NYS&W motorcar trip on May 20 and 21, 2006

Hello everyone,

Wanted to let all the New Jersey railfans know of an opportunity to ride the NYS&W Southern Division in exchange for some help. The Volunteer Railroaders Association is running a two day motorcar trip over the line on May 20 and 21, 2006. On May 20th we will be running from Riverdale to Pelton Road (Warwick) and return and on Sunday running from Riverdale to Hawthorne and return. This trip has enough attendees signed up at this time to hit our break even point so it will NOT be cancelled.

Both days we will be starting off from Riverdale, NJ from the former bulk transload facility accessed via Paterson Hamburg Turnpike on the Greenwood Lake Branch. Its right next to the former Erie "Riverdale" train station. Seton for the speeders begins at 7:30am.

Saturday is the long day. We will leave around 9am and head up the Greenwood Lake Branch across the diamond and then west on the NYS&W main. Lunch will be around noon at the Vernon Crossing Deli, but arrival time is dependent on breakdowns, weather and such. We will turn the cars at Baird's crossing and come back east again stopping at Vernon Crossing for a potty stop. We plan to get back to Riverdale by 5pm, but again weather and breakdowns can prolong that.

Sunday, set on will begin at 7:30am, but most owners will have left their speeders overnight on the track. Once everyone arrives we will prepare to depart. Again the scheduled time is 9am. It doesn't take too long to get to Hawthorne. I would say we would get there around 11am. Lunch stop at the station. All the cars will turn there and then head west back to Riverdale. Should be back to Riverdale around 3-4pm. We are trying to get everyone off the line and on the road by 6pm.

Now here is the offer...

If you are over 18 and you can flag crossings on one of the two days, you can ride as a passenger on one of the speeders the other day. The day you flag you get a free lunch. You will be teamed up with someone else, given safety gear, a radio, and a crossing list. What we do is have the flagging teams go to each crossing by motor vehicle just ahead of the lead speeder. You stop the motor vehicle traffic from crossing. Call on the radio that you have the traffic stopped and the entire group of speeders can move through the crossing without stopping.

This event is insured through NARCOA and we have the full approval of the railroad for our trip. This will be our 7th year running on the NYS&W. As stated previously you MUST be 18 and you will be required to sign a release. The minimum age limit is a requirement of the railroad and there unfortunately are no exceptions. You DO NOT need to be a member of the Volunteer Railroaders Association to help out.

On both days once the cars arrive back at the set on point, flaggers need to turn in their radios and safety gear and then they can leave.

We would like to have 4-5 teams of flaggers for each day, so there are a limited number of people we can accommodate.

If you are interested in this opportunity please email me directly at [email protected] or Mark, our crew caller at [email protected]

http://www.vratrips.org/sched.html

If you are not sure what a speeder is take a look at the NARCOA website;

http://www.narcoa.org/

This is a rain or shine event. And it is the only opportunity for the railfan community to ride the NYS&W Southern Division.

Chris Vitz
VRA President

Its a shame I have Mets-Yankees tickets for that weekend, or I'd do it.

will be in wildwood.

Why are flagmen needed and why don't these vehicles have ability to make the track circuit to activate the signals?

Isn't there continuity across the axle and connected wheels?

BlockLine_4111 wrote:Why are flagmen needed and why don't these vehicles have ability to make the track circuit to activate the signals?

Isn't there continuity across the axle and connected wheels?

The railroad and speeder rules prohibit continuity and require that the wheels be insulated. Most speeders don't have sufficient weight to reliably trigger track circuits which would result in intermittent operation of signals.

Also, speeders, unlike trains, do not have right of way at grade crossings and must yield to road traffic.

That said, railroad employee pilots on speeder runs will sometimes manually activate grade crossing lights or gates, but motorists none the less are not required to stop though most would not realize that.

Most don't stop when its a 9,000 ton train doing 40 miles an hour to begin with..

I thought there were insurance issues with running on the NYSW? is there a loophole in which this trip was approved?

The VRA is involved, they pretty much get anything they want, meanwhile other groups try to run on the NYS&W and they get hit with a 300 million insurance charge...

Its not that simple. The VRA runs sign releases. Your only talking about a group of 30-60 people. A full blown exersion has 300-500 people. I don't think your going to get 300-500 soccer moms signing away their right to sue if something goes wrong.

test

Still insurance is insurance..whether its 2 people or 2million.
I hear that these trips were illegal last year..
watch out for the road trains if you guys run under the radar this year!

1. The railroad is fully aware that they are running.
2. I said they sign releases. This way there is no insurance problem.

You guys have to get over the fact that large scale passenger excursions will NEVER run on the NYS&W again.

I'm glad this is archived..because never is a long time
and what was the reason last years trip was cancelled?

A quick search turned up this:

http://railroad.net/forums/viewtopic.ph ... hlight=vra

northjerseybuff wrote:I'm glad this is archived..because never is a long time
and what was the reason last years trip was cancelled?

Yes, your right, never is a long time. And it will never happen.