Re: Good information
| August 02, 2005 06:20AM |
The end of season is optimum, and thats what John Craft did in 1992. The problem is weather. That is why the C&TS stops operations when they stop!
In 1992 I remember GM Joe Vigil commenting on how lucky we were with the weather, which was near perfection for 5 days of freight runs. Apparently a day after we left it snowed like crazy. That was a bad winter, and in the spring of 93 the Rotary had to be used. I took advantage of that for a spring charter...in retrospect not optimum, cause of track problems and tired crews from battling snow for 4 days.
The idea of multiple days is great. One consideration I forgot to mention in my above scenarios, is that for the photographer, myself included, the part of the railroad we most want to photograph the train in is from Antonito to Cascade trestle. The portion of the railroad away from the highway is the most sought after. The Chama-Cumbres section is easily accessable, and has been done to death.
Thus how do you run a charter on the Antonito side! You can't turn at Big Horn Wye, nor at the Osier loop, so you have to run all day one-way trips somehow. If you run a trip from Antonito, you have to dead-head stuff there, or vice-versa. So, now you are talking about all-day one-way trips, or a two-day roundtrip to cover the railroad. These two day jaunts are going to be pricey and you had better make them great or folks won't pony up the bucks for them(see Michael Allens post).
Things to sort out
(1) When is the railroad willing to run for you, and what is the price for multiple engines and days.
(2) Are they willing to paint engine tenders and cab lettering Rio Grande, as well as provide the 0503(only real D&RGW)caboose with Rio Grande lettering?
(3) Remember the 12-hour crew law. Typically if you want to leave at 8 am, crews are called for 7 am. This means they have to be in terminal by 6 pm, to allow an hour to tie-down, and mark-off by 7 pm. This essentially means you have 10 hours to play with. It takes approx 6 hours just to run straight through with water stops alone. This can be frustrating when you have great low sunlight, but they don't have time to do that one last runby.
(4) Check on insurance and other liability. In 1993 I spent over $1700 to incorporate and for liability insurance. Money down the tube but don't leave home without it!!!
(5) If you want to sponsor a trip check with your mental health department, to see if you are sane first!
" /> " />
(6) Pay expenses for John Craft, or John West to run the show!
The optimum thing here would be for the Commission or the C&TS operators to operate this as a special event after the season. You could have a series of 3 one-hour kids trains one afternoon in conjunction with this. For example if a freight runs to Cumbres with a helper, send the helper to Chama, and have it run some trips from Chama to Dalton and then back to the Chama wye several times in the afternoon. Have Cinder Bear there for those trips. Do that on a Saturday so kids and parents go attend. Give them a riding tour through the yard to the wye while they turn the engine before the first run to Dalton.
As for general rider trips, I think if you use your imagination and enough engines were available you could do trips for die-hard fans, as well as some aimed at the general public.
As previously mentioned a Chama-Osier freight would work, but you have to turn the engines at Cumbres, then back them to Osier.
Another possible solution to the no-turning would be to run freights from both ends, and swap engines at Osier. This way you could have steam running correctly on Antonito RT, and Chama RT.
This would all take a lot of thought and planning based on what is allowable from the railroad to start with, and dollars that need to be covered. Allow 6 months lead time for ticket sales, and do some advertising on the web and perhaps in a couple of rail mags.
If you want more ideas and help on something let me know if something materializes for 2006. That will mark the 50th anniversary of my first visit, so I am going to try to make it next year.
I was 5 so you can do the math!" />
Greg
In 1992 I remember GM Joe Vigil commenting on how lucky we were with the weather, which was near perfection for 5 days of freight runs. Apparently a day after we left it snowed like crazy. That was a bad winter, and in the spring of 93 the Rotary had to be used. I took advantage of that for a spring charter...in retrospect not optimum, cause of track problems and tired crews from battling snow for 4 days.
The idea of multiple days is great. One consideration I forgot to mention in my above scenarios, is that for the photographer, myself included, the part of the railroad we most want to photograph the train in is from Antonito to Cascade trestle. The portion of the railroad away from the highway is the most sought after. The Chama-Cumbres section is easily accessable, and has been done to death.
Thus how do you run a charter on the Antonito side! You can't turn at Big Horn Wye, nor at the Osier loop, so you have to run all day one-way trips somehow. If you run a trip from Antonito, you have to dead-head stuff there, or vice-versa. So, now you are talking about all-day one-way trips, or a two-day roundtrip to cover the railroad. These two day jaunts are going to be pricey and you had better make them great or folks won't pony up the bucks for them(see Michael Allens post).
Things to sort out
(1) When is the railroad willing to run for you, and what is the price for multiple engines and days.
(2) Are they willing to paint engine tenders and cab lettering Rio Grande, as well as provide the 0503(only real D&RGW)caboose with Rio Grande lettering?
(3) Remember the 12-hour crew law. Typically if you want to leave at 8 am, crews are called for 7 am. This means they have to be in terminal by 6 pm, to allow an hour to tie-down, and mark-off by 7 pm. This essentially means you have 10 hours to play with. It takes approx 6 hours just to run straight through with water stops alone. This can be frustrating when you have great low sunlight, but they don't have time to do that one last runby.
(4) Check on insurance and other liability. In 1993 I spent over $1700 to incorporate and for liability insurance. Money down the tube but don't leave home without it!!!
(5) If you want to sponsor a trip check with your mental health department, to see if you are sane first!
" /> " />(6) Pay expenses for John Craft, or John West to run the show!
The optimum thing here would be for the Commission or the C&TS operators to operate this as a special event after the season. You could have a series of 3 one-hour kids trains one afternoon in conjunction with this. For example if a freight runs to Cumbres with a helper, send the helper to Chama, and have it run some trips from Chama to Dalton and then back to the Chama wye several times in the afternoon. Have Cinder Bear there for those trips. Do that on a Saturday so kids and parents go attend. Give them a riding tour through the yard to the wye while they turn the engine before the first run to Dalton.
As for general rider trips, I think if you use your imagination and enough engines were available you could do trips for die-hard fans, as well as some aimed at the general public.
As previously mentioned a Chama-Osier freight would work, but you have to turn the engines at Cumbres, then back them to Osier.
Another possible solution to the no-turning would be to run freights from both ends, and swap engines at Osier. This way you could have steam running correctly on Antonito RT, and Chama RT.
This would all take a lot of thought and planning based on what is allowable from the railroad to start with, and dollars that need to be covered. Allow 6 months lead time for ticket sales, and do some advertising on the web and perhaps in a couple of rail mags.
If you want more ideas and help on something let me know if something materializes for 2006. That will mark the 50th anniversary of my first visit, so I am going to try to make it next year.
I was 5 so you can do the math!
" />Greg
Sorry, you can't reply to this topic. It has been closed.
488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
The NGDF was started by Don Richter and is currently operated in his memory by Nathan Holmes and others. Others who have contributed to the upkeep of this board are (in no particular order): Charles McCandless, Everett Lueck, Ted Wilton, Cole Adams, James Bane, John Moellmer, Jon Bentz, Linn Moedinger, lloyd lehrer, Rod Jensen, John Craft, Steven Forney, Herb Kelsey, Bill Ramaley, Russ Sperry (El Russo Loco), Josh McNeal, John West, Jim Armstrong, Bob Bergstrom, Greg Scholl, Blake Forbes Doug van Veelen and Mark Fuller.