Re: Railstar's NY operation.

T A,

Thank you for posting that article. It's really amazing.

In the first two paragraphs, the reader is told:

Quote

Mr. Trottier purchased the [Erie Canal Village] from the City of Rome three years ago. Ever since then, he and his staff have put in long hours and have breathed new life into the living history museum. Mr. Trottier’s main business has been restoring and operating tourist railroads in the west, but he turned his attention to what he felt had great potential.

That is a very interesting spin, that Railstar had been "restoring and operating tourist railroads in the west" before they turned their attention to the Erie Canal Village in Rome. The first problem with this spin is the author's use of the plural form of railroads: AFAIK, the *only* railroad in the west that Railstar has operated has been the Loop. The second problem is the "three years ago" timeframe. Three years ago, the GLRR, Inc. was packing up and moving out of Silver Plume. It has not been three years since the CHS started telling the Georgetown community that their new operator had extensive experience in "the east".

Also, T A asked:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So is the railroad open-or closed? website does
> not mention the railroad-unless I am missing
> something. Anybody know?

I don't know for sure, but I interpreted the article differently:

Quote

Not surprisingly, one of his first acts of revitalization was to restore the village’s mile-long narrow gauge railroad with its small nearly century-old steam locomotive and newly constructed passenger cars that he found at the old Frontier Town amusement park in Elizabethtown in the Adirondacks. The train was one of the original attractions at the village, but when an earlier locomotive broke down, the train ride was discontinued. For a short time, the trains were pulled by a simulated diesel locomotive, but this was not in keeping with the old time theme of the museum, and it was also shunted off to the shed.

I believe that the "small nearly century-old steam locomotive" refers to the porter that we've previously seen pictures of posted here on the NGDF. If I recall correctly from my childhood, the Erie Canal village used to have an amusement park 2-6-2 pulling its train. The amusement park 2-6-2 is probably the "earlier locomotive" that broke down.

More interesting to me is that Railstar resorted to using "newly constructed passenger cars that he found at the old Frontier Town amusement park in Elizabethtown in the Adirondacks." What ever happened to Railstar's promised expertise of being able to construct brand-new rolling stock?

BTW, the "Frontier Town" that was in Elizabethtown, NY was an amusement park that went belly-up in 1998. Here's a link:
RoadsideAmerica.com: Remnants of Frontier Town, 1950s wild west attraction, seized and auctioned

"Frontier Town" was sort of like Tweetsie, except that "Frontier Town" did not have an authentic train. It also didn't have any amusement park rides, nor any professionally done shows. Come to think of it, this probably explains why they went belly up...

"Frontier Town" did have a steam train; I suspect it may have been a Crown. There are three pictures of a locomotive on this page:
Steve Goss' Frontier Town: Then and Now

Elsewhere on that site are these pictures:



Can anyone identify what type of locomotive this is?
--
Chris Webster
[www.speakeasy.org]