Morristown & Erie 110th Anniversary Excursion

BigDell wrote:My mouth fell open when I saw this... I'd just been going on in another thread a few weeks ago about the lack of real excursion trips.... I Cannot Wait. Excellent!

Are you aware of the Juniata Terminal Company sponsored Amtrak special train from Pittsburgh down the Monongahela into southwest PA coal country, wye the train at the PA/WV state line and return to Pittsburgh on Sunday July 28th?

Very Rare mileage, all first class cars/service, no coaches, Amtrak motive power (no PRR E-8 locomotives), and a very pricey ticket ... $800 fare plus $500 contribution (tax deductible) to a rail preservation charity supporting preservation of ALTO tower.

Hey Idiot Railfan, welcome back man. Been too long.

airman00 wrote:Well some of the trip is on NS trackage, so the need for the NS engine. Personally I would've liked the NS engine to be the 2100 (sw1001). But oh well. It also would've been nice for the M&E engine to be the #20. (sw1500) (Yes a switcher led consist would be cool) And then yes a CNJ geep could round out a sweet consist... 2 sw's and a geep.

A Comet-less consist consisting of 3 perfectly matched red Alcos or the ex-CNJ Geeps again would have been the icing on the cake. It would be in a sense a pre-farewell to the ex-CNJ Geeps which are obviously at the end of their lifecycle. In leiu of the Comets why not some URHS, M&E, NYS&W stock tossed in? I guess it is what is (with how it has been arranged).

AlliedSignal3674 wrote:

airman00 wrote:Well some of the trip is on NS trackage, so the need for the NS engine. Personally I would've liked the NS engine to be the 2100 (sw1001). But oh well. It also would've been nice for the M&E engine to be the #20. (sw1500) (Yes a switcher led consist would be cool) And then yes a CNJ geep could round out a sweet consist... 2 sw's and a geep.

A Comet-less consist consisting of 3 perfectly matched red Alcos or the ex-CNJ Geeps again would have been the icing on the cake. It would be in a sense a pre-farewell to the ex-CNJ Geeps which are obviously at the end of their lifecycle. In leiu of the Comets why not some URHS, M&E, NYS&W stock tossed in? I guess it is what is (with how it has been arranged).

Lets hold off on calling the Geeps goners until we have a contract proposal for their direct replacements on the docket. The 45 fleet is merely replacing the F40s thus far with additional capacity for any one seat rides from dieselized territory that they may want to provide later on.

Plus 4104 ,4105, and possibly some others are getting rebuilt into work engines.

AlliedSignal3674 wrote:

airman00 wrote:Well some of the trip is on NS trackage, so the need for the NS engine. Personally I would've liked the NS engine to be the 2100 (sw1001). But oh well. It also would've been nice for the M&E engine to be the #20. (sw1500) (Yes a switcher led consist would be cool) And then yes a CNJ geep could round out a sweet consist... 2 sw's and a geep.

A Comet-less consist consisting of 3 perfectly matched red Alcos or the ex-CNJ Geeps again would have been the icing on the cake. It would be in a sense a pre-farewell to the ex-CNJ Geeps which are obviously at the end of their lifecycle. In leiu of the Comets why not some URHS, M&E, NYS&W stock tossed in? I guess it is what is (with how it has been arranged).

Am I the only one that finds this humorous and ironic? For years railfans have complained about fan trips becoming virtually extinct in NJ, and now after years of waiting the M&E, NS, and NJT have delivered with an impressive trip for any railfan. So what happens? Railfans complain about the prices, power, and rolling stock used in the trip. Are you really serious? I'm sure the brains behind coordinating the trips have kept in mind how to keep it railfan appealing and practical at the same time. We are complaining that Comet Vs are being used on the trip instead of the NYS&W cars (which have been sold off for years), or you want to use some of those damaged (or have they since been restored?) green URHS coaches in the trip. Regarding the power, there is a reason why they can't use three red alcos (which they don't have anymore) and are using a P40 over an ex CNJ Geep.

