is the highest calibre, and with a steam locomotive passing in the distance, the period pictures would be fantastic, to say the least.

Two responses in one:

Bilevel gallery cars: Ironically, there were a couple ex-C&NW gallery cars at the WMSR a while back, in for rehab work, but I presume MARC never ended up wanting them back......

Amish: the photographers there had to obey some strict protocols laid down by the Amish elders regarding photography of the Amish.