I can only think of a few possibilities, first, which I doubt, is a wheel cleaner being a lighter car may pick up dirt more. Next a limited brake? Next, power contacts for signalling, most speeders etc may be insulated not to set off the signals, but if needed, could activate them.

I also thought maybe a limited brake for after it is stopped to keep the car from drifting or maybe a stabilizer because of the spring suspension. Maybe for stability when boarding.

It's great that its lighter for bad track, but I would think the track would stll have to be class 1 to run passengers over it?

Plans are to restore the "railbus" to operational condition, and use it in addition to the regular tourist train. Currently the "excursion" is via motorcars, when weather and conditions permit. However, the locomotives, at least one coach (Former RDG 1341) and a portion of the right of way are the number one priorities. I think the railbus can be a big draw for railfans, for it's unique-ness.

Tellllll me about it. Managing customer expectations is everything.
Everything.

An expectation is something the customer has made up in his head. For instance every customer expects that when they arrive 45 minutes early, they'll find a gorgeous gingerbread depot, right out of a Disney movie. They'll drive in circles if they can't find this mythical depot. Or they find the location OK, but EXPECT the train to be SITTING THERE when they arrive 45 minutes early.

The classic mis-set is "Where's the train? This is a trolley." It doesn't help that the museum's brochure catchphrase is "Ride the Train!"

It's trivial to set expectations, if you know where people will assume wrong.
"That's the real trick, isn't it kid." - Han Solo



With speeders, you HAVE to sell it as a Very Special, cool and rare thing - which, fortunately, it is.

If you convey even the slightest apology, even subconsciously, people will "read" that and that is not recoverable. It helps if the brokedown train isn't directly visible lol.


Like any other expectation, set it properly. "Our historic train does have barriers, here are pictures of them."

Looking for a source of info on who built this and when it was built. I have been thru every Doodlebug related book that I know of as well as a big Fairmont book with no luck. I have also spent countless hours searching the internet. Any help will be deeply appreciated.

Thank you,
Jim

FWIW the Silver Lake RR in New Hampshire does a great job with a passenger service roster consisting entirely of speeders and trailers.


At last year's Steamtown Railfest I dare say the speeder rides were the highlight.


I agree you have to market it correctly, but it can - and has - been done.

The WK&S "Berksy" mentioned a few posts up is a whole other story. It's probably worth a full essay tracking that beast from St. Clair hump rider to southern gal. Here's one: http://www.jeff-z.com/wks/locoroster/berksy/berksy.html

Jim,
There is a photo in a Kalamazoo catalog that has a slight resemblance to the Erie 300.
http://www.kalamazoomanufacturingco.net/railprods.htm
The photo shows a vehicle with a front-mounted engine, but the body of the car is similar. -- Ray

I am fairly certain Erie 300 was a Kalamazoo vehicle. If you look at the first photo at the beginning of this thread, of the car at Rockhill Trolley Museum, take note of the handrails. They are very similar, if not identical, to the Kalamzoo inspection car shown on the Kalamazoo page. Cass also had a Kalamazoo car, with the hood and engine of a 1930's Ford, that they got from Meadow River Lumber. And somewhere i've seen an identical car with a Willys Jeep front end.

Thank you Ray. The wheels and what is visible under the car appear similar although it is Ford based compared to ours being Chevy.

Thanks to a tremendously helpful and generous Daniel Biernacki, we now have a drawing of this railcar - which on the plans dated June 12, 1935, is an Inspection Car.

Between this drawing, and the pictures and notes we've been taking as we clean this car, we see no reason why it cannot be fully restored and rebuilt.

Here's a teaser from the drawing - Front view, and part of the side.

Be sure to come by the Stweartstown Railroad and see the progress we're making on this historic car.

Has there been any updates on this car? Or has all the recent focus been made on the passenger coach and track itself along the line?

As far as the `come ride the train' only to find a Railbus issue. So far the railbus we have at Ct Eastern RR Museum is more popular and people are actually thrilled to ride it instead of the train (flatcar with benches pulled by GE 44 ton or 25 ton locomotive). They tell us it is because it is something different and it is cute, to tell the truth everyone smiles and waves,when they see her trundle down the tracks, especially when we toot to the people on the railtrail that runs parallel to the museum tracks.

