CMSL service Rio Grande to Cape May

My family and I were on the first train to Cape May this morning and last train back to Rio Grande this afternoon. Fun ride with alot of people. CMSL had nice tickets and timetables. CMSL staff are a great group of people and railroaders. We greatly appreciate all their efforts to be running to Cape May in 2010!! Having grown up with RDCs along the shore it was a real treat to have them back operating on home tracks.

Anybody find out why they are not running on the weekend?

dlagrua wrote: I notice that the train is being stored in Rio Grande. Lets pray that the vandals are kept at bay this time. We often pass that way at night so I will volunteer to be part of the citizen watch. These important pieces of living RR history must be preserved.

As far as I know, that is not the case! I rode the 12:30 today from Rio Grande into Cape May returning on the 3:10pm. I will tell you that Tony and Co. took the equipment back north. There was nothing in Rio Grande tonight.

It was a nice little trip. Wish I can get down there and support the CMSL again before September, but I don't think that will be possible.

Perhaps they store the equipment at Rio Grande during the week and take it back north for the weekend.

For anyone not fortunate enough to get down ride and witness the train in person, here's the link to the Cape May County Herald article, including a YouTube video with a couple run-bys:

http://www.capemaycountyherald.com/arti ... hree+weeks

Link to the video in case the article expires:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a_ZFhOh ... r_embedded

Wow, they're only running for 3 weeks? That's weird.

What we need is a tiger grant from the federal simulus money,much of that is for rebuilding,railroads,bridges and roads.Much of Its sitting there unspent.Lets get the other 10 miles of track fixed now so we can go from North Jersey,NY,Philadelphia and everywhere else and go all the way to Cape May.We just gave Pakistan 60 million MORE ,we could have double tracked that 10 miles.

Matt Johnson wrote:Wow, they're only running for 3 weeks? That's weird.

3 weeks is better than 0 weeks in my opinion folks...

Mike DiMunno

south jersey trains wrote:What we need is a tiger grant from the federal simulus money,much of that is for rebuilding,railroads,bridges and roads.Much of Its sitting there unspent.Lets get the other 10 miles of track fixed now so we can go from North Jersey,NY,Philadelphia and everywhere else and go all the way to Cape May.We just gave Pakistan 60 million MORE ,we could have double tracked that 10 miles.

If they bought the Rohr Turboliners I'd be down there riding every week! Seriously, though, the RDC's are neat...I'd like to take a ride on 'em!

JJMDiMunno wrote:

Matt Johnson wrote:Wow, they're only running for 3 weeks? That's weird.

3 weeks is better than 0 weeks in my opinion folks...

Mike DiMunno

I 2nd that!

I had a great time down on the CMSL. I put a video on youtube. Check it out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39pIg-FKFLo

My wife and myself has the opportunity to ride the 12:30 PM train from Rio Grande to Cape May yesterday. We returned on the 3:10 PM train.
The RDC's were in great shape, were kept spotless and they arrived and departed to the minute. The highlight is going over the swing bridge as this is the only tourist train that I can find that does this. Got a chance to say hello to Tony and crew. They are a great group of dedicated railroad people. We found Tony to be a very personable guy who speaks from the heart- by all means an honest and "straight shooter. He told me about a few things that are going on but we will leave this to the RR to make public. There was a narrator on board that give everyone a history of the line and provided some great info.
There is plenty of parking at the Rio Grande stop ( there is a lot right there) and more people were aboard than we expected. I believe that I heard that the train burns a type of Bio Diesel fuel as to keep the locals happy.
Its great to see the train running again into Cape May. They will run through labor day. Also service is resuming on the Tuckahoe to Richland run I believe starting in Oct. (check the CMSL website)
The ride was enjoyable and we hope to be riding the historic train to Cape May again in 2011.

Took the train yesterday and was really impressed with how clean the cars are. The ride was nice and was worth it as it was too crowded in Cape May by car.

I was, however, shocked to see that just a 1000 feet out of Rio Grande, we passed by some homes where these boys were so close to the train shooting suction cup type bullets at it. Where the hell are these parents? It's not a matter of if but when one of these boys will have an accident and the railroad will be at fault.

dlagrua wrote:My wife and myself has the opportunity to ride the 12:30 PM train from Rio Grande to Cape May yesterday. We returned on the 3:10 PM train.
The RDC's were in great shape, were kept spotless and they arrived and departed to the minute. The highlight is going over the swing bridge as this is the only tourist train that I can find that does this. Got a chance to say hello to Tony and crew. They are a great group of dedicated railroad people. We found Tony to be a very personable guy who speaks from the heart- by all means an honest and "straight shooter. He told me about a few things that are going on but we will leave this to the RR to make public. There was a narrator on board that give everyone a history of the line and provided some great info.
There is plenty of parking at the Rio Grande stop ( there is a lot right there) and more people were aboard than we expected. I believe that I heard that the train burns a type of Bio Diesel fuel as to keep the locals happy.
Its great to see the train running again into Cape May. They will run through labor day. Also service is resuming on the Tuckahoe to Richland run I believe starting in Oct. (check the CMSL website)
The ride was enjoyable and we hope to be riding the historic train to Cape May again in 2011.

I was on that same 12:30pm train yesterday (8/24), but I came back on the 1:10 so I could get back home in plenty of time to get to the Phillies game (and, yes, my wife and I stayed all 16 innings until 12:25am). Too bad we had no way of knowing each other. I would have said Hi.

I agree: it was a very nice ride. The car interiors are in great shape, and the windows were clean and clear. I liked that they pointed out the old Cape May Point line and the old wye, and the commentary in general. There was less chatting on the return trip and some minor issue at the Route 9 grade crossing (sat for about 10 minutes while Tony worked on something), but it was also a nice ride. I was reasonably impressed with the passenger counts both ways. About 30 per trip, and that is with the word being passed only by forums like this and word of mouth.

That was my first time ever by train to Cape May - PRSL, Conrail, or CMSL, so it was a treat. My PRSL experience always ended at the Court House and the bus to Stone Harbor. I don't think the shortened route makes much difference. The ride north of the Canal Bridge is not the highlight of the journey, so having less of it may be a good thing.

dlagrua wrote:My wife and myself has the opportunity to ride the 12:30 PM train from Rio Grande to Cape May yesterday. We returned on the 3:10 PM train.
The RDC's were in great shape, were kept spotless and they arrived and departed to the minute. The highlight is going over the swing bridge as this is the only tourist train that I can find that does this. Got a chance to say hello to Tony and crew. They are a great group of dedicated railroad people. We found Tony to be a very personable guy who speaks from the heart- by all means an honest and "straight shooter. He told me about a few things that are going on but we will leave this to the RR to make public. There was a narrator on board that give everyone a history of the line and provided some great info.
There is plenty of parking at the Rio Grande stop ( there is a lot right there) and more people were aboard than we expected. I believe that I heard that the train burns a type of Bio Diesel fuel as to keep the locals happy.
Its great to see the train running again into Cape May. They will run through labor day. Also service is resuming on the Tuckahoe to Richland run I believe starting in Oct. (check the CMSL website)
The ride was enjoyable and we hope to be riding the historic train to Cape May again in 2011.

Great to hear (not surprisingly) that Tony is keeping the URHS RDCs in good condition!