Pittsburgh Independent Hi-Railers at Kennywood Holiday Lights 2024

In a little over a week, you fellows have certainly done an amazing job once again!

I always look forward to this thread every year……you guys do great work!

Peter

Thanks for sharing photos again this year @Andy Hummell.  I imagine that once it's up and running the members of your club must get a kick out of running LONG stretches afforded by the space available.

looking forward to keeping tabs on your updates.

walt

Opening night is tonight!  Here are some final shots from the setup days:

Here are a few shots of my module:

Here, we have a Yeti about to go toe-to-toe with a Werewolf with the Grim Reaper on hand to referee...

"Cowboy Joe" has been a fixture at Kennywood for 64 years, and we always forget he is there watching over things.  At night, when the park is closed and the lights are off, his silhouette often startles us.

Andy

Looking great folks!

Looking good!  Nice to see some new faces in the group!

@Andy Hummell, once again the PIHR has done a great job with the layout, and Kennywood doesn't look to shabby either.  Thanks for sharing and looking forward to more photos of this year's layout.

Really neat, Andy!

Peter

Opening weekend went pretty smoothly, with a few kinks worked out along the way.  We had over 5400 visitors to the layout over the 3 nights, which is not bad considering the competition from a big local high school football game on Friday, and the Steelers game on Sunday.

Until my next batch of pix and videos can be uploaded, here is a video by  blogger and YouTuber, "That Adventure Guy" that visited us this weekend:

Andy

Andy, a former coworker posted on Facebook a photograph of his two little granddaughters at Kennywood and said they had a great time.  I asked if they saw the trains, but he said no, they were too busy riding rides!  What was he thinking!! 😄

Here are some pix from opening weekend:

Andy

Thanks Andy. This is one of my most favorite threads every Christmas season! You guys do such an amazing job setting up the huge display and entertaining thousands while creating lifelong memories of train joy for all of the kids - big and little!

I appreciate all of the pics and videos!

Andy:

Thanks for posting.  What could be b etter than Kennywood AND a large O gauge train layout!  Wish I was a kid again!.

Bill T 

Weather this weekend forced an early closure on Friday (we only had 101 visitors that night), so we took the opportunity to turn off the lights after the park closed to do a little night running and photography.  I didn't go in due to the early closure, but one of my club mates sent me some photos to post (used with permission):

Attendance picked up on Saturday and Sunday, even though there was still some light rain on Saturday, and brought our season attendance so far to just about 10,000.  A small group of us even managed to go to the Kittanning Train Show and then on to forum sponsor Hobby Express before going in to Kennywood.

Here are a couple of my shots from Saturday:

I had to re-wire Rudolph this year as one of the connections to the battery pack came undone, but he is good as new, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is one of the park's themes this year.

There are lots of Jack Pearce vehicles on the layout:

This coming (Thanksgiving) weekend is going to be crazy.  Normally weekends are 4 hrs - 6hrs - 6hrs, but this one is going to be 6 hrs - 7hrs - 6hrs due to the holiday, but we are up to the task.

Andy

Those night shots are amazing. Pass the compliments to the photographer.

Another video of our layout from Coaster Nation was just recently uploaded :

Andy

Pittsburgh area hasn't had the snow hit the lakefront area has, but before I buy and advance ticket for Saturday, is everything still on for the train display.

@NHVRYGray posted:

Pittsburgh area hasn't had the snow hit the lakefront area has, but before I buy and advance ticket for Saturday, is everything still on for the train display.

Based on the local weather forecasts right now, everything looks good for this weekend.  The only time the park closes is if it is storming, raining heavily, or if ice and snow are built up in the parking lots and on the midway and can't be removed in time for opening.  I should mention that, based on the forecast temperatures, the two roller coasters will not be running Saturday -- they don't run the coasters below 40F degrees.  They might run for a while early Sunday if the forecast is correct.  All other advertised rides run regardless of temperature or precipitation as long as the park is open.

Andy

Thanks

Rides don't bother me, all I want to see is the trains and lights.

Here is the next batch of photos.

One night saw a visit from the park mascot, Kenny the Kangaroo.

A new module to complete our run-through yard.

Lots of robots (bought from forum sponsor @The Toy Exchange) on the layout this year.  Some may be seen fighting Bigfoot...

And some, including Robbie the Robot can be seen working...

Hallmark ornaments can make excellent additions to layouts...

Andy

That's an incredible layout your club can put together.

Looking good!

How has attendance been?

@bigtruckpete posted:

How has attendance been?

