Re: Ridership after Sept. 11th

Since by asking for East and West, you didn't limit your inquiry to Colorado or NG, I though I would mention our (Monticello Railway Museum -MRM) experience. This year is the 150th anniversary of the Illinois Central Railroad and we had several mini-celebrations over the course of the year to commemorate the event. All these mini-celibrations were to lead up to the the "Grand Finale" celebration on our annual "Railroad Days" event which was scheduled for the weekend of Sept 15-16. On "Railroad Days", we operate both freight (a mixed train) and passenger equipment as well as equipment we don't normally use or operate. We also invite motor car owners to bring their motor car equipment out. They give motor car rides over the 3 miles of our line that is currently out of service for train operation. This year's "Railroad Days" was to have an ICRR theme and most of the equipment operated, including a self-propelled steam pile driver, was exICRR equipment, or a close facsimille. I was expecting the atrocity of 9/11 to have a significant impact on attendance, but we had a really good turn out. We carried U.S. flags in the flag holders of the locomotives and had one on the crane boom of the pile driver as well. During the dedication of recently donated ICRR #8733 (a "Paduca re-built" GP-9, now a "GP-11"), it was announced that MRM was donating 10% of the ticket proceeds for the weekend to the American Red Cross for the ongoing disaster relief effort.
T.E. Scott Jr.