Question for Rich

I would have to say the New River Trains which we ran on CSX from 1988 through 1994 were my favorites. They were the longest steam excursion trains anyone ever pulled. They started around 30 cars and the last three years they were 34 car trains. The 765 had to work HARD for several hours eastbound to handle that train at track speed. Speaking of speed, we ran at track speed on these runs, and showed that an NKP Berk could handle a 34 car passenger train at 70+ mph.

Since we ran those trips every year for several year in a row, we got to know the crews pretty well. Road Foremen Dave Midkiff and Jim Ward were great to work with. And I'll always remember one particular CSX engineer, the late Doug Dillon. Whenever we reached the end of a speed restriction or slow order, he would say to me, "OK, Richie, give 'er the gas!"

Those were good days...

What about the westbound trip?

Matthew

The C&O main line is predominantly upgrade eastbound on this division. So the westbound run was much easier.

What changed at CSX in the past 20 years that they are no longer steam friendly unlike NS now? Did they get a new CEO that hates steam like David Goode at NS did and E. Hunter Harrison now at CP formerly at CN?

Different people have different philosophies about how to run their businesses. The current management team at CSX does not see any value in operating steam on their railroad. That's not a "bad" thing and they should not be demonized for their philosophy. They are entitled to their opinion.

Back in the 80's and 90's we did a lot of running on CSX and NS was not very steam-friendly. That was then, this is now, and things have changed. The pendulum has swung the other way now and we enjoy a great working relationship with Norfolk Southern. I hope that some day we have an opportunity to develop a working relationship with CSX again.

I was on the 1991 NRHS trip with 765 double-heading with 1225 Huntington to Hinton.  Of all the steam excursions that I have ridden, that one is tied for first place as far as best steam excursions for riding, in my opinion. 

765 was doing most (all ?) of the work, as 1225 suffered a thermic syphon failure early in the trip.  I will never forget the beautiful shot-gun exhaust of 765 from the open windows.  Even though we did not arrive back into Huntington until after midnight, it was great hearing her blast through the night and watching the small towns go past long after most were asleep.

What, CSX allowed steam and open windows in 1991? Who was in charge of CSX then that they allowed steam? Now almost no class 1 allows open windows. The current CEO of CSX is Michael Ward. Is he a steam hater? How did John Snow previous CEO feel about steam? Good thing that Wick Moorman is a steam fan, otherwise the only steam we would see in the east would be tourist railroads. Reading and Northern is the closest you can get to mainline steam in the east today. 425 has a loud bark. When 425 runs on the Lehigh Line on longer trips, on a 45 mile stretch it actually shares track with NS freight trains, there was a meet between 425 and an NS freight a few years ago. NS has trackage rights over RBMN on that stretch. NS shifts to CP rails at Dupont, PA near Scranton and to it's own rails in the Lehigh Gorge 9 miles north of Jim Thorpe.

It's all about money not if anyone likes steam or hates it.  With the explosion of traffic even NS will be hard press to allow Steam excursions on their system next year.

Gary, I beg to differ. It is NOT about money...the steam program is chump change when examined in the total revenue picture. It is all about the attitude of the man running the company.

We already have a good schedule set for NS in 2015. 765 will be quite busy next year...on NS and elsewhere. At this time I cannot say any more than that about 2015, so don't ask.

I can see your point Rich in the money issue but on excursion on NS, didn't NS cancel excursion this year due to traffic and crew shortages?  Just saying as I really don't see those issues resolving themselves anytime soon which is a good thing for my stock price and I sure do hope this trip come true.

Well, I glad that there are some RR companies that have a "steam" program.  Keeps history alive and guys like Rich happy and out of trouble!

Larry

Ditto,

My son is finally old enough, so I plan on a trip somewhere with big steam. 765 could be one of the options.  Will have to wait for the schedule to come out before planing.

No, they did not.

We had talked about running some NS trips in the fall, but nothing had been officially planned. NS simply told us that they were not going to be able to run a fall schedule. There was nothing to "cancel" because nothing had been officially planned anyway.

In any case, the crew shortage is not a permament problem. It should be solved by the end of the year.

My misunderstanding of the stories I read a few months back

Busy next year? You only ran 2 public NS trips this year, the ones from Detroit to Fort Wayne. Can you say if PA is part of the plans next year? Would Hoboken-Port Jervis ever be possible in the future, doesn't NS own part of that line, the NY State portion? You ran there before. CVSR in Ohio is too far of a drive for us, even Lewistown, PA was 120 miles west of us. That was a great ride.

One thing you are going to have to accept about steam.  If you want to see it and ride behind it, you have to go where they are.  More often than not, they won't come to you.  I can't tell you the number of miles on the car or the nights in hotel rooms that I've spent over the years.  The the end, it's a small price to pay (albeit rather $$$ at times) to see one of the most amazing machines invented by man.

Between the NS Employee trips in Chicago and Detroit, and the public runs in Detroit, Owosso and Cuyahoga Valley, I'd say 765 has done pretty well for herself this year.  Not too shabby for an engine and organization without their own railroad.

Kevin

We ran FOUR trips on NS this year, plus several deadhead moves. As for next year, as I already posted above, "I cannot say any more than that about 2015, so don't ask."

Well, I enjoyed the Horseshoe Curve ride last year, and I'm looking forward to what NS and FWRHS does next year. I don't see 4501 from TVRM and N&W 611 from Roanoke coming to the northern states next year unless they have a surprise up their sleeves so FWRHS is really the only hope for a public mainline steam excursion on NS rails east of Ohio like in 1988 (NJ and PA on Conrail) and last year. I guess my maximum driving radius to get to a steam excursion would be around 200 miles. We made it to Lewistown last year. We stayed in a hotel near Harrisburg. I'm from Allentown area, about 70 miles east of Harrisburg. 765 went through Allentown 3 times in July, 1988 but I missed it due to being unaware at the time. Once is not enough. I want to ride behind the 765 again if it comes near me again. I heard the NKP 763 in Ohio is being restored to operation and possibly the 759 at Steamtown in the far future.

It makes me happy that so many people want 765 to come to their area, and hopefully they will be able to fulfill those wishes at some point, but I'm sorry, some of the requests comes off as whining to me.  To put it in perspective, those of us in the Fort Wayne area, 765's home, have had the two Wabash Cannonball trips last fall as the ONLY excursion trips to LEAVE from our area in over 20 YEARS, and a LOT of people were unable to get tickets for them, so I say be patient and wait your turn!

Well, it is a tall order to expect 765 to cover three or four states and 5,000 miles in one year. But it has done it before. They have worked with NS the past couple years to run employee trips in 2012 and employee and public trips in 2013 as far east as Harrisburg, PA.