Saratoga & North Creek (S&NC) Discussion - 2014

[tahawus84]

Thanks for the photos I enjoyed them. I have not been up there in a few years. Cant wait to see trains rolling out of tahawus again

[griffs20soccer]

Matt,
Thanks for the information. I just hope S-1 #5 doesn't get scrapped. It's such an important historical locomotive and would be a shame if she went away. Hopefully IPH will lower that price so your group can preserve an important Alco locomotive.
Don

[lvrr325]

No, it won't get scrapped. Jeeze who comes up with this stuff.

[pumpers]

Thanks for the photos I enjoyed them. I have not been up there in a few years. Cant wait to see trains rolling out of tahawus again

Hope it happens soon before the construction season winds down for the year... JS

[Dick H]

I don't think this has been previously posted, from the S&NC webpage:

Train Service Update

We apologize for any inconvenience - we will not be running Monday the 4th, Monday the 11th, Friday the 15th or Monday the 18th.

[ladder2]

SNC has really cut back on service this year. 2 years ago they ran 3 northbound and3 southbound trains 7 days a week during summer months. Now its 1 northbound and 1 southbound 4 days a week and now even further cutbacks on Mondays during August.
It appears that the parent company is not doing nearly as well as they originally appeared with this operation. Plus the fact that
they keep saying the freight end is "starting up any day now" and soon 2014 will be in the books with nothing to show for.

[griffs20soccer]

Ladder2,
You are forgetting that they also run 2 north bound and 2 south bound North End Locals on Saturdays and Sundays as well as dinner trains on Tuesdays during track season. The railroad is just making adjustments to optimize the schedule. Why run trains when the people aren't demanding them. They will continue to try new things like the North End Locals, if they are successful t will continue. The 1st year they only ran Thursday-Monday, tried everyday demand wasn't there, so they cut back and tried the shorter hope on the north end. The sky isn't falling.
Don

[Adirondacker]

Ladder2,
You are forgetting that they also run 2 north bound and 2 south bound North End Locals on Saturdays and Sundays as well as dinner trains on Tuesdays during track season. The railroad is just making adjustments to optimize the schedule. Why run trains when the people aren't demanding them. They will continue to try new things like the North End Locals, if they are successful t will continue. The 1st year they only ran Thursday-Monday, tried everyday demand wasn't there, so they cut back and tried the shorter hope on the north end. The sky isn't falling.
Don

The North End trips make a lot of sense. There are many people who don't want to spend most of the day on an excursion but would like to go for a train ride. Vaguely like the cruises on Lake George. There are hour long cruises and two hour cruises and three hour cruises and dinner cruises and fireworks cruises and almost day long cruises....
Without flogging anything in particular, many of the attractions around here have shorter and longer options and a few of them have an option to have lunch or dinner.

[Otto Vondrak]

SNC has really cut back on service this year.

They are figuring out what works. Plus, they discovered not many customers were coming from the Amtrak connection, so there was little reason to sync schedules.

Plus the fact that they keep saying the freight end is "starting up any day now" and soon 2014 will be in the books with nothing to show for.

Clearly you have never worked for a freight short line or tried to negotiate new traffic agreements for interchange.

-otto-

[griffs20soccer]

Attached is an article from the Post Star. It talks about a second costumer for the tailings at Tahawus and the issues that are delaying the start of the 1st contract. It also touches on the fact that even though they reduced the number of trains they run, attendance is up 25% over last year. Hopefully the link works.

http://poststar.com/news/local/railway- ... 963f4.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

By the way I rode the train today, and coach was sold out and all but 4-6 seats in the dome were filled. People in the dome were spend a lot of money on food and drink.

Only three private cars parked on the station siding in Saratoga attached to an Amtrak GP unit (don't know exact model).

That's all.
Don

[Mem160]

With all the potential for a large volume of freight traffic and the two E8's having now gone back to Iowa Pacific, would it be unreasonable to expect some new motive power to augment the 8-39B and the BL2 ?

- Mark

[Mem160]

Are all these boxcars I see here:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/rsList.aspx?id=SNC" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

actually Saratoga and North Creel rolling stock or is there somehow another RR with these reporting marks? Has anyone seen these on the line?

[brockwaythemusician]

The SNC reporting marks have also been used for the Seattle north coast. Their boxcars were green with yellow doors and that railroad hasn't existed since the mid-80's. I know of or can not find information on any other railroad which uses SNC and being that these are fresh patch jobs leads me to believe they are Saratoga boxcars. I know other small railroads like lowville and beaver river have a fleet of boxcars which I assume brings revenue to the railroad. I get my reporting mark information at the link below so if there is another SNC they don't know about it either.

http://www.pwrr.org/rrm/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Mem160]

That's what I thought but I haven't heard anyone bring these up yet. Also if you see the locations of these cars they're all in the Northeast so it's relative location too. I guess they would have to store these in Saratoga. I can't believe there would be room in North Creek for them to store them. I wonder if they are being leased out for now.......

- Mark

[Mem160]

Once freight begins it should make for an interesting operation. I am curious if they will add one or two more engines, because when you look at their roster, they're motive power is old for the most part. So it could be interesting to see what comes about.