The Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad in Boone, Iowa is going to run a special steam excursion photo trip on Saturday, March 5th, behind Chinese 2-8-2 Mikado JS8419. The train to Fraser boards at 10:30am, departs at 11:00am, and includes a box lunch. Seating is limited, but they must have 50 reservations by Feb. 28 to run. This will be the first time the dining cars have been pulled behind steam at the B&SVRR. For more info or to reserve your seat, go to the museum's website http://www.scenic-valleyrr.com or call 1-800-626-0319.

This is the official information I was given. I'm not an official representative of the Boone & Scenic Valley, just a volunteer, but I'll answer any questions I can.



Joe Wallace

Unfortunately we didn't quite sell enough tickets to go ahead with the run. We're going to try again next year, though. Our main problem was getting the word out. We posted info on our facebook page and website, but it didn't seem to generate enough interest. Last Saturday we did a short test run, though, and I was lucky enough to be a part of it, and got this shot:


My question to all of you is this: how do your organizations announce special trips like this? We know we should have announced it in the various railfan magazines, and I had the idea to post here, but where else do you advertise something like this?

I would suggest that there are multiple railfan forums/websites. These should all be targeted multiple times. Some of them require membership to post, but I would think that among those involved in the excursion, it is likely somebody has membership that can post.

This is billed as a photo excursion. I would suggest that some local advertising, or publicity be conducted. There are photographers who enjoy the opportunity to photograph something different. They do not necessarily have to be railfans. And you may attract a very small handful of these people.

The first trip may be the hardest. But once the pictures go up on the web, that almost becomes free advertising. I don't know your economics but perhaps the first trip could be run at a loss, but use it as the starting base to gain more publicity.

A final thought on wording. This is at best a tenuous concern. Your original posting used the words excursion photo trip. I don't know if the original billing used those words. Is is possible that steam excursion and photo trip are mutually exclusive???? Some railfan photographers may see the word excursion and think of lots of daisy pickers on the trip and therefore not a lot of good photo ops. Perhaps the words photographers special might be better. But like I say that is a tenuous argument.

Sounds like a neat opportunity. I hope you try again.

Tom

Facebook and internet forums are passive forms of information for specialty events like this.

Start an online mailing list where people can opt-in to these types of speciality events.

How are you marketing this to the general public?

dave