Tomstp Wrote:
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> Probably because we don't have mountains and cool
> weather and narrow gauge and our own track on
> which to run as do the Colorado boys. And, we
> don't take vacations to humid , hot east Texas, we
> go to Colorado-New Mexico. Betcha a good amount
> of C&TS and D&S riders got Texas plates on their
> cars/pick-ups.
>
> Couple of more things. Only Earl Knoob knew the
> secret to a successful Texas State Railroad. Give
> people what they want, steam. Steam trains have
> always had more passengers than those pulled by
> diesels. But, you got to have money to keep two
> engines running. And, inept new boiler ordering
> did not help one bit. TSR had good people
> running the railroad before the Texas Parks Board
> decided to cut off the money. Things went down
> hill after that.
We had good people there when the State ran it, and I worked there twice. The first was in the early 80's when we had FOUR engines in steam...1316, 7, 2248, and 316. Trains were regularly eight cars or better leaving Rusk, and six cars out of Palestine. We ran steam five days a week, and when we shut down in November, it was not uncommon to use steam on the work trains. We did have the diesels but nobody liked to run them much. One of my best memories of that time was firing 1316 up Fairchild Hill with 11 cars, some of them unrestored Erie Lackawannas ( with working air conditioners no less!).
The second go around was right about the time of the washout and collision, and the takeover by the narrow gauge guys. It was not a happy time, and they brought Colorado foolishness into laid back Texas. It was not a good fit, although the Polar Express that year was all steam (the only year it was all steam) and quite succesfull. The biggest train we ran the next year was the 2008 NRHS train. I left in August of 2008.
Texas State Railroad was a birds' nest on the ground when the State had it, but all the revenues we generated went back into the general fund. We could not advertise, and the railroad did not approach 60,000 regular season riders again once the State disposed of the railroad. So much more could have been done there, and could still be done there. One thing hurting them is the much higher fares which were being charged, and the lack of steam operations. This new group which took over has never run a steam oriented tourist railroad, so we'll see how things turn out for them. I don't think we'll ever see four operable steam locomotives at Texas State Railroad again, and that's a crying shame.
