New Adirondack Scenic Thread (ADIX)

Thought you all would get a kick out of this. Seems that the Men's Journal magazine published an errant little blurb about the trail. All it took was one courteous email, and we now see a correction printed.

Aren't real facts fun?

Gee - I wonder where that press release came from....

From the LIRR forum here on RR.net: viewtopic.php?f=63&t=163447&start=15"

On Saturday, January 7, 2017, LIRR Bar Car #2993 began its journey to the Adirondack Scenic Railroad (ASR) in Utica, NY. The car, (not owned by the RMLI), was donated to the ASR by its owner for use as a Bar/Concession Car. RMLI's Founding President, Mr. Chris Talluto is the ASR's Chief Mechanical Officer. Chris spent a good part of summer 2016 performing maintenance and certification work on the car. The Museum assisted Chris with helpful manpower and the use of our backshop for various work details. The Railroad Museum of Long Island celebrates and supports ASR's acquisition of #2993. Not only will this LIRR car be saved, it will be used in revenue service for the purpose the LIRR originally modified it for, saving another piece of Long Island heritage!! Thank you for video taken by Jordan Torregrosa, member of the RMLI "Steam up LIRR 39" committee. (Please cut and paste this link into your browser to see the video, it appears the Forum will not support an automatic playback of the video.)

https://www.facebook.com/railroadmuseum ... ED&fref=nf

Members of the RMLI confer with the New York and Atlantic Railway crew on Saturday, January 7, 2017 as the certified air brake system on ex-LIRR, ASR Bar Car #2993 is fully charged.

You'll have to go to the RMLI facebook page or the LIRR forum to see the image.

The car is presently reported to be at Selkirk.

http://www.uticaod.com/opinion/20170224 ... st-be-goal" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

OUR VIEW: Preserving Utica-to-Lake Placid rail line must be goal
By OBSERVER-DISPATCH

It's reassuring that a state Supreme Court judge is seeking more information from the state in the case of the Adirondack Scenic Railroad.

A stay in the case, issued Feb. 7, could prevent New York from making a huge mistake.

That mistake would be to rip up 34 miles of the Adirondack rail line between Tupper Lake to Lake Placid to create a recreational trail. Once the tracks are gone, they'll never be back...

AAPRCO's 40th annual convention special train ("The Green Mountain Flyer") will visit Utica on September 14th, 2017. They are going to run a 20-something car domeliner of PVs up the Adirondack Scenic to Otter Lake, have a BBQ lunch off-train in Thendara, and then return to Utica where they will park the train overnight.

Just curious, why not take the train all the way to Thendara?

First I've heard of the trip. There's one or two places where clearances could be an issue, but if they are 85' cars, there shouldn't be a problem. There are no vertical clearances I'm aware of Otter Lake - Thendara.

from an email of Clark Johnson's. He operates the car Caritas of High Iron.

Sep't. 14-22 AAPRCO Convention in Burlington, VT
Schedule:
The AAPRCO private cars will assemble in Albany (Rensselaer) on Sep't. 13. The High Iron car or cars will move Chicago to Albany on Sep't. 12
Sep.t. 14: Albany to Utica then to Thendara, NY on the Adirondack Scenic RR for lunch. Then back to Albany.
Sep't. 15: Albany to Saratoga, NY where we will park until the morning of Sep't. 17. Local activities in Saratoga.
Sep't. 17: Saratoga to Plattsburg, NY along the west shore of Lake Champlain. Reverse direction Plattsburg and return to Whitehall where we turn east to Rutland, VT where we overnight.
Sep't. 18: Rutland to Burlington where we will park for the convention. Dinner cruise on Lake Champlain this night.
Sep't. 19-21: AAPRCO Annual meeting. Wick Moorman Amtrak CEO will address us on the 19th.
Sep't. 22: We return to Albany via the Vermont Railway to Bennington, then at Hoosick Jct. we join west the Boston & Maine.
We will have roomettes available as well as bedrooms along with the usual High Iron amenities. Fare Albany-Albany $5950; roomette supplement: $800. Positioning from and to Chicago will be available.

rhallock wrote:from an email of Clark Johnson's. He operates the car Caritas of High Iron.

