Just got a letter in the mail advising me that the FW Railroad Historical Society will be having it’s open house Saturday and Sunday August 19 & 20. Will have the 765 under live steam, and moving (within the confines of their facility, up to the first switch) And will be offering “throttle time” to the public at large, Saturday evening only, for $50/pop
They also say thet they have satisfactorally made arrangements with someone for excursions later in the year, the location unspecified, but evidently a few miles away from home base. More details to be made available at the open house.
AntiGates…Put a bug in their ear to steam it up and come on down to Muncie…Just like they used to. When they came down here in the '80’s hundreds of folks would show up to see and watch the action.
Besides, Muncie down town is now “redone” and has all kinds of restaurants and stores available that were not back at that time…A vibrant down town now…!
I’ll bet they would arrange for much of the downtown to be open if the train would arrive on a Saturday or Sunday…
Man…I might have to make a trip out that way if they do run it somewhere. I’ve always wanted to catch a Berk in person. Those are such beautiful engines!
I’d love to do that, if I thought it would do any good. To a large degree THEY aren’t even in control of where they will go. They are having to go where a host RR will “have” them, and according to the info they cut loose for public consumption, NS won’t have any part of them operating live under steam on NS rails.
They have to get a modern diesel to pull them as dead load across NS property.
I guess that excursion steam has become a real red headed stepchild. Shame, but I guess that is the reality of the situation.
They mentioned in the newsletter that there is a curve in the line that would be the shortest transit haul to get to the excursion line, that is too tight for the 765 to negotiate, so part of their grief is in trying to find a round about path to get to the destination.
I’ve been trying to think where such a restricting curve might be in the area, just to get a feel for which direction they might be headed
…Yes, I’ve read of NS not wanting any excursion steam on their line…and of course it’s NS all the way from Ft. Wayne down to Muncie so suppose we’ve seen the last of 765 down here…They use to come and the passengers would have several hours to wonder around Muncie or what ever, visit, etc…And of course many folks from here would visit and watch the servicing of the engine and filling the tender with coal and water, etc…Remember they even had a female crew member “working” on it with the servicing…It was quite a “show” the few hours it would be here on it’s outing. It made at least a half dozen trips to our location over the years…
We’ve even had two steamers in here at once pulling an excursion train back in the '80’s era…611 and 587 were teamed up on one trip…Believe Bob McClain {The weatherman from channel 6} used to work with 587…Maybe still does.
Several others have been here too…The green jacketed Southern…was it 750 and still others.
Didn’t they do the test run in the spring on the ex PRR main towards Chicago? Seems to me to be a good fit since there is not a lot of freight traffic and you do not have to deal with NS or CSX for the actual excursion.
But if I was forced to guess, my first guess would be some line where the owner’s first line of business is not railroading… As a liability shield.
Someone like Rail America, could have huge exposure to liability, if anything went wrong.
You can have people sign waivers till the cows come home, when something serious goes wrong, the really good lawyers just start showing up out of the blue.
If on the other hand, you had some really thin pocket operation where if there was a problem, you just fold the tent, and there is nothing of any consequence to be had, then the deep pockets can breath easier.
Say for instance some grain elevator operator who has aquired abandoned lines serving his elevator, and operates a shell corporation just to have a way to leverage trucking contracts, you might be in business… Then if there was a big problem, the deep pocket is protected from the wolves.
I was lucky enough to be chosen in the “lottery” and will get my five minutes of throttle time on the 765 this weekend during the Open House for a cool 50 buck donation. Cheap at twice the price for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Anyone else?
I&O has been running excursions for years, even with Rail Americas blessing. They’ve run excursions from Cincinnati to Greensburg and from Cincinnati up the old B&O Midland Sub. Not sure if they went all the way to Lima Ohio via Springfield. Who knows Rail America may be interested in the P/R.
…What a shame NS has taken position it has of not allowing such action over their rails…It’s just about 70 plus miles down here to the Muncie area from Ft. Wayne and most likely good track.
It used to be a very popular event when it {765}, would visit us here, with hundreds of folks gathering to be part of the happening and to see what it was all about plus all the rail fans {that knew what it was}, and the hundreds on the visiting train…
Now…suppose we can expect that won’t be happening again…