TICKETS for NKP 765 EXCURSIONS...

Well, starting tomorrow there's 11 days through May 31. Then it's June 1 and the tickets go on sale.

I agree with Superwarp ,(Gary) 100 percent.  When its posted then purchase the tickets. I am sure it will be posted either way. Key word is Patience.

Rich, my mistake. I was reading the Buffalo to Corning NY. As for Youngstown, it says 8:30AM on the FW website.

The web site is wrong. 

 

Y-town is an 0900 departure.

Only if the parking and busing problems have been worked out...

I get it now, there's an issue with the parking and bus shuttles in Bethlehem. I was on a 425 excursion on the same route you might be going on, but we boarded in Tunkhannock and went to Jim Thorpe. We had to park at a school and a school bus shuttled us to the train because of lack of parking at the train boarding site which was in a public park. On the Lewistown trips we parked in a parking lot away from the station, and a van drove us up to the station. You need to shuttle people from the parking to the train because there's nowhere to park mass cars at the train boarding site, and you can't board right next to the parking lots in the old steel property because a fence blocks the tracks. Are you having a problem arranging buses to shuttle people from parking to train, and renting the parking lots for your train riders? I was looking at aerial maps of Bethlehem and there's lots of parking around the steel stacks and by the new casino hotel, plus parking decks near the old Union Station. Hope you get the issues worked out. I want to ride, but don't really want to travel to Scranton to ride behind 765. If the Atown trips are cancelled for some reason, I might talk my mom into going to the Scranton DWG trips and we would stay in a hotel for the weekend. I can't go to Ohio or Buffalo, too far. Would you ever be able to have a trip from Bound Brook, NJ in the future or would there be an issue with running over part of shared assets track and taking the train to Newark to turn it? Back in the 80's you could run over any railroad with little problem and they didn't mind open window coaches back then.

The Conrail Lehigh Line east of Port Reading Junction is a massively busy railroad, Robert. NS, CSX, Conrail (Shared Assets), AND New Jersey Transit operate over it, so it is highly doubtful a steam trip will run over there...

BOUND BROOK, NEW JERSEY? Are you kidding? NO THANKS!!

 

The last time we were there was 1988. The trips we ran out of there in '88 were the absolute worst trips we ever ran.

 

I never want to go back there...EVER.

While I know it's not an ideal solution, what about the local school district? They have many schools within close proximity of each other, all with parking lots.

So NJ left a bad taste in your mouth. Well, that rules out ever seeing 765 through Pattenburg Tunnel or across the Delaware River ever again. Or east of Bethlehem. And probably the logistics of going to NJ would be difficult with shared assets track toward Newark being so busy. But, the Lehigh Limited in Aug 2013 ran from Hoboken to Bethlehem with no problem but it was diesel powered. So I guess I missed my chance to ride the Lehigh Line from NJ to Bethlehem since that trip was a one time deal. No passenger service on that route since Feb 1961 from Roselle Park to Bethlehem and beyond. Any hope for 765 ever traveling the NS ex-Reading lines from Allentown to Harrisburg or Reading to Philly? Most of the existing rail lines in my area last saw passenger service before I was born except from Bethlehem to Philly which ended June 30, 1981 and rails north of Bucks County gone. I guess Hoboken to Port Jervis would be impossible in the future, too even though 765 ran there in 1988 and 614, 1996-1998. NS owns the NY portion but NJT the NJ portion. Who makes the route decisions for these current trips, you (FWRHS) or NS or both? What if NS approached you about running 765 into NJ, would you refuse? The Binghamton to Campbell Hall, NY route would have been neat, wye at both ends, but it's 123 miles from Bing to PJ. But the Buffalo trip is 260 miles RT.

I remember Rich's famous quote: "I once spent a year in New Jersey in one week."

Any updates on the Allentown trips yet? Is it leaning more toward the yes, or toward the no? I hope you can get the parking issues solved within the next week. Plan B for me would be to ride the 765 excursion from Steamtown to DWG in early Sept. if these trips get cancelled for whatever reason. I would have loved a ride from Bethlehem TO NJ and back, but the logistics of taking it to Oak Island wye, and does NS have full ownership to there? I thought they shared with CSX the last several miles to Oak Island? Philly is another problem. At West Falls, CSX owns part of the wye and the High Line past 30th St. It seems the NS line to the Lehigh Gorge (and Hazelton) and the RBMN line to Pittston are less busy than the other lines in the area. Only one NS freight a day in each direction from Allentown to Binghamton. Not sure how many RBMN freights a day from Packerton Yard to Pittston.