Comets are used for capacity. If they don't sell as many tickets as they originally hoped, they can easily chop off a Comet and no one will care or be the wiser. If they have phenomenal sales, an extra Comet can be added, filling the train with $199 passengers, but passengers nonetheless. In the end, who cares? When they had the sell out Farewell to the FL-9 trip, most of the passengers were in standard issue Shoreliners, myself included. They had extremely limited seating in the two first class MN executive cars. It was all about the rare mileage and power pulling it, which in this case, is very rare, and is still M&E power. Given that it is in August, we'll all be glad that a P40 is providing HEP for the air conditioning.

When was the last time that any railfan specific excursion departed out of Hoboken traveling on rare mileage?

alewifebp wrote:Comets are used for capacity. If they don't sell as many tickets as they originally hoped, they can easily chop off a Comet and no one will care or be the wiser. If they have phenomenal sales, an extra Comet can be added, filling the train with $199 passengers, but passengers nonetheless. In the end, who cares? When they had the sell out Farewell to the FL-9 trip, most of the passengers were in standard issue Shoreliners, myself included. They had extremely limited seating in the two first class MN executive cars. It was all about the rare mileage and power pulling it, which in this case, is very rare, and is still M&E power. Given that it is in August, we'll all be glad that a P40 is providing HEP for the air conditioning.

When was the last time that any railfan specific excursion departed out of Hoboken traveling on rare mileage?

I agree with everything that was said with your reply and the one above yours.... I was told if this trip goes well then they will look into other trips, but if the constant railfan bashing continues without anyone buying a ticket, then I'm sure there won't be any more rare mileage trips!!
Insurance costs to cover a "buff fantrip" like this one on NS/NJT can't be cheap today!!!

As I've said before.... for those of you complaining, why don't you buy a ticket or don't complain at all!!!

I will be riding, so whoever else is in this forum, then I hope to see you on the trip!!

I say, complain and bash all you want--for many that is an important part of the railfan hobby. Just make sure to buy a ticket. If the trip sells well (and it looks like it will) hopefully M&E will have more rare-mileage trips. 2 friends and I have 3 deluxe coach tickets. What could be rarer mileage than a trip the whole length of the Lackawanna old main line? When was the last time it saw a passenger train?
At first glance the trip is pricey, but train excursions cost much more than they used to anywhere they are held. I rode the Horseshoe Curve trip Memorial Day weekend--it was expensive. Just look at what the excursions cost at any NRHS convention.
I don't know what makes these trips cost so much--maybe it's insurance. The June 29 Steamtown-Delaware Water Gap trip, at $64, is as close to a bargain as you're gonna get.

I'm sure insurance is expensive, and host railroad costs. I don't remember what the cost was for the Century of Third Rail power trip that MN held after the Farewell to the FL-9 trip (figures that I'd start to get interested in going on these excursions just when they started to dry up), but it was perhaps only $75 or less. That was with all MN equipment on an active MN line with many volunteers. In the case of MN, they needed to make sure that those trips pretty much are cost neutral.

Since the M&E doesn't have a large amount of passenger rolling stock (or any that they directly own, I'm know very little about the M&E), they need to rent it from other places, and pay for the associated travel costs of getting the PV to where it needs to go. And since many of the PV hold significantly less passengers than a C5, so those costs need to spread amongst fewer people. The costs start adding up quickly. If anything, I do feel that the C5 coach fare could probably be cheaper. Then again, the extra costs charged there help defray other costs wherein you might have to charge much more for a deluxe coach or first class fare, limiting the appeal and chance to sell them out.

In the end, things like this are expensive. If the M&E has a $500 profit over total costs including labor, I'd imagine they'd be pretty happy. Since they are not a charity, they certainly don't want to lose money.

M&E cars Pine, Magnolia, and Alexander Hamilton are currently enroute from Maine to Morristown so they can begin to be prepped for the train.

First video from a fellow buff is up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JAiqydRRpY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Here is a shot from earlier today in Manville:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=448607

My shot from Convent Station: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-mpmgeVg3w" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Was on the train today in Braddock Inn. Great trip. We pretty much held 50 all the way out the Lehigh Line with some minor exceptions... Trip up the Washington Secondary was slow, as expected. The trip up the M&E felt fast - phone died so I lost my speedometer... We only slowed down a few times, but pretty much had the railroad. It felt like an inverse Tom Taber Express...