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Ticket sales begin for 2015 NRHS convention in Vermont
It’s been several years since mainline steam has been part of the annual NRHS convention. Anybody remember what the last year was?
Tacoma in 2011 had (ex-SP) #4449 run a train over Stampede Pass. I believe there was steam at Iowa 2012, but I was not at that one. In 2013 Alaska there were no steam runs because there is no steam on ARR (yet).
At the Springdale (AR) convention (2014), there was narrow gauge steam at Silver Dollar City. In Alaska (2013), there was narrow gauge steam in Fairbanks and then tours of the 557 restoration project. In Iowa (2012), there were two days of mainline steam on the Iowa Interstate, one day of steam on the Boone Scenic, and one day of steam at Old Threshers in Mount Pleasant. Tacoma (2011) had several days of steam. The Stampede pass trip was sold out, but the Portland-Tacoma trips were mostly sold northbound and pretty empty southbound.
Finding big steam to run, and places to run it, are few and far between. Furthermore, the cost often runs $50,000 or more per day, generally not including insurance. The big railroads are seeing major congestion and even announced trips are not running. Regionals have limited opportunities, generally with the need to move equipment in and out, a cost that can run to several hundred thousand dollars for a full train.
Finding places that can host multi-day events are hard to find these days.
There also was “big” steam at the, Chattanooga, Scranton and Twin Cities Conventions and the Alco’s on the A&M come close to being steam engines… and a trip behind an RS2 is likely to be just as rare and opportunity as one behind a 4-8-4.
The 2008 NRHS Lone Star Rails Convention offered 2 steam trips, one each on the Grapevine Vintage Railroad and the Texas State Railroad. You can take trips today on both railroads but you need to check when the Grapevine is running steam.