Naugatuck Flyer - Sunday, September 11, 2005. Standard Bomb train with Genesis; Naugatuck RR will use their NHRR RS3 #0529 on their portion of the trip. At least one photo stop, and probably more (photo stop locations to be announced on board). Coach fare: Adults, $65, children $40. Lunch is on your own in Thomaston.
Farewell to the FL9s - Sunday, October 23, 2005. Two NH painted (hopefully…) FL9s, MN1, 4 bomb coaches and MN2. Trip actually originates out of GCT on private section of train 6510 (8:07AM); change to the excursion train at Stamford. Excursion train runs Stamford → Devon → Derby Jct. → [Housatonic RR] → Danbury → Stamford. A special MU train will then run Stamford to GCT for New York fans. Boarding/detraining will be permitted at Stamford. At least one photo stop, and probably more (photo stop locations to be announced on board). Coach fare: Adults, $75, children $40. First Class fare aboard Phoebe Snow observation cars MN1 and MN2: $200. Coach and First Class passengers on this trip receive boxed lunch and admission to the Danbury Railway Museum.
For tickets: Coach tickets on both trips will be sold EXCLUSIVELY on the web, at http://www.mta.info/mnr/html/grouptravel/excursions.htm. As info, the web site isn’t up yet with this information, but will be by the end of this week. COACH TICKETS WILL NOT BE SOLD BY TELEPHONE OR MAIL ORDER - Only via the web. If you don’t have a credit card for the web order, you’ll need to find someone who can help you out. Sorry, but there’s too much involved to permit telephone or mail-order sales.
First class tickets (VERY limited availability) on the Farewell to the FL9s trip will be sold only by telephone; call MNR Group Travel at 212-499-4398, M-F 8:30AM to 5:00PM.
Check the web site over the next few days, and buy your tickets early!
Well, from the sounds of it at least one or two FL9s will be preserved. Glad about it.
A few months ago, I saw a picture of an FL9 that was being scrapped! I don’t remember if it was on Railfan.net, but nevertheless it saddened me. These units were running when I was a kid growing up in New York City during the 60s and 70s. Since I lived near a commuter station, I remember hearing what sounded like “steam” locomotive whistles. As I kid, I knew what a steamer looked like and would look out of my parents bedroom window to spot it. Yet, every time I saw were these red, white, and black locomotives hauling passenger trains. I kept wondering “Where was that Choo-Choo?”
It would be about 13 years or so before I learned of the “Hancock” whistle and that the locomotives I saw were EP5 “jets” and FL-9s. I saw the movie “Superman” and in the scene when the New Haven locomotive left Grand Central blowing the horn, I almost yelled out…“That’s the whistle I heard!”
One thing I didn’t mention was that by the time I started paying closer attention to paint schemes, it was the Penn Central era. Fortunately, the FL9s kept the McGinnis colors for a long time.
The jets were looking “horrid” with so many chunks of paint flaking off, so Penn Central black, while not “cute”, did make them look cleaner.
Sad to see the FL9’s demise as they were the units that got me hooked on railfanning when I used to see them come flying through Tuckahoe, NY in the morning while I waited for my MU train to GCT back in the early 1970’s when I commuted to Manhattan before moving to Wausau, WI and really falling in love with railroads (MILW, CNW, GBW and SOO at that time).
