anybody ride the trip today?

azubal@nycap.rr.com

IT was a beautiful day. The train ran ahead of schedule and Steamtown put on a great show. My only complaint was that the 2317 only got to handle the downhill portion of the run by herself. Uphill, she was accompanied by Delaware Lackawanna Alcos. Thank you Steamtown for allowing me and my father to ride behing mainline steam in 2003!!!
Regards,
Chris
>anybody ride the trip today?


Scotsman26@aol.com

How full was the Train?
Clay


clayfoster@comcast.net

Hello

The train ran with a little over 200 people, less than half its capacity. There's probably a few reasons for that, but I suspect it was the combination of ticket price, presense of diesels for 2/3 of the trip and the long standing NPS aversion to photo stops. I heard that the caboose shuttles in the yard actually had a higher daily total than the train.

Its too bad really, because the trip was executed beautifully. The crews handled the train without flaw. The NPS train crews are just about the most professional group out there. The thing ran ahead of time on the way back (no they didn't leave early this time) and there wasn't a mechanical problem to be found thanks to the shop crew.

Its still a nice trip if you have the money and don't mind the diesel assist. The staff is friendly and the NPS is very good at covering all the bases when planning a trip like this.

Dave Crosby

bing@epix.net

> I suspect it was the combination of ticket
> price, presense of diesels for 2/3 of the
> trip and the long standing NPS aversion to
> photo stops.
> Its still a nice trip if you have the money
> and don't mind the diesel assist. The staff
> is friendly and the NPS is very good at
> covering all the bases when planning a trip
> like this.
> Dave Crosby

On the R&N, we have routinely held a runby on our fall trips. It does not eat that much time.

We can de-train the crowd, do the runby (sometimes 2 passes), have the crowd back on board, and be on the move again in a half hour.

Obviously, safety is the biggest concern, especially coming down the coach steps, and having a level area to walk and stand.

We give the passengers the option to stay on board if they want to, but the majority want the break from the coach seats, so although it's most of the crowd from the train, probably less than half of the "photo line" is taking any pictures.

I agree that runby's help attract those who would otherwise chase the special, to buy a ticket and ride, especially if you can have it at some nice location where the chasers can't get to.

> On the R&N, we have routinely held a
> runby on our fall trips. It does not eat
> that much time.

Speaking of the fall trips, how was the R&N trip on the 11th? I have tickets for the 18th and hope that the weather is as good as it was on the 11th.

I really enjoyed your open house and am looking forward to the trip this weekend. The last R&N trip I took was the 1999 Jim Thorpe to Steamtown excursion.

JimE

JimE's train pages
jrevans@accusort.com

> Speaking of the fall trips, how was the
> R&N trip on the 11th? I have tickets for
> the 18th.

> JimE

To judge (Olympic style) the R&N trip on 10-11-03, I would probably give it a 9.1

with points taken away (from a perfect 10) as follows-

- 5 points off for no steam on the point. (611 would look good pulling our red train)
- 1 point off for "foilage" not yet at peak. (18th should be better)
- 3 points off for a few little glitches that only a few of us know about internally.

The trip was full, sold-out a month ago.
Not a single incident or injury out of 700 on board.
We ran on-schedule (mostly).
The weather was great.

I'll be happy with a repeat on the 18th (minus the glitches).

I hope you enjoy it.

I had the pleasure of being the engineer, and the American Flags on the engines are off of Durango & Silverton #478, souvenirs from my vacation last month.

PS: get to Port Clinton on time in the morning.
We open for boarding at 8:00am, and depart at 9:00 sharp!
There is extra highway traffic in the area now, with the new Cabela's store open.

Thanks for the great information!

> To judge (Olympic style) the R&N trip on
> 10-11-03, I would probably give it a 9.1

Excellent rating!

> - 5 points off for no steam on the point.
> (611 would look good pulling our red train)

Drool.... But I'd gladly "settle" for the 2102 or the 425. :-)

> I'll be happy with a repeat on the 18th

It looks as though it's going to be a bit cooler this saturday, but still dry.

> I hope you enjoy it.

I'm sure that I will. You guys run a class act.

> I had the pleasure of being the engineer,
> and the American Flags on the engines are
> off of Durango & Silverton #478,
> souvenirs from my vacation last month.

Best seat in the house, eh?

> PS: get to Port Clinton on time in the
> morning. We open for boarding at 8:00am, and
> depart at 9:00 sharp!

I'm bringing my 74 year old dad, so we'll probably be there at 7am if he has his way. :-)

> There is extra highway traffic in the area
> now, with the new Cabela's store open.

I'll be stopping there on the way back.

JimE (the goober who took your picture on Sunday at the R&N open house, when you were helping people at the stairs of the 2102....)

JimE's train pages
jrevans@accusort.com

> To judge (Olympic style) the R&N trip on
> 10-11-03, I would probably give it a 9.1

So, what rating does the 10-18-03 trip get? Oddly enough, the foilage still didn't seem to be peaked, but everything else was great! (I did tease the one crewman with the EMD hat when he went on-board at Jim Thorpe with a roll of duct tape, but I don't know the story behind that.)

> I hope you enjoy it.

I sure did! That R17 guy did a good job. :-)

> I had the pleasure of being the engineer,
> and the American Flags on the engines are
> off of Durango & Silverton #478,
> souvenirs from my vacation last month.

They announced you and the story of the flags in the coaches. Neat! It was a very well run trip, and even going into the hole twice for the Rail-tours train was painless. It was neat to see the CNJ F3's with the single-tone honkers come past.

The only glitch that I saw (and got a picture of too) was when the 803 couldn't get a good hitch onto the private cars next to my coach (308).

And the man in his 40's that you let sit in the conductor's seat (at Jim Thorpe) was as giddy as a teenager when he came down from the loco. He was a tourist in Jim Thorpe, and he told me "I always wanted to sit in a locomotive since I was a little boy." I bet he's on the next R&N excursion. :-)

I grabbed some pics of you in the cab, including this "artsy" one in Jim Thorpe (shot into the sun....)

JimE (I'll post some pics in the next few days)

JimE's train pages

jrevans@accusort.com

> I grabbed some pics of you in the cab,
> including this "artsy" one in Jim
> Thorpe (shot into the sun....)

> JimE (I'll post some pics in the next few
> days)

Warning: pointing a camera in the direction of my face will likely cause the camera to malfunction.