Canaan Railroad Days and Housatonic Excursions

Enjoy Two "Rare Mileage" Rail Trips during Columbus Day Weekend!

THE PITTSFIELD EXPRESS
Danbury, CT to Pittsfield, MA
and return: Sat., October 9, 2004
- and -
THE DERBY LOCAL
Danbury to Derby Jct. CT
and return: Sun., October 10, 2004

Climb aboard for a two-day weekend of "rare-mileage" railroad excursions sponsored by High Iron Travel Corp., along the scenic routes of the Housatonic Railroad Company!

On Saturday, Oct. 9, The Pittsfield Express will travel the 90-mile ex-“Berkshire Line” of the New York, New Haven & Hartford from Danbury, CT to Pittsfield, MA and return. This 160-year-old route, which passes through some of the finest scenery in southern New England, once carried New Haven par-lor-car expresses to Berkshire County summer resorts. High Iron’s excursion will be the first public through coach train to Pittsfield since Penn Central ended passenger runs in 1971!

On Sunday, Oct. 10, The Derby Local will follow the ex-New Haven “Maybrook Line” for 30 miles, from Danbury along the lower Housatonic Valley to Derby Jct., CT.

Both The Pittsfield Express and The Derby Local will leave the preserved 1903 NYNH&H Danbury station, home of the Danbury Railway Museum, at 10:15 AM, making a guaranteed connection with Metro-North RR train #xxxx from Grand Central Terminal. The Pittsfield Express returns to Danbury at 7:15 PM to connect with M-N #xxxx for New York. The Derby Local will return to Danbury at 3 PM.

We will assign seats by car number and reserve blocks of seats for groups of three or more; passengers wishing to sit together should order tickets at the same time. Box lunches are available for advance purchase ($10 each), or bring your own lunch. Sorry, no alcoholic beverages or smoking aboard these trains, please. Tickets are not refundable. We will send driving directions and motel and restaurant information for the Danbury area with each ticket order.

High Iron Travel will offer First Class Service aboard its luxury business car Caritas each day, including full meal and beverage service. (Seating very limited!)

TO ORDER YOUR TICKETS FOR THE PITTSFIELD EXPRESS AND/OR THE DERBY LOCAL:

To place a Telephone or Fax order, call or fax our "Ticket Hotline" at 978-470-2066 (credit card orders only).
If you wish to mail your order, please download the order form and mail your order to:
Mass Bay RRE, Box 4245-BV, Andover, MA 01810-0814
Include a self-addressed, stamped business-size envelope with your order!
Mass Bay RRE accepts MasterCard and Visa. Please make checks payable to "Mass Bay RRE".
For more information call us at 978-470-2066, or send e-mail to: [email protected]

Ticket prices?

$79 Coach; $349 First Class (Private car Caritas). Details here.

Now my question: anyone know what the coach equipment will be?

my guess one of MNCR shuttle trains for power and coaches.

Thanks, Dutch. Sounds about right.

I'm considering booking this trip. I'm familiar with the territory, having family near Cannan, but this will be my first railfan excursion in nearly two decades (the last was a Maybrook Line trip in the late '80s). I'm a little out of the loop. Any pro's/con's the members of this forum can provide would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

NEWS
From the Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts, Inc.

MASS BAY RRE AND HIGH IRON TRAVEL CANCEL
`THE PITTSFIELD EXPRESS' AND `THE DERBY LOCAL'
EXCURSION TRAINS OCT. 9 AND 10

BOSTON, September 28 — Massachusetts Bay Railroad Enthusiasts, Inc.
(Mass Bay
RRE) and High Iron Travel Corp. announce with great regret that they
have
canceled two special excursion trains that would have run on the
Housatonic
Railroad during Columbus Day Weekend:

Oct. 9: The Pittsfield Express, from Danbury, Conn. to Pittsfield,
Mass.; and

Oct. 10: The Derby Local, from Danbury to Derby Junction, Conn.

Both trips would have used locomotives and coaches leased from Metro-
North
Commuter Railroad. Unfortunately, it proved impossible to arrange
adequate
property-damage insurance for this leased train so close to
departure.

High Iron and Mass Bay RRE very much appreciate the high level of
support for
these trips from the Housatonic Railroad, Metro-North, the Danbury
Railway
Museum, and others, as well as the overwhelming public response from
ticket
buyers.