No.

I wish some people can be patience and let things happen.   Whatever happens will happens. I am sure it will be posted either way so RELAX.
Sorry I had to get this out.

I guess I'm just impatient. I hope the trip happens. Remember this trip 2 years ago? http://www.anniversary.merail.com/route That trip covered the lines east of Bethlehem from NJ. You had to board at Hoboken or Newark though. The first leg of the trip covered the same route 765 ran on from Bound Brook in 1988 minus Bethlehem to Reading. I read all the articles on the 1988 trips like on Trainorders, etc. and there's pics and video from those trips on the web. Sounds like that event was the worst train event ever.

1. Are the dome cars 9407 and 9410 ex-Northern Pacific / MRLX cars?
2. Do you know if the same trainset will be used on the Buffalo - Corning trips?

 

Regards,

GNNPNUT

Yes and yes.

 

really time to stop living in the past. i agree with mrnavy2-jim

Just got my tickets for Saturday out of buffalo! My dad and I used to chase steam around buffalo when I was a kid! We even had tickets when the Berk was supposed to run in buffalo but got a tie plate stuck in the stoker! Told my dad to keep that day open but he doesn't know I have tickets... Super excited!!!!

Rich, will you be the engineer out of Buffalo for us? (Sunday?)

 

 

For anyone looking for a hotel close to the boarding site in Bethlehem, there is a Comfort Suites hotel just a few blocks away on 3rd St. And there is a Perkins Restaurant right across the street from the hotel near the old Lehigh Valley(and Reading) station (now a St. Luke's Hospital Clinic). And from there you can see the Lehigh Valley RR corporate offices and the Packer mansion.

Earl

My son and I booked our tickets tonight in the ex-NP dome for Sunday.  Looking forward to the trip.

 

Regards,

Jerry

 

Rich, I'm curious, can you share a rough outline of the route the Erie Limited will take?

Probably. I prefer running the outbound trip in the morning.

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There's only one route between Buffalo and Corning...the ex-Erie through Hornell.

Well, after looking up some rail maps, I realize I've asked a dumb question. I was thinking that heading south to Olean and across the Southern Teir to Hornell could be a possible route, but the map says that makes no sense at all... Oops.

Just wondered where the 765 would likely layover during the 3 weeks

between the Buffalo and Allentown trips?

Hey Rich,

 

According to Steamtown's website, tickets to ride 765 in Scranton, will on sale ONLY through Fort Wayne Historical Society.  Do you know when the tickets will go on sale?

Will you be there both days at Railfest?

 

Thanks.

Should be a spectacular ride. Many of my favorite motorcycling roads parallel those tracks. 

 

Pete

It will be a while before these tickets go on sale. We still have a couple of operational details to work out there. We will be there for all THREE days of Raifest. We will run to the Delaware Water Gap on Saturday and Monday. We'll be on static display at Steamtown on Sunday.

 

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That is a closely guarded secret.

 

Homeland Security will be involved. 

Has the bad blood with the W&LE subsided? Will we see the 765 back on the CVSR anytime soon?

What "bad blood?" There is none.

 

We'll be on the CVSR for three weekends this year, thanks to the WLE moving us from Bellevue to Akron - again!

Rich, I am interested on the September 12 or 13 trips out of Scranton . Are those a go? I only ask if they are not I will do the Allentown trips. Thanks!

We are not selling the tickets for the September 12-13 Nicholson - Binghamton trips. Another organization is operating those excursions. We are just leasing the locomotive to them to pull the train.

 

That is a long way of saying I don't know the details about the trips nor when the tickets will go on sale. I'm fairly sure the trips will run, but we (the 765 crew) are not involved at all with the ticket sales for these trips.

 

That's good to hear. We always look forward to "Steam in the Valley".

Look for "Steam in the Valley" on:

September 19-20

September 26-27

October 3-4

 

CVSR will be out with their marketing and ticket sales on this very soon.