Re: Moonlight train ride is back!

Michael, I'm puzzled. Great photo, but why for a Moonlight Train ride? You have shown a great interest in advising the C&TS on how to market the railroad, so is this your recommendation for attracting riders to enjoy such an evening; a way to attract tourists who by-and-large would have little interest in seeing some equipment in a railroad yard at night? Or is your target audience loco-centric rail-fans like me?

As one of the advocates at RGRPC for having the operator run moonlight trains, which we introduced quite successfully back in 2001, we placed our advertising emphasis on the romantic aspects of heading off on an adventure into the scenic mountains and back to an earlier time, complete with a BBQ dinner out in the wilderness of the high Rockies (well, if you consider Osier a wild place). And as an opportunity to attract tourists to spend an additional night in Chama. To the extent the locomotive figured in our promotion it was as a mysterious beast up ahead with it's headlight lighting the landscape, the fire reflecting off the forest, all bathed in moonlight.

As a general point, and not to single out Michael, too often the advertising suggestions one sees from railfans are great for attracting railfans. Nothing wrong with that, but that's not the biz that pays the bills.