Sep't. 14-22 AAPRCO Convention in Burlington, VT
Schedule:
The AAPRCO private cars will assemble in Albany (Rensselaer) on Sep't. 13. The High Iron car or cars will move Chicago to Albany on Sep't. 12
Sep.t. 14: Albany to Utica then to Thendara, NY on the Adirondack Scenic RR for lunch. Then back to Albany.

First of all, Clark Johnson's advertisement for the AAPRCO convention trip contains an error. The AAPRCO "Green Mountain Flyer" special train is scheduled to spend the night of September 14th parked in Utica, not in Rensselaer. On the morning of September 15th, the train will operate from Utica to Saratoga Springs, where it will park for two nights, allowing passengers to explore the greater Saratoga Springs - Lake George area, and ride the Saratoga & North Creek dinner/excursion train.

BR&P wrote:Just curious, why not take the train all the way to Thendara?

Good question, especially since any rare mileage riders onboard the special would wonder why they are not getting as much of the Adirondack Scenic mileage as possible. It may be an issue of time and scheduling of events, such as the off-train lunch activities at Otter Lake and the desire to be back in Utica by a certain time of late afternoon or early evening. Another might be track conditions northeast of Otter Lake, or the ability to run the power around to the other end of the train at one location rather than another location.

Is the route FRA class II track all the way from Utica to Otter Lake? The AAPRCO convention special trains usually use a minimum of two Amtrak P42 locomotives for power.

I've never ridden this route before. Unfortunately, Amtrak and CSX will not allow private cars to be switched between regularly scheduled Amtrak trains and the Adirondack Scenic RR at Utica.

So let's hear about the ex-LIRR bar car that was delivered from Long Island to Utica recently...

I saw some pictures on Facebook posted by RMLI folks... What's the scoop?

-otto-

The LIRR bar car is in Utica - got up on it a few weeks ago. Doesn't look too bad.

It will likely be next in line for work - there is a coach being worked on right now. Don't know if the mechanical department plans on getting it in service this year, but it's a possibility.

Here's 1502 yesterday morning, weathering another storm:

The front of #1502 sure looks cluttered with all the lights and M/U and power hookups. I guess it can't be helped.

One of its more recent lives was as a transit loco - hence all of the HEP connections and the red lights. 1508 is much "cleaner..."

http://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.co ... ing-clear/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

What the court is making clear

The news out of Justice Robert Main’s court has not been good for the anti-rail special interests currently huddling behind closed doors with the Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Transportation. The state has been forced to admit it was wrong about its title to the corridor. It’ll have to buy several parcels or make other arrangements before it can start ripping out the tracks.

The justice has not been impressed by the lack of plans to meet historic preservation laws either. The state’s argument that they can’t complete them without starting the project first is an admission they still don’t really know what they’re getting into and do not really care.
...
The state’s economic case for Alternative 7 ignores the Rail Explorers, ignores continued ridership growth on the Adirondack Scenic Railroad and ignores what full passenger service to Lake Placid would mean for the whole corridor. It ignores the value of a direct connection to a major Amtrak route at Utica — and that Amtrak’s ridership continues to grow as well.
...
The core flaw of Alternative 7 is this. The 1996 plan recognized that much of the economic and historic value of the corridor is because it IS intact, and is best managed as one unit. Cutting off access to the premier destination at the end of the line diminishes the value of the entire corridor, perhaps fatally. It makes no more sense than it would to allow Bolton Landing to secede from the rest of Lake George, or ending the Northway at Plattsburgh.

It’s getting harder to ignore the suspicion Alternative 7 was written to justify removing the tracks at the behest of well-connected local anti-rail activists, instead of as an honest review of the 1996 plan.
...