It was a slow afternoon in Kansas; Surfed in on a New York TV broadcast- News 12 / ‘Road Trip’–had a video of a volunteer operated museum and rail road… I was going to PM (Wayne) Flintlock 76…
But apparently, I am unable to access that Forum Function (?)…
The broadcasted video seemed to be pretty interesting; there was also a notification of an upcoming function Sept 10th/11th of Sept 2022.
I know Wayne is a former New Jersey resident; he might have a interest in a side trip? The website has directions, and phone number.
Thanks Sam! I know the place! Also called the Pine Creek Railroad it’s in Allaire State Park in South Jersey. Allaire was a iron-making center back in the 18th and 19th Centuries utilizing what was called “bog iron,” the iron ore deposits found in local marshes. It was good iron too but fell out of favor when the Mesabi Range iron became available. The village of Allaire was abandoned but was made into a state park in the 1960’s and the surviving homes and buildings restored.
The last time we were there was (I think) 1983. Their former Surrey, Sussex & Southampton steam engine was in operation and it was a fun ride. The first time I was there was in the mid-60’s and their Shay locomotive was in operation, running past it felt like it was hammering the ground!
They don’t have the steam collection running at this time but as far as I know the engines are under cover.
Forum moderator Steve Otte expressed a little frustration a few days ago that the PM function wasn’t working.
As I understand it though IF you’ve got an ongoing conversation going that’s not affected. But you can’t start new ones. Obviously it’s not a priority for whoever Kalmbach outsources their IT to.
Uh-huh. And the “Events” section doesn’t work either, at least not for posting new events. There IS a big full-screen ad for “Trainfest 2022” which looks like a lot of fun but I’m not going to Wisconsin for a train show. Not even for those great Wisconsin cheeses.
One thing I learned about the IT thought process. Nobody wants to do the requisite maintenance programming function - the ‘hot shots’ feature such maintenance work is beneath their abilities. In fact even the ‘plodders’ feature maintenance is below their meager abilities. Having to dig into another persons code and thus their thought processes can be a daunting challenge - a challenge that in the IT world doesn’t get compensated at the same level as NEW code.
Anyway, getting us back to where Sam started us I found some vintage video of the Pine Creek Railroad from 1987. It’s an amateur video but it’s not bad.
In it you’ll see the Surrey, Sussex & Southampton 2-6-2, the ex-Irish Railways 4-4-0 “Lady Cavan,” and Ely Thomas Shay #6.
The passenger coach is ex-Newfoundland Railway! It was re-gauged from the Newfoundland Railway’s 3’6" gauge to 3’ gauge by the Pine Creek folks. The Jersey Central caboose is original, also regauged.
