Last years Rail Festival in Owosso was a great event and it appears that the 1225 is coming along just fine in her rebuild. Was the festival a financial sucess in their effort to raise funds for the 1225?
From what I’ve read, the Train Festival barely paid for itself.
The event, as I recall reading, barely paid for itself, as stated above however, this was the first event of it’s kind and lessons were to be learned. I can’t seem to locate my SRI newsletter but in addition to pulling off such an event, many improvements were made at the Steam Railroading Institute, regarding it’s rolling stock, it’s museum and grounds, including new switches and tracks among other long term investments. Perhaps someone can chime in with more details.
The organizers are to be commended for there vision and the hard work and time necessary to see it through, not just once, but again in WV and yet again for what may be one of the biggest events ever - coming to Rock Island, IA in July 21-24th, 2011.
/Mitch
I checked STI’s website and the upcoming event calendar does not as yet include 2011. Could you please give us a hint of what is coming to Rock Island IL?
Absolutely incorrect. The festival made well over a million dollars and resulted in substantial revenue for the 1225’s rebuild. TrainFestival did not “barely pay for itself.”
SRI’s DEBT from the facility and turntable construction from YEARS ago is what has caused the financial problems.
and yet again for what may be one of the biggest events ever - coming to Rock Island, IA in July 21-24th, 2011.
/Mitch
You must mean Rock Island Illinois, There is no Rock Island IA.
Yes, Trainfestival 2011 is going to be held in the Quad Cities. No information on what is possibly going has been posted, but I’m willing to bet Iowa Interstate sends their Chinese QJs to the event, and possibly the Rock Island heritage ES44AC also.
I only read about the festival and the follow-up in TRAINS magazine. Although I cannot lay my hands it directly right now to refer to or quote it, I, too,could swear I read that the festival barely paid for itself but had lessons learned, and the only place I could have read that would have been in the TRAINS magazine article following the festival. If it was not there, then I don’t know where I got that information from, but I understood it to barely pay for itself. The debt they carried, I believe I read, was causing them problems before the festival, which they were hoping the festival would help relieve {which I believe I may have read before the festival actually took place}. But since the festival barely paid for itself it seems it left them in as big a bind as they were in before the festival and not resolving any of it’s major financial issues. If not in TRAINS magazine, I do not know where else I could possibly have read that.*
*I could be wrong. I have been known to be wrong about something before and I am sure I will be wrong again about something sometime in the future of my lifetime.
TrainFestival made enough money to restore the 1225 (or at the very least, enable a sizable lead on the project – just around $400,000) but SRI was asked to refinance their loan from bank while working on debt reduction from years previous.
Faced with this, SRI cut their operating budget (and unfortunately their staff) but they still had money to either a) restore the locomotive or b) keep the lights on for 2010+ so they chose to keep the lights on while continuing to repay the debt, acquire grant monies and begin fund-raising for Project 1225, and sponsor trips (like the upcoming fall excursions behind NKP 765.) It’s not an ideal situation, but TrainFestival built up SRI’s facilities, put them on the map like no other event could, and paid for itself and then some.
You start splitting hairs depending on your perspective – no one can technically “profit” when in debt, since the debt must be paid off, but that doesn’t mean you don’t make money.
Nathan: By chance are one of the SRI volunteer/staff, so I can feel really stupid when you prove us all wrong again?
You seem to be more in the know than I, but the newsletter I got from SRI as a Post-show Wrap up (I was one of the redshirts) read soemthing to the effect that
- Due to the costs that SRI incurred from groundswork (The Live Steam, relaying, a new switch, etc) Train Fest paid for itself and put a much smaller portion of the money to 1225 than was expected, because it had to cover those expenses before it covered 1225.
- Those features are permanant, and will continue earning money, so it wasn’t ill spent.
- Turnout was lower than hoped. Still good, but the magic numbers I was hearing from TJ and Jason were 45-50K. SRI got a bit over 36. That’s still a nice sum of people however.
- 4449’s excursion DID however cover itself nicely, and they put their profits, a sum total of <400,000
I see no contradiction in either of our replies.
I’m speaking partially from SRI’s newsletter and in the months following.
If trying to convey the on the ground politics. challenges, and rewards of TrainFestival that aren’t as evident to the public makes you feel stupid despite our mutual support of SRI, then I don’t know what to tell you.
Also, the attendance numbers above 36,000 include over 800 vendors and volunteers, like you and me.
No, that doesn’t. I just meant I was waiting for you to do something like pull out the actual budget report from the meeting following and blow my source clear out of the water is all. I learned a lot from them though. Had an absolute blast and wishe I kept in touch with more of them than I have so far.
Galaxy: I Re-read your post. What you said about hoping to alleviate the debts on previous does rign a bell with me too from up there. I want to say that was the “third hand” out for money behind 1225, since they had (at the time I was there) a payment plan in place based from regularly scheduled events and admissions. Again, this as I understood it was just regular paybacks like a house or car. If 1225 had done well enough, more of that money would go into paying extra on the debts, but 1225 is a “surprise cost” in that it is different every 15yrs. This is moslty from evesdropping in the weekend prior to the show’s open, and we know how reliable that can be.