Railtours-Inc., Jim Thorpe, Pa.

Railtours-Inc. is still in Jim Thorpe, and still has an active website. We also still have an active group of volunteers that can can be found working on the equipment most weekends.

Tho we are not running any trains, and haven't run one since January 1, 2005, we still have plenty of things to do, and have even added to our roster in the mean time. We traded 5 pieces of rolling stock to the Reading Technical and Historical Society for one Baldwin switcher and one ex Reading 50 foot boxcar. The U30B which we had leased was sold out from under us and subsequently scrapped two months ago.

Recently we helped the Tamaqua Save Our Station society with a tracklaying project, building roughly 100 feet of track with them. That made the first page of the Times News of lehighton, for those who can get it, and was also mentioned in the Hazleton Standard-Speaker, if I'm not mistaken.

With the summer coming up, our work options open up considerably. I'd like to keep this thread going to keep people updated on our progress and projects, and to answer any questions anyone has. We're not a fallen flag, just in case anyone was wondering.

Thanks,

Micah

RTI Volunteer

Micah, I think I speak for many in asking if Railtours will be looking for a new home anytime soon? I remember reading about all the problems you were having with the yard space and wonder if this has also been cleared up? I also aplaud all efforts made by your group to keep going and preserve railroad heritage for future generations.

Thanks Nick. No, the track dispute is not settled yet, with weary parties on all sides. We've looked around at a few places, but nothing came together as we would have liked. I'm purposely not going into detail, as i'm just a mechanic, it's not my place to say. Also, I don't know all of the details, not even half. I know general things, and I'll answer your questions as well as I can.

If anything big happens, I know it will be posted on our website, which is:

www.railtours-inc.com

Basically, this summer will consist of getting the Baldwin operational and painted. Like always, there will be the repair, patching, priming, and painting that go along with any rail related operation. And we haven't forgotten the 1098 either, we know what it needs to run again, and when we have all we need, it'll run. The key word there is FLUES. That would be half the battle.

Sorry, gotta go.

Micah

www.railtours-inc.com is calling it quits.

the website says it all. i'll only say the we tried. some to the point of gray hair... it was fun and it was terrible...

micah