Moderators may choose to move this to Railfan board. I participated on the Carl Franz photo freight on Strasburg RR, Saturday Feb 15. The day was cold, windy, and snowy. A foot of crusty snow was on the ground. An additional inch or two fell during the day. Strasburg had plowed on Friday. I want to highlight several aspects that were most impressive about the day.

The basic train was 475 and 9 freight cars, followed by combine and coach. A caboose was available and could have been used dropping the coaches for runbys. Patrons elected not to spend the extra time involved dropping coaches, so no caboose was used. Since it was Opening Day at Strasburg, 89 would pull passenger trains at noon, 1, and 2 PM. 89 participated with the photo freight for double headers and also solo. Crews were exceptionally efficient switching engines around. The rip ran roughly 6AM-6 PM. There was no sun. The equipment performed flawlessly as far as I could tell. The vintage freight cars are simply amazing. The engines retained their Strasburg lettering.





Cooperation for the patrons
I was very impressed how the Strasburg folks worked very hard to "put on a good show". There was excellent coordination and they seemed very willing to go the extra mile (no they didn't lay more track).



Cooperation with neighbors

It is very apparent that Strasburg has a great relationship with the neighbors bordering the railroad. We were able to traipse through dormant fields and around farms. These scenes are not available in summer. The snow was a plus in that it kept from traipsing through muddy fields.






Safety and Comfort

The most impressive part of the trip was the work of the crew to keep everybody safe and comfortable. Understand that Strasburg was unloading about 75 folks along the right of way into snow a foot deep while snow was coming down. The crew continually worked to keep the steps clear, frequently using ice melter. I was amazed that they used ice melter directly on the vintage equipment. I meant to ask what they were using. I had a little concern for some of the guys who are up in years, perhaps a little overweight and carrying camera bags and tripods navigating the deep snow. Fortunately no 911 calls were needed.





Heating the cars was done the way it was 100 years ago.....coal stoves. There were two vintage coal stoves in each end of the coach. They did a fine job keeping the cars warm. The wind was tough which I suspect helped provide enough draft to keep the stove fires burning during the stops. Crew did a fine job of stoking the stoves. Can anybody provide more info on these stoves?



A couple of videos for your pleasure.

The meet at Groffs with the returning 2 PM train. This simply looks like it could have been 100 years ago.

http://youtu.be/kmGboLhjRKU

Multiple runbys in this video.

http://youtu.be/Ja8UdQ4oggI

I have scores of other photos, not really great pics, some even bad.

https://sharedpicsbytom.shutterfly.com/

Thanks, Tom

Thanks, Tom!

Great pics and reporting...

Wonderful photos and story! The Strasburg is perhaps the gold standard of what a tourist/heritage road should look like and act like. Several others may equal it in their own ways (Durango & Silverton, Cumbres & Toltec, Cass), but not enough other operations come near as close to this as they can and should.

If they did, we might have more friends and not quite as many battles as we do now.

Thanks for posting Tom. Photo #1 sure could be Canada. Reminds me of a very cold Januarly trip to Montreal in the mid 80s to shoot the box cab electrics.

Mr. Parkins,

Thank you for your kind words. We are glad you had a safe and enjoyable time. Paying patrons such as yourself help keep steam up and the lights on.

Concerning the Spear car stoves, we sell these stoves as a kit or assembled. (We would caution the purchaser of a kit that the stove is cast iron, heavy, and the castings usually require some dressing. Please talk to your local housing authority before installing them in a shop or dwelling.)

All the best,

Steve W. - You forgot the link (scroll to bottom):

http://www.strasburgrailroad.com/machin ... tion-part/

You're welcome,
Steve F.

As a participant in two Strasburg photo charters (including a harsh winter one). I can say without a doubt that they set the gold standard for operation. Depending upon the charter sponsor you may get something really unique or something more predictable, but you can bet the crew will work their butts off to make it all good.

Rob

Excellent photos and a great insight to the operation! One thing I'm very impressed about is that with past charters here and elsewhere that when people post their videos the train always seemed to be accelerating or decelerating. This time there was a smooth consistent speed which gives me the impression that it was just a group of guys standing in a field with cameras chasing that last local held down by steam in the late 50s.