1/3-page ad on page 7 of the May issue of Railpace:

"FOR SALE OR LEASE
GETTYSBURG SCENIC RAILWAY

Located in Gettysburg, PA, Gettysburg Scenic Railway is available for sale or lease to an accredited operator.

Contact us at: 309-697-1400
For accredited operators only"

Now, aside from the issue of where one gets accredition for operating excursion trains, may I ask: What happened to the GSRY?

The Gettysburg & Northern (freight) and Gettysburg Scenic (passenger) are owned by Pioneer Railcorp, a publicly traded short line holding company that is in the process of trying to "go private". While it is pure speculation on my part, I would guess Pioneer is simply looking to cash out of a non-core asset and use the proceeds elsewhere. I'm sure they would retain an income stream from fees and services relating to the passenger operation once it is under new management.

While on the subject of Pennsylvania tourist operations, the Kiski Junction Railroad in western PA has been sold and has announced that they will discontinue excursions.

Alan Maples

Alan probably has it. If I understand it correctly (and I may not), the scenic railroad operation is a completely separate financial enterprise from the shortline freight. Essentially, you'd be operating over the GN.

Having watched this for a while, the ridership as the steam Gettysburg Railroad wasn't half bad, and prior to the accident. It dropped significantly with diesel, but I have no idea how Pioneer has done. I think it is in a market that somewhat expects steam. I also suspect that one of Sloans more effective advertising methods was just blowing the whistle and letting all those people wandering around outside in the Battlefield Park trying to figure out where the steam train was and searching it out. I think the first time I rode it was about 1978, when the 2-8-0 was in charge.

The railroad just touches the edge of the park area and then goes cross-county through pleasant if not necessarily historic territory. It's difficult to legitimately promote as a civil war-related attraction, but I thought the dinner train had promise because of the very large captured market size without too much else to do after the park closed in the afternoon.