Conway Scenic Railroad (CSRX) discussion thread

Cant wait for that chase! Regarding 7470, at the middle of the 2010s, she had her 15 year FRA mandated rebuild completed. Why wasnt the crown sheet issues brought up then and same with the trucks for the tender. Also , since shes been down for the crown sheet issues, does that count against her mandatory 15 year/days used total?

I thought it was which ever came first, days used or 15 years.

I'm pretty sure the clock is still ticking even when its down. Its got to be so frustrating! When will it ever be time to move on??

CSRR573 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 08, 2023 8:41 pm Cant wait for that chase! Regarding 7470, at the middle of the 2010s, she had her 15 year FRA mandated rebuild completed. Why wasnt the crown sheet issues brought up then and same with the trucks for the tender. Also , since shes been down for the crown sheet issues, does that count against her mandatory 15 year/days used total?

For starters the 15-year inspection was partially done when the railroad was sold. Pitting was observed during the last boiler washout that management didn't like seeing. After running calculations, the crown sheet still passed the FRA inspection but at a lower pressure and they weren't interested going that direction, so they ordered the crown sheet to be replaced. Last I heard, they were waiting for the new crown sheet to come from the steel mill, and then they were hiring a contractor to come in and weld in the new crown sheet; I guess they have about 2 to 3 months of welding a head of them, so they've hired a big contractor that can handle the job. They are pushing hard to get 7470 up and running again for next year when the railroad celebrates its 50th Anniversary.

As for the tender trucks, cracks were discovered in both trucks, they found identical trucks as replacements only to discover they had the same cracking issue, so they abandoned that idea of finding matching trucks and went with modern trucks with roller bearings.

Three Ohio Central coaches on the rear of M426 yesterday, supposedly enroute to CSRX?

Saw that as well. My guess is they're going to sit somewhere, perhaps on NHCR, until the Notch "thaws out".

North Stratford perhaps, I believe Fritz posted that the other two MoW cars had left Island Pond. Going to be a busy summer already, with all the cars and equipment coming over.

It's about 8° here as I type, 16 miles and change west of Gateway.

The coaches came over the SLR last night.

Looking at the schedule, CSRX is offering four departures this weekend for the snow trains. 90 minutes apart, starting with the first departing North Conway at 10:30, the last at 3:30.

The shuttling of passengers is not as popular as it initially was 4 years ago when they started these trains, the majority of riders just want to experience a train ride; it's one of the reason the railroad is expanding their winter operations next year.
Now I'm hearing rumors that Patriot Rail has also requested winter access for their operations, I look forward to seeing what they do. All and all, I would say all 3 tourist operations are doing very well and that's a great sign.

Sounds like the 470 Club hopes to test the 1741 in the next few weeks, with paint to follow in the near term as they reach their donation goals. Updated number boards are in on the unit, and work progresses towards full operational status.

NH state representative Jonathan smith had introduced house bill 1468. The Final language of this horrid bill, proposes to rip up the tracks of the Conway branch…
Time to write every congress person, governor etc to stop this crazy bill and action from proceeding .

The Conway Scenic has expressed interest in the branch south of Conway, hopefully the state doesn't shut the door on their face like MEDOT did last year for the Mt. Division.

Anybody think a non profit 501C3 set up to fund the Conway Branch restoration to Ossipee would make sense and work? I already know of someone who would donate $10,000 as a start

It could potentially work, but raising that kind of money for railroad-related causes is very difficult. Here in New England we've seen many examples of it taking years or decades to raise enough money just to restore a locomotive or a trainset (e.g. MEC 470, Flying Yankee)... and those are tiny sums of money compared to what it costs to restore a branchline just to Class 1 standards.

In a conversation over on Facebook, Cory Fothergill of CSRR mentioned in the comment section that there were four potential freight customers in Tamworth alone that had expressed interest in the last 6 months (though it’s probably 7 months now). I feel like they might deserve a say in this.

Doesn’t the state also owe it to any railroad to publish a final RFP before removal of the tracks? I fear the precedent that could be set by this.