Fort Rome live steam train?

jnugent56 wrote:I believe you are talking about the 2-6-2 that was at the park. It was an all black locomotive with white lettering on the tender, right? I don't remember seeing this locomotive in person, but I had a postcard or two that showed it in front of a small water tower. I do believe this locomotive is now in Watertown.

Yuppers, that sounds like it. It certainly had a tender... and I wish I could find a picture showing the engine with tender to confirm it.

We have repaired the steam engine at the Erie Canal Village for the Victorian Leisure Fair. It will run every weekend from July 31st to September 5th. The Victorian Leisure Fair also has shows, a beer garden, belly dancers, a gypsy camp, games, food, a blacksmith and the Canal packet boat. It is a good time for everyone in the family.

Adult tickets are $15, kids $10, children uner 4 are free. Get $3 off if you dress in 19th Century costume.

That is excellent news. Can you post any pictures of the engine?

Benjamin Maggi wrote:That is excellent news. Can you post any pictures of the engine?

Yes, but it will be a few days before I can get over there and take them.

The Steam engine at the Erie Canal Village and Museum in Rome, NY is running every weekend for the Victorian Leisure Fair. Besides the 2' gage locomotive, the Canal packet boat is giving rides 4 times daily and the tavern is serving ice cold beer. There are also shows, games, shopping and music every weekend until September 5th. Come and see it all before it's gone!

For more information visit eriecanalvillage.net

If you put the http stuff in front, then phpBB will turn it into a clickable URL. Like this: http://eriecanalvillage.net

this steam engine that is being talked about...what it made by an individual in pulaski ny many moons ago. At least i was told that??????

RussNelson wrote:If you put the http stuff in front, then phpBB will turn it into a clickable URL. Like this: http://eriecanalvillage.net

Or (using [ and ]instead of { and }), just surround the complete address (I usually just go to the page and cut and paste the url from the top of the browser page) with the URL tags: {url}httq://www.webpage.com{/url}. It's fast and efficient, and guarantees that the link will light up. Note that I intentionally misspelled http as httq.

Or, using a variation of the above: {url=httq://www.webpage.com}Web Page{/url} turns the words "Web Page" into a hyperlink without showing the sometimes lengthy URL of the page. You can stick that into a sentence so that it will appear as "If you want to see what a horrible heffalump looks like, you can go to this Web Page to find out."

Back to your regular programming.

jnugent56 wrote:I believe you are talking about the 2-6-2 that was at the park. It was an all black locomotive with white lettering on the tender, right? I don't remember seeing this locomotive in person, but I had a postcard or two that showed it in front of a small water tower. I do believe this locomotive is now in Watertown.

I finally managed to get the pictures scanned and they show the engine I was inquiring about in the original post. Ignore the three dorky looking kids... especially the oldest one! They were taken at the Erie Canal Village in September, 1988.







I also dug around a bit online and came across an old Railroad.net thread (http://www.railroad.net/forums/viewtopi ... 128&t=4755) which had this history listed about the engine:

The 2-6-2 shown in the picture of the Rome & Fort Bull RR tourist railroad was originally used by a private line called the New York Northern RR. In the late 1960's this 15- inch gauge operation ran on the late Edward J. Nolan's farm. Ed Nolan built the live steamer in his own machine shop along with a diesel that following the general lines of a GE U-boat. Guests rode on benches in a scale model gon. From the picture it appears that additional gons were built. (When I visited the Nolans I saw only one scale model freight car.) I still have an annual pass that Nolan gave me.

Two more pictures from September 1987 showing the station facilities:

3

I called the Erie Canal Village last week hoping to talk to someone about their train rides (and more importantly, their steam engines and hopefully get some history on that aspect of the Village) but when I talked to the person there she was not very helpful (though extremely polite). Might anyone have an update on the status of the train rides, and the two steam engines- specifically the 2-6-2?
Thanks.

Also, there is another mention of the steam locomotive and picture on the Steamlocomotive.com roster of steam engines.
http://www.railroadpix.com/rrphotos/detail/122.html

Their website has only this listed under the "rides" category for 2012:

Take a train ride, along the famous Erie Canal, with our 1956 Plymouth DDT Diesel. This 12 ton engine was built for Carpenter Steel Mill in Reading, Pennsylvania, and later used at Hi Country Narrow Gauge in Golden, Colorado. Next it was purchased for use at Edaville Railway in Massachusetts, and then purchased for Erie Canal Village in 2000.

There is no mention of any steam engines, or the packet boat.

I called the Erie Canal Village today to ask them about their train ride. They told me that for the 2014 season they will only be using their diesel engine. Also, due to the train "being repaired" the rides wouldn't start until July. And, the ride might not be a "full" ride because they weren't sure if the repairs would be finished by then. Very disappointing... my wife and I planned to go later this month for a day trip to ride the train.

The saga continues. From online newspaper articles it appears that the Erie Canal Village was closed several years ago due to health and safety concerns, but there were plans for reopening it. I haven't heard anything, and the E.C.V. website is useless (http://www.eriecanalvillage.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;).

Does anyone here have any information about the E.C.V., or more specifically the trains that were/are on the property?

Various articles say RailStar, owner since 2002, will continue the train operation.