Steamtown Question, when the operation was in Vermont.

HI
When Steamtown was in Vermont what was the First ( 1st ) Year that they held the first Railfan Weekend in October?
This was a weekend event when they did the Photo runbys and the night photo session on Saturday.
Sunday was the usual doubleheader of Steam to Rutland, Vt, with photo runby's, and the return to Riverside, Vt, and that ended the Railfan weekend.
I think this all started when Don Ball was the General Manager of the operation, as always Thanks in Advance, Pat.

Pat,

not sure what year they started but it was in the Barbara era that they started. Jim Boyd was heavily involved. i want to think i attended one in 1979 which was the last year all three G5's were under steam together, although the 1278 was not used for operations at the time. my volunteer time started with the Don Ball era, just prior to his first rail fan w/e, and was involved in buttoning up the 1246 for that event.