I used to pass the tracks when driving up to the Blue Mountain & Reading in the 1980s. I, for one, would love to take a ride or three there.

I think the BM&R may have run a few excursions over there. Maybe with the 425.

BM&R has run trips on the line between Emmaus and Pennsburg, which is a few miles east of Barto, and the RDG F's have run there in the past few years. This isn't the same branch.

Walt L.

Yes, 425 did run on the Boyertown line on a series of excursions.

Mike Tillger

Very interesting subject to me, considering I live ten minutes North of the line.

The RCT&HS was involved in the meeting, and I believe the CNJ 113 owner was also. Boyertown is a nice little town and a tourist railroad wouldn't be out of place there.

I believe that there will need to be increased freight operations to make the line viable. Unfortunately, since the County re-purchased the line, I'm not aware of any freight deliveries. Drug Plastics was the last remaining customer on the line and with the "new owner" East Penn ditched the line, they convinced them to get trans-load service in Pottstown. I believe they were to resume rail service to Boyertown, but I haven't heard of it happening yet. (Hopefully I'm wrong.)

The proposal to restore service to the location of the quarry in Bechtelsville is quite interesting in that the tracks would have to pass across the entrance to a new Walmart.... I examined the area, and although the ROW is still intact, the tracks would have to cross though/across the entrance road, and it appears that construction for the Walmart site has changed the height a good bit from what I could tell from the Northern end.

Here's a google map link showing the Walmart and the quarry:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Bechtelsv ... a&t=h&z=16

There's also foundry off of Spring Street in Boyertown, just past the current end of the tracks, but from what I've heard, they are resistant to rail service.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Bechtelsv ... a&t=h&z=18

I wish Mr. Guest the best on this endeavor, and would be willing to assist in any way that I could.

Local media attention from the Reading Eagle:

http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=366162

(Via the NRHS Facebook post)

Hi all
First I'd like state that the Colebrookdale branch is a branch and not a spur. Reading, the Conrail, then Anthracite Railway gave it that name to the papers every time they wanted to abandon it. Think of the last time you heard of a good spur, ie healspur, spur in your side etc. Plus 8.5 miles to boyertown, its a bit beyond spur size.

On the traffic question ebgrr has a customer in which they haul scrap for. There will/ may eventually be others. The right of way past Walmart is not as intact as stated. There are more obstacles than just the entrance to the shopping center.

The passenger train is a separate endeavour.

Gday
Preston

Mr. Guest has been doing a fantastic job promoting his ideas, both to the local governments, and online.

Here is the website for the railroad:
http://colebrookdalerailroad.com/

Here is the latest PDF proposal that I've found:
http://www.colebrookdalerailroad.com/Up ... 20size.pdf

And here is the facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Colebrook ... 8949655608

His experience in the tourist railroad industry, and his education skills are being very well utilized in my opinion. I wish him the best of luck, and hope that he can pull this off.

....of all the Reading Company photos from the 1900's, he chose a euro road scene to be the back ground photo on the home page of the web site?....

Ok, done nit-picking. The video is very well done!

I'm also going to nitpick the images on the website, but only from a purely technical point of view. No matter what images you choose to use, get somebody who knows graphics and web design to go in and drastically reduce the size of those images. You'll save on bandwidth fees, and you won't scare away somebody on dialup.

As an example, take a look at the header image:
http://colebrookdalerailroad.com/Upload ... header.jpg

It's over 300kb. That would take over 1 minute to download at 56k (fastest dialup). Just that one photo. Trust me, a lot of folks won't wait around that long for the site to load.

Here's a version I quickly re-sized (the original is too large for the size you're using it) it's only 44 kb, and the quality loss is minimal.

The rest of the images should also be re-sized as needed, many are also of incorrect aspect ratio, and downsample to reduce the file size.

As for the whole "But there are other tourist railroads nearby" argument, I've got a few questions for folks to consider.

How many people live in that same area, maybe consider a 100 mile radius?

What prevents folks from visiting more than one attraction? If they ride one railroad and like it, will they consider visiting another?

I don't consider other railroads to discourage repeat visits. For most operations, the majority of visitors are locals, and typically they visit once a year. Not just railroads, but the zoo, the aquarium, the amusement park. Sure, some will come back for special events, but a lot of them just visit once a year or so, and i don't think that would change.

According to the NFL, attendence at a typical Philadelphia Eagles game was 69,000. If they can draw that many folks on a single Sunday, how does that compare to how many folks these railroads would need to attract in the entire year? (Yes, I know, those of you who've been to a Thomas event will say there's 69,000 kids there, but I'm not sure that's correct...)

These aren't McDonalds they're building, they don't need 50K customers per year.

Is there ANY operation that has had a succesful tie-in with a tourist town as a DESTINATION. Not as the departure point, there are lots of those. I'm talking about where you board the train at "A", ride to "B", get off, shop, eat, tour, and then take the train back to "A".

I can't think of any for certain, though the Cuyahoga Valley line could possibly be in that category. I guess the Grand Canyon Railroad is also somewhat in that category, though it's not really what I have in mind since there's not a "town" there.

I'm also not considering things like the Rio Grande Scenic's concerts, since they're part of the railroad operations, and so you don't need to worry about schedule and connections etc.

The problem I see with actually going to a town and shopping etc is having to worry about the train schedule. Will you have time to eat lunch and shop? What do you do with that wonderful new antique you just bought, do you really want to schlep it across town and onto the train, or would you rather just put it in the trunk of your car? Would you feel rushed, knowing you're on a fixed schedule? Or, alternately, would you be bored with all the tacky t-shirt shops and ready to go home but have to wait another hour before the train left?

Is there an operation that's managed to pull this one off?

Speaking of "Shopping", I recall an NRHS convention a few years back. I announced "We're now arriving at the Mineral Shops" only to have a passenger demand to know "Where's the shops at?" "That big green building right there..." "No, I mean the stores, you said shops!" "Uh, well, yeah, it's the locomotive shops, not stores." Not the answer she wanted. ;)

Back in the later 1970s, the New Hope & Ivyland touted New Hope, Pa. as a destination for trains from the parking lot at Buckingham Valley. In 1977, the South Eastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority "Countryside Rambles" excursion bus trips to New Hope were changed to trips to the New Hope Steam Train at Buckingham Valley with extra fare train ride to New Hope available. In recent years, when the current management runs October trips the full length of the line to connect with Philadelphia commuter train at Warminster, they are also marketed as Shoppers' Special Trips at both ends - big store Philadelphia shopping for the New Hope residents, and quaint New Hope shopping for the big city people!
When the New Hope & Ivyland was new and not yet bankrupt, they paid for a shuttle bus from the Lahaska station to the quaint shops on the main highway in downtown Lahaska.
In 1976, the Black River & Western doodlebug trips to Lambertville, N.J. were extended for a while over a remnant of the Belvedere Delaware RR to the large flea market about 2 miles South of town.

I would offer the Durango & Silverton.....mld

Bob -

The Whitewater Valley in Indiana might qualify. They leave Connersville and arrive at Metamora, which is a "quaint" old canal town with antique stores, various shops and eating places. The railroad also offers a short "caboose hop" type ride there to visitors that is seperate from the Connersville train, and I think there is, or at least was, a ride in a canal boat pulled by horses on the towpath that runs alongside the canal. I am not sure how long the ride is from "A" to "B" but I believe the ride exceeds an hour each way.

Les