Steamtown Lackawanna Railfest Nov. 2-4, 2007

if anyone passes thru JT, lemme know what you think of the 56-57... the orange on the 56 was resprayed yesterday from the front coupler to the 2nd cab handrail... i helped mask on wedneday, missed the painting yesterday, and was buffing to my hearts content today....

we're workin' on them! stop by and say hello if you're in the area. dunno what the work schedule is this weekend. if i'm available, i'll be there. we've got ARHS flyers if ya like too.

see you in november!!!

micah

Add Superliners to the list of equipment.................................Three to be exact.

I also heard Morristown & Erie expressed interest in joining in the festival, however I don't think they were invited to attend!

Seems odd, as NY&GL and other shortlines in the area were invited...

nysw going to be there?

2005Vdub wrote:nysw going to be there?

Probably not!

SCRANTON, Pa. - The National Park Service is planning to host "Lackawanna Railfest 2007" at Steamtown National Historic Site in Scranton from Nov. 2-4. Included will be visiting railroad equipment, steam passenger excursions, a night photo session, and a banquet dinner on Friday, Nov. 2. Scheduled activities include the following:

Friday, Nov. 2: Opening-event banquet, Radisson at Lackawanna Station Hotel. Information and reservations, phone (215) 757-7355.

Saturday, Nov. 3: Steam-powered passenger excursion to the Delaware Water Gap, with a photo runby westbound; departs 7 a.m. and is scheduled to arrive back in Scranton at 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $51 for adults ages 17-61, $46 for seniors 62 and older, and $30 for children ages 6-16. Children 5 and younger require a "no-charge" ticket. There is limited first class seating in the Lehigh Valley business car "Black Diamond" No. 353. Seats on the business car are available for $250 each (all ages); limited first class seating is also available in the Chestnut Hill lounge car at $200 each (all ages).

Saturday, Nov. 3: Night photo session, 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. The session will feature five separate photo shoots and locations. Tickets are $75 for all ages. This event requires a minimum of 50 advance-paid participants to register no later than Oct. 27.

Sunday, Nov. 4: Steam-powered passenger excursion to Moscow; departs at 1 p.m. and is scheduled to arrive back in Scranton at 3:30 p.m. Tickets are $21 for adults ages 17-61, $19 for seniors 62 and older, and $15 for children ages 6-16. Children 5 and younger require a "no-charge" ticket. Limited first-class seating in the Lehigh Valley business car is available for $150 each (all ages); limited first class seating is also available in the Chestnut Hill lounge car at $100 each (all ages).

Throughout the weekend, Steamtown will present special theater programs and visiting equipment displays, including fully restored passenger cars, walking interpretive tours, cab tours of Union Pacific "Big Boy" No. 4012, Scranton Limited short train rides in the Steamtown Yards, and a variety of other activities. For more information go to www.nps.gov/stea

i better put in for that weekend off from work and book a hotel room aswell. It's coming up fast.

The concept of having historical and technical presentations going on in one location while you are also running fantrips and other activities at other places is an interesting one. I hope you will let us know how this worked out when the event is over, particularly whether the average audience size was enough to warrant the presenters time and effort driving there to show their programs. I am sure this is something that potential program presenters would like to know for future events.

MX, you are correct on the concept with having several programs running simultaneously. While I am sure some people will show for only the displays, and others for the trips, and others will come because they heard something was happening or the weather was nice enough to come out.

All of these audiences must be served, and I believe that there is an intellectual audience that is usually underserved by "Railfan Events." The speakers should be able to open people's eyes to other parts of Railroad History.

With a large potential audience, this event can serve them all in different ways. I am most glad that it is more than a big trip weekend, since the Delaware Water Gap train will take people out of the park for nearly 10 hours. Whenever Steamtown has run a Gap train, very little took place in the yard, and that is where the taxpayer's money goes.

The regularly scheduled Trolley trips and Scranton Ltd trains will also run, along with special tours of the Office & Stores building, the Sand Dryer, the Mattes St. Tower, and model train displays in the Trolley Museum. New photo exhibits will open in the Visitor Center. It should be an interesting time for all.

In the case of many railfan events, the intellectual audience is sometimes lucky if they can access just a small portion of the resources available. It will be interesting to see if presentations that convey information can get the stage this time, or if it ends up being another festival of pretty pictures played to background music. I sometimes leave slide-music shows with the feeling I could have spent my time better by listening to the same songs at home, just saw 200 pictures with no information or explanation displayed over 10 songs. The presenter might have been a good speaker, but you will never find out. They drove a couple hundred miles just to press "enter" on the computer. It's railfanning MTV style.

I am familiar with two of the presentations being given:

I am personally giving a history of dining car operations on the Erie, DL&W, and EL on Saturday. On Sunday, Jim Guthrie is presenting "An introduction to Anthracite".

I can assure you there is no music or video gimmicks on either one of these presentations.

Is there a formal list of all events available including the presentations you are all discussing?

Brooks

Thanks for the replies here, it is nice to know that there are still a few folks out there who value railroad history presentations!

MX

I see that they have the list of presenters and topics posted on the Steamtown website now, and it looks like a very interesting mix of presentations. Unfortunately no historical or technical presentations based on diesel locomotives, as you might expect at Steamtown (which makes this event look a lot like a typical NRHS National Convention).

It is very unfortunate that the NPS can never bring themselves to acknowledge that there were more than three decades when diesels and steam locomotives co-existed on the US railroads. By presenting a consistently one sided view of railroad history they significantly undermine their own credibility. They also ignore the potential economic benefit of appealing to the interests of the many railroad enthusiasts who currently identify themselves as being diesel fans (presently about 85% of the hobby).

You would think that in hosting an open event where there will be diesels in the display areas, that they could take off the blinders just once and provide some balance in the historical presentations.

This is even more amusing since Steamtown rebuilds steam locomotives in a former diesel shop where the layout was designed by EMD.

MX

I don't know what the exact occasion for this event is, or if it's just an idea that someone had (perhaps the current park director?)

However I would hope this event does well and encourages the Park to consider making it an annual event... In my eyes the only lost opportunity here was the chance to also make it an F-unit event in addition to what it already will be.. I was really looking forward to seeing the RDG FP7's along with everything else that will be there. The only locos then missing would have been the faux-LV F7's currently in South Jersey, as well as (and why not!?!) the NS executive F's which could have been there for public relations value (if not perhaps an Operation Lifesaver display).

I know I'm derailing this thread somewhat... However I did want to see what the responses to these ideas would be. Perhaps these thoughts could come to fruition if the Park decides to repeat the event next year...

Regards,

Micah