High Iron plans to discuss with the Housatonic Railroad how these
trips might
operate in 2005. Both High Iron and Mass Bay RRE hope their
customers will be
aboard any future trips along the Housatonic Valley.

Mass Bay RRE is sending refunds to all passengers today. Passengers
with
questions should call Mass Bay RRE's "hot line" for information: 978-
470-2066 (phone/fax).

YIPES!

That is a shame... Just goes to show how much more difficult it is these days to set up a trip like that. So few railroads have any passenger equipment, that borrowing some seems a hassle.

I'd like to see another trip on the Berkshire line all the way to Pittsfield this time. We could call it the "Berkshire Express". I'd like to run in when the days are still long like late spring or late summer. Any one got an extra $30,000 ????

I was on the farewell trip last year, and the problem with going all the way to Pittsfield (assuming that it's technically possible at all) isn't just about money, but about time. We were home pretty late as it was, and there's not much point in travelling rare milage if half of the trip is at night. Unless it left super-early in the AM, it would have to be an event with an overnight stay, and that's a whole 'nuther ball of wax.

Trainer wrote:I was on the farewell trip last year, and the problem with going all the way to Pittsfield (assuming that it's technically possible at all) isn't just about money, but about time. We were home pretty late as it was, and there's not much point in travelling rare milage if half of the trip is at night. Unless it left super-early in the AM, it would have to be an event with an overnight stay, and that's a whole 'nuther ball of wax.

Even departing from Danbury?

Don't hold your breath for Metro-North equipment to ever operate off MN property ever again- the trip over HRRC was a minor legal miracle.

-otto-

"Even departing from Danbury?"

The trip to Danbury went fine and arrived on time, but, for obvious reasons, the engineers kept the speed way down once we left the Danbury station and MR territory. This made for a scenic and enjoyable ride, but not one that set any speed records. Some of the HRRC track had been washed out a week or so before, and nobody was taking any chances, but even in other areas the speed was kept down. There were crews in cars running ahead to the grade crossings to physically block them off one at a time, and the train didn't want to outrun them anyway. While departing directly from Danbury is a good idea to save time, I don't think it would save all that much time compared to the extra milage to Pitts.

Trainer wrote:"Even departing from Danbury?"

The trip to Danbury went fine and arrived on time, but, for obvious reasons, the engineers kept the speed way down once we left the Danbury station and MR territory. This made for a scenic and enjoyable ride, but not one that set any speed records. Some of the HRRC track had been washed out a week or so before, and nobody was taking any chances, but even in other areas the speed was kept down. There were crews in cars running ahead to the grade crossings to physically block them off one at a time, and the train didn't want to outrun them anyway. While departing directly from Danbury is a good idea to save time, I don't think it would save all that much time compared to the extra milage to Pitts.

We thought seriously about a trip all the way to Pittsfield. The problem is the time. Track speed (the speed permitted by the physical condition of the track) is what kept speeds low, not crossing protection - that was provided only on the upgrade where we didn't want to stall because of having to stop and protect the crossing.

Such a trip would have to be an overnight affair - even leaving from Danbury. First, we can't leave Danbury any earlier than we did on the Canaan trip - most of our market doesn't live near Danbury, and there isn't enough parking to support starting the trip out there, so we have to wait for the first train from NY to arrive. Second, the run is too long at low speed to enable us to get to Pittsfield and back in one day.

Legally, we have serious problems with running off our own property. The Housatonic RR is a special case; we have legal (trackage rights) agreements with them that allow us to do special moves. The issue isn't the ownership of the equipment, it's the liability issues that would be shouldered by the operator of the train (MNR) and the owner of the railroad. Those issues are almost impossible to overcome, and our legal beagles have already told us they won't go to bat for us.

But just as a point of interest - does anyone see the viability of a rare-mileage excursion that would entail an overnight stay? We're not against the idea, if we can sell enough tickets, that is....

Jim

Rare-mileage that required an overnight stay? I think yes. That just means more rare-mileage for the collectors! Put those F's up front, and you'll certainly fill the seats.

In addition to it being a very long day for the passengers, there would
likely be hours of service law issues for the crews and pilots and this
would increase the operating cost of such a trip to a level when most
could not afford a ticket.
Wouldn't it be nice if!
Noel Weaver