So far, we have had 19,862 visitors to the layout.  Would have been over 20k, but we had some bad weather one night that caused an early park closure.  We count the people coming through and report the numbers to Kennywood.  They have been very pleased with us and get a lot of positive feedback (about 99.9% -- the 0.1% are usually people that feel they need to complain about some of the dark humor on the layout, like the "alligator attack" and "Santa tangled in the wind turbine" scenes above).  This coming Saturday marks the beginning of the second half of our season, and attendance is always higher the closer we get to Christmas (and as people have more time off).

It has been a fun season so far!

Andy

@Andy Hummell posted:

So far, we have had 19,862 visitors to the layout.  Would have been over 20k, but we had some bad weather one night that caused an early park closure.  We count the people coming through and report the numbers to Kennywood.  They have been very pleased with us and get a lot of positive feedback (about 99.9% -- the 0.1% are usually people that feel they need to complain about some of the dark humor on the layout, like the "alligator attack" and "Santa tangled in the wind turbine" scenes above).  This coming Saturday marks the beginning of the second half of our season, and attendance is always higher the closer we get to Christmas (and as people have more time off).

It has been a fun season so far!

Andy

Andy;

One person’s “dark humor” is another’s amusing whimsy!!! Personally, I find your group’s whimsical scenes one of the highlights of the layout (after the trains, of course). And Santa in the wind turbines is, by far, my favorite (I didn’t notice in this year’s photos if he was visiting, but my second favorite is Godzilla!!!). Keep up the great work for the community and the hobby.

Here is this week's batch of photos.

One member likes bringing a portion of his Tintin 1:43 vehicles collection to display on the layout.  These vehicles are very colorful and have figures in them.

Andy

Thanks (again) @Andy Hummell

I love this image - I don't think chairs like that are commercially available, so whoever created this scene kudos to that person

- walt

@walt rapp posted:

Thanks (again) @Andy Hummell

I love this image - I don't think chairs like that are commercially available, so whoever created this scene kudos to that person

These chairs were bought at a train show from someone who was making them (I was with the guy who bought them, and I don't remember which show, but I am thinking it might have been Timonium or York).  I can only imagine the effort to work with thin wire like that and get them to look that good.

Andy

Here are the final photos and thoughts from the 2024 KHL season:

More than one visitor and Kennywood employee noticed a remarkable similarity between the Menards ice cream stand building and Kennywood's refreshment stand opposite the Jackrabbit roller coaster.

This shot of Thomas is from the park's train ride and "Thomastown" theme area.  It was just announced that this past year was the final one for Thomas and Thomastown and that a new theme would be replacing it this year.

These shots are of the layout from a high, non-public area of the arcade (going to try and get some more shots from this vantage point next year showing the crowds):

We spent a snowy Saturday hauling out the remaining trailer loads to storage, and one small vehicle load on Sunday to formally end this event:

This is the last trailer load that will stay in the trailer until our next setup at the end of January (the carts just left of center -- the stuff in the center near the front of the building are the wall sections used to hide the machines on the right and our lunch room on the left).  We are already missing this event.

We had a great time this season, with only 2 days cancelled due to weather.  We counted 43,364 visitors through our layout this season, talked to many people and answered many questions about the hobby.  Planning for next season has already begun (we think we can make it a little bigger next time ).

Andy

Looks like it was another great event. 

@Andy Hummell posted:

Here are the final photos and thoughts from the 2024 KHL season:

We had a great time this season, with only 2 days cancelled due to weather.  We counted 43,364 visitors through our layout this season, talked to many people and answered many questions about the hobby.  Planning for next season has already begun (we think we can make it a little bigger next time ).

Andy

Andy;

I’ve always found your club’s layout to be amazing and large (you annually give me a very bad case of long train envy ), but that overhead shot is mind blowing - it is WAY larger than I thought!!! Congrats on another successful season as ambassadors for the hobby!!! I can’t imagine how you can make it any larger, but I have no doubt that you will succeed.

Another great job, Andy……congrats to you and your team….…we shut down our display this Saturday……

Peter

@Apples55 posted:

Andy;

I’ve always found your club’s layout to be amazing and large (you annually give me a very bad case of long train envy ), but that overhead shot is mind blowing - it is WAY larger than I thought!!! .

That was exactly my thought too when I saw that overhead pic. I’ve always been impressed by the set up and beautiful layout, but man is that thing huger than I could imagine!

Thanks for all the kind words everyone!

@Apples55 posted:

I can’t imagine how you can make it any larger, but I have no doubt that you will succeed.

While the width is at its limit, we have some extra space at the back and can probably add a couple of feet more on each of the two legs.  It will take some planning though -- fortunately, we have a little over 9 months to work on it.   Personally, I've already picked up a few small detail items that will be going on the layout in the new season.

Andy

you and the club's members worked really hard on this, but I get a sense that all of you guys enjoyed it!  Congrats on the fine effort, and results.

= walt