Steamtown Lackawanna Railfest 2008

thebigham wrote:Wasn't this last year in November?

Yes, it was in November in 2007.

I understand that the attendance at the programs and presentations was better this year than last year.

Most of the folks that do these programs are volunteering their time and effort, and they deserve thanks for helping out in these events.

MX

thebigham wrote:I wish they would try to restore some of the old equipment in the yard. How about some paint? There is an old ST.J&LC caboose that is just open to the elements.

I don't know about all of their equipment, but I was told they are going to repaint the Big Boy in the fall.

I didn't get to any of the presentations, just kind of ran out of time, particularly on Saturday. When we got to Steamtown Saturday morning, it was after eleven after photographing the "Whistle Stop" tour in Moscow. We then got our tickets and checked out the NS Exhibit Car. It was then noon, so the exhibits were closed for lunch, which is what we did as my son, daughter and I were riding the Moscow excursion. By the time we got back, it was almost four o'clock. We quickly checked out the Amtrak equipment before the exhibits closed for the day.

We then saw the 3254 go for a spin on the turntable before calling it a day. Sunday morning we got to Steamtown early and witnessed CP 2317, CN 3254 and CNJ coach 303 on the turntable. My son wanted to go back to the NS Exhibit Car again, for their train simulator before we headed over to the Big Boy, Hickory Creek and the Amtrak equipment again. The kids loved the lounge car. There was consistently people waiting to get into the cab of the Big Boy all weekend. We left Steamtown about noon Sunday to grab lunch and start heading home. We were glad we went.

I heard this week that Amtrak kept a rough count of the number of visitors who toured their equipment that was on display, that indicated about 2500 people visited them. Unfortunately there is no way to filter out the ticket receipts of Lackawanna Railfest attendees from the normal Steamtown holiday weekend visitors, so they will probably have to go into next year without any exact numbers to show how well the holiday weekend scheduling worked.

MX