recently on our 2816 hudson trip we had to ride in commuter coaches, and while comfortable and equipped with the latest amenities, it was stone silent to the outside. Someone, somewhere got the idea to put on the public address system and piped in the sound of the engine working upgrade, which was great..to bad it only lasted for a minute or two, I would have preferred it for the whole trip.

recently on our 2816 hudson trip we had to ride in commuter coaches, and while comfortable and equipped with the latest amenities, it was stone silent to the outside. Someone, somewhere got the idea to put on the public address system and piped in the sound of the engine working upgrade, which was great..to bad it only lasted for a minute or two, I would have preferred it for the whole trip.

> recently on our 2816 hudson trip we had to
> ride in commuter coaches, and while
> comfortable and equipped with the latest
> amenities, it was stone silent to the
> outside. Someone, somewhere got the idea to
> put on the public address system and piped
> in the sound of the engine working upgrade,
> which was great..to bad it only lasted for a
> minute or two, I would have preferred it for
> the whole trip.

That was a great Idea. I think one of the most enjoyable experiences on the older steam excursions was riding in the baggage or recording
car on Southern/NS and other type of trips. There you could here the engine better than anywhere else on the train.

The last steam excursion I rode I never knew what was on the point until we got off to photograph. That was kinda frustrating being sealed inside, but to the normal non-railfan, thats what it is supposed to be like...quiet! Guess its tough to have cake and eat it too, but we all try!
Greg


Videos
sales@gregschollvideo.com

> When we began in 1985 we had the good
> fortune to acquire one of the best reels of
> vintage railroad film I've ever seen. It was
> a coast to coast, mostly color collection
> dating from the mid 1930's through the
> 1950's and mostly from the '40's.
> That program, Glory Machines Vol 1,
> has never been topped in sales by all the
> others we've done. It still sells today.

Jim,

Glory Machines-1 includes some great Reading and CNJ stuff around Reading, PA, filmed by George Gerhart. This was "the tip of the iceberg" of George's films.

Here in George's native Reading area we have had the pleasure of seeing the entire reels of his stuff, including some Pennsy- Schuylkill Valley (north of Reading).

When are you gonna get the rest of his film out on tape - or better yet, DVD...???
READING GLORY Vol. 1.

Please, before his films deteriorate.

Piped in music was great on the old Super Chief and California Zephyr, which also had relevant narration by the Zephyrette, but I think a well printed handout should suffice on a tourist line. Stephen Sondheim wrote a song once about "Music, Music, Music Everywhere". I think the stack talk music should be its own reward.

> I think most of your basic tourist railroads
> also narrate their train rides. I agree with
> you about being a pain with music and
> narration. Last time I rode the C&TS it
> was this way, they yaked the entire trip, so
> I went out to open gon for some fresh stack
> music.

> Maybe as high tech as things are, we can
> have headphones for passengers who want to
> tune into the inflight(I mean onboard)audio
> selector for music or narration, or local
> news:)

> I guess the average rider is so accustomed
> to being spoon-fed information, that they
> feel cheated if they don't get their regular
> dose of narration or music provided.
> Greg


sbs5cats@kc.rr.com

I see I seem to have opened a fresh wound for some. I don't dispute the usefullness of a PA system on a train, as when I was in the DC area in the 70s we used one on all our Southern excursions. We even loaned our system to Amtrak for the return of #4449 to the west coast. It's a great tool to have for a basic welcome, safety briefing, or when approaching a photo run site with a 20 car train. The problem is always to keep the use reasonable, not intrusive. We were lucky to have two professional radio personalities who volunteered for us and ran the system most of the time, and knew when to be quiet, which was most of the time. Some of the substitutes nearly had to have the mike torn from their hands to get them to shut up. But piped in music was my main beef, and we never did that. We felt that the stack talk was the sweetest thing going, but then that was when most of the cars had open windows too.

Museum of Transportation
rdgoldfede@aol.com