Catskill Mountain Railroad (CMRR) Discussion - 2017

Must be the baseball cards hitting the spokes !

Hopefully once everyone watches the railbikes flop and Phoenicia-area businesses suffer losses, the trains will be back. The next election cycle could also really help that process...

The same company is opening its new Aquidneck Island (Newport) Rhode Island railbike venture April 8th.

https://www.railexplorers.net/book

Could the railbike company invite CMRR to run trains "off hours" on the track they control? CMRR hasn't (yet) moved/sold off their trains. This would "maximize" revenue.

BandA wrote:Could the railbike company invite CMRR to run trains "off hours" on the track they control? CMRR hasn't (yet) moved/sold off their trains. This would "maximize" revenue.

This has been discussed previously and the answer is "NO." The county permit forbids train operation of any kind. The railbikes folks actually considered using a speeder pulling a trailer for some tours and were also told "No" because then that would be a train, and trains are bad as far as the county is concerned. Remember, Chris White awarded the contract to RailExplorersUSA *specifically* because they were not going to operate trains on the Phoenicia segment.

“Rail Explorers offered what we thought was a better value in terms of how many people they would employ and visitors they would bring to area,” said White at the March 8 meeting. “We like that they’re not operating heavy diesel trains.”

https://hudsonvalleyone.com/2017/03/16/ ... ike-tours/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

-otto-

lvrr325 wrote:Well, if the people prefer the diesel trains, who are we to argue?

But I can't imagine these bike things make any noise unless you have a crowd of rowdy drunks on them.

...well, this ride isn't exactly going to attract normal cyclists looking for exercise...

What is the over/under on rail explorers going out of business at this location within the next 5 years?

^RailExplorers was very successful in the Adirondacks.

While I don't believe it should be allowed to force active railroads off their own tracks, I like the idea of unused tracks being used recreationally as tracks. In this case especially, it beats the bag out of a thin strip of asphalt. Climates change and people move (pols get replaced). It'll take much less of a change in wind direction to bring trains back to a line with tracks. The battle may be lost, the war is not.

Wow, I can't believe these people complaining about the Rail-Bikes!!!! I for one would much rather see Diesel Engines running out of Phoenicia, but at least The Rail Bikes require tracks and they wont be ripped out. That leaves the door open for the CMRR to resume running on that section as soon as the lawsuits finish against 'noisy' Rail-Explorers!

Thursday March 30th

Jim Bruck, Marcia Roosa and Pat Smalley worked to take down side Polar decorations in the Kingston coaches.


Saturday, April 1st

Crew consisted of John Marino, Mark Glaser, Tom Whyte, Peter Fluchere Dave Hillard and Vince Guido. Track inspection was done and four trees removed from the ROW. Installed four ties in the O&W siding.


Sunday, April 2nd

Hunter Downie and Dave Hilliard cleaned out coach 2962 and 2940.


Monday, April 3rd

Marcia Roosa and Pat Smalley worked on the second coach and purchased additional decorations to finish the second and possibly the third coach.


Tuesday, April 4th

Today, Tuesday, Marcia Roosa and Pat Smalley finished the two coaches. They will be meeting again on Thursday to complete the third coach and the flat.



Ernie Hunt
Volunteer Coordinator
CMRR

Wednesday April 5th

Jim Bruck worked on the 50 foot flat car.


Thursday April 6th

Pay Smalley and Marcia Roosa continued work on the coaches.


Friday April 7th

The train crew assembled the train, consisting of Earl Pardini, Mark Glaser, John Marino, Vince Guido, and Karl Wick. Afterwards, John Marino, Mark Glaser and Karl Wick removed a tree from the ROW.

Greg Vaughn and Vince Guido did electrical work on coach 1727.


Saturday April 8th

Saturday we ran five Easter trains and carried 1076 people.

Earl Pardini was the Engineer. Karl Wick was the Conductor. John Marino was the Brakeman. The flaggers were Tom Whyte, Russ Hallock, Mark Glaser and Bruce Devorkin. The crew in the bunny patch was Linda Marino, Marcia Roosa, Karen Vogel and Pat Smalley. Ticket Agent was Peter Fluchere. Dave Hilliard assisted during the day as well as many others.

Dave Hilliard was interviewed by Spectrum News. Here is a link to the news clip:

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_ ... 48599&_rdr

Congrats to all who made this a great event, especially Pat Smalley who was the event coordinator.

In Long Island, Joe Wolff and Harrison Balduf removed 2X seats from a P72 car there.



Sunday April 9th.


Joe Wolff unloaded P72 seats in Phoenicia, and began cleaning the side dump.



Ernie Hunt
Volunteer Coordinator
CMRR

NYS I Love NY Video on our West End Operation:

https://youtu.be/y9AOgWSv7nU" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Published on November 3, 2016, a few days after our operation on the west end shut down forever.

EH

CMRR Annual Results published:

http://www.dailyfreeman.com/general-new ... ip-in-2016" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

EH

Note how the headline in the Freeman is negative towards the railroad, while the contents of the article are neutral or positive.

Friday, April 14th

Mark Glaser and John Marino did a track inspection, serviced the 209 crossing and prepared the Easter Egg site.


Saturday, April 15th

Yesterday the CMRR carried 1203 riders on the Easter Bunny Express - up from 1094 the previous weekend. This was the most successful Easter Bunny Express ever.

May thanks to all including John Marino, Earl Pardini, Ray Farrell, Tom Whyte, Karl Wick, Mark Glaser, Steve Stanton, Bruce Devorkin, Fred Rasmussen, Joe Wolff, Karin Vogel, Hunter Downie, Alex Sorenson, Tyler Carelli, Martin Elbrecht, and new volunteer Fred Ehren.

In the Easter Egg field many thanks to Pat Smalley, Marcia Roosa, Linda Marino, and others. Peter Fluchere was ticket agent.

Joe Wolff also painted the roof on the 42 in between runs.


Ernie Hunt
Volunteer Coordinator
CMRR