Ours is a 1937 Fairmont Railbus model 3100, seats 6 plus Driver (2 double and 2 single seats). The seats have swivel bases that lock for forward or rear facing, so we keep a double and a single facing forward and the other 2 facing backward. She was an Inspection car and a Crew van for the Maine Central and occasionally pulled a small cart of materials (roughly 6 foot wide x 8-10 feet long) or a clearance frame to check and maintain the RoW.


The advantage of the railbus is both in fuel and staffing. The train, which we mainly use on event days, needs a minimum of 3 people, engineer and brakeman in the locomotive (hard to see through the engine hood) and a conductor with the passengers. Whereas the railbus only needs 1 crew member as the operator is with the passengers and it is a small group. When we have enough visitors where I can run the railbus without shutting down, I average 4 runs a gallon of gasoline, 2 if I shut her down between runs (1.5 mile round trip), IIRC the 25 tonner just under a gallon of diesel a run with her small 6 cylinder Cummins and I am not sure of the burn rate of the 44 tonner when running only one Cat D17000 engine.

If you restore the Erie 800, and plan to run her regularly, be smart and replace the engine with a similar sized modern engine and possibly convert the transmission to automatic. Of the 2 Fairmont 3100 railbusses I know of (ours and B&M 500 at Seashore Trolley Museum in Kennebunkport Maine) have both been upgraded for reliability. The B&M 500 recently received a Slant 6 Dodge, and ours has a 1969 Chevy 230 straight 6 with a 3 speed automatic. They originally came with Waukesha 70HP 6 Cylinder engines (optional 100 hp Ford Flathead V8) and 3 speed manual transmissions. The thing that makes the upgrade easier, in the restoration viewpoint is that the engine and transmission are hidden and unless you tell someone, no one knows that it is not OEM.

When we received the railbus the engine and transmission were gone and the current engine and transmission were donated by the member restoring the Railbus. Old engines are hard to find new parts for, whereas a semi-modern engine is relatively easy to find parts for, in fact the Waukesha engines are near impossible to find parts for without going part by part through the catalog with a set of micrometers. As related to me by B.Y. at STM when he started to look for parts to rebuild the engine in the B&M 500, it was easier to find hens teeth (if you don't know chickens have no teeth).

Now have you dug deep enough into the 800 to find out what her power brakes are? Are they air pressure, hydraulic, or Vacuum like ours?

Of course having something different brings out `Different' people wanting `Different' photos:
https://www.facebook.com/122662274431468/photos/ms.c.eJw9yMENACAIA8CNDK0UYf~;FNGL8XQ70dCosRayygY5yIQ~;mi7AO~;ABvmDbM3g2L.bps.a.1248425575188460.1073741851.122662274431468/1248425608521790/?type=3&theater

Hope all is proceeding well on the project.

Rich C.
Ct Eastern RR Museum
Willimantic, Ct 06226
http://www.cteastrrmuseum.org

Yes, in the past year we focused on getting coach #1341 ready for service and on trackwork. One of our members is working on an engine for the railbus. We had a good year at Stewartstown Railroad with substantial increases in ridership and revenue. In 2017 we'll be working on lengthening the class I track, and getting a second coach ready. We learned a lot on the first coach and I think the second one should go quicker as we now have much better knowledge of what needs done, how to do it and costs and time involved.

I am a Stewartstown RR enthusiast and recall the last posts on their old Facebook page (their new one is Stewartstown Railroad Company) about the railbus, some of the parts to the drivetrain/ differential were defective and they were working on replacements:

https://www.facebook.com/StewartstownRa ... =3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/StewartstownRa ... =3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/StewartstownRa ... =3&theater

As I recall they had a re-manufactured Chevy 6 cylinder engine from the forties that matched the original.

As an outsider who lives over 3000 miles away (I know, convenient excuse) and therefore has only donated cash, not time, from what I can tell, what they need more than anything is volunteers to work on the many projects they have going simultaneously- track, coaches, units, railbus. They have made great progress with a small but devoted group of volunteers.