Since I was able to visit the East Broad Top Railroad last year, I decided to check on the website. To my dismay, I read that they won't be operating this year. Here is the website http://www.ebtrr.com/ I hope that they will be able to get back to operating soon.
Lone Geep
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There is a little more on the subject in an earlier thread called something like "The Future of the East Broad Top", and also in this link to a recent Trains Newswire story:
http://trn.trains.com/Railroad%20News/News%20Wire/2012/05/East%20Broad%20Top%20shutdown%20may%20be%20temporary.aspx
Unfortunately, there is just not enough money in the "tourist railroad" business to make a profit. Fuel and insurance have gotten too expensive. The generations that rode the trains are dying off and the new generations only show up when there is something special (such as Thomas or Polar Express). And the railroad isn't the real beneficiary of the Thomas money! Most of it goes back to the entertainment company.
We need some way to promote these "historical experience" centers and some way to get the general public riding. EBT has heroically tried, but the competition for the public dollar is hard.
Can anyone direct me to a museum where buggy whip functions are preserved?
Or to where I can ride a Wells Fargo-like stage?
Or to travel in a Pierce-Arrow or Packard limo of their era?
FDR's yacht does give the opportunity, as does the Liberty ship Jeremiah O'Brien, to go sailing.
A few "Warbirds" fly out there; and out there are us.
Is our course set for the horizon or "in the face" of those who in their minds, as in ours, need to verify by observing or experiencing historical culturally significant stuff and events?
For the buggy whip, I suppose one might be used occasionally on the operating horsecar (streetcar) line along the seafront "Promanod" in Douglass, Isle of Man. Worth a trip. Horsecar line, 1897 original equipment scenic interurban trolley line, including open bench car operation, mountain electric with "Fell Rail" braking system, and steam narrow gauge. Terrific fish reastaurants.
efftenxrfe Can anyone direct me to a museum where buggy whip functions are preserved? Or to where I can ride a Wells Fargo-like stage?
Is this question asked in seriousness or rhetorically?
The people I know doing this are kind to their horses and don't whip them, but I have participated as a footman or navigator in a Carriage Driving Event (CDE), which is a competition of skill and stamina for both the human driver and for the horse. I don't keep horses or own a carriage, but my wife has friends through her career network who have retired to a farm in Iowa where they raise and train and compete with horses, and on two occasions I have participated as a crew member of the carriage.
My job was to memorize the obstacle courses so as to provide backup for the driver in making the correct turns; my job was also to help stabilize the carriage in sharp turns by leaning the right way.
I don't know if CDE is that much a spectator sport as an outlet for people wealthy enough to own horses, but my wife's friends are retired educators who earn some money by raising and training horses for other people, and they are operating a farm for-profit as many other people work very hard to operate farms. Some people are "in" to horses in the way others of us are "in" to trains, and there are maybe not-super-wealthy people competing in CDE because that is their passion and they save up their money for this.
As to a horse version of the EBT tourist railroad, my wife's niece is also "in" to horses and was raised on a farm in Upper Michigan, and she has a summer job driving a carriage to take tourists around Macinac Island near the isthmus separating Upper and Lower Michigan. I don't know if a Wells Fargo-like stage is something you can ride as a tourist experience, but it seems there was be some Old West recreation out West someplace that may have such a stage as something you can watch.
As to the Pierce-Arrow and Packard limo, there are all manners of car clubs and car enthusiasts who restore old cars or work with replicas. There are more than a few Warbird aircraft if you show up to a certain airport in Oshkosh, WI around late July/early August.
Maybe this interest in such historical recreations is a sign of a wealthy and prospering society. It dawned on me that maybe the Soviet Union was on the way out when I stood in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in the mid 1980's, in view of an airplane runway where some guys from Texas were prepping a supersonic MiG 21 jet for some flybys. Maybe the MiG 21 wasn't the first-line Russian military jet by then, maybe that MiG 21 was acquired from Ethiopia or some country that once had friendly relations with Soviet Russia, maybe the MiG was designed more ruggedly and G.I.-proof than counterpart American aircraft that some guys could operate one as a hobby. But somehow I didn't think there was an airshow where some rich guys in Russia had a McDonnell Phantom or even a jet we sold to U.S. clients such as a Northrup F-5 being kept as an expensive toy.
The EBT problems may reflect the state of the economy, that a lot of tourists are going much of anywhere because people are hurting moneywise. But I don't see interest in steam locomotives going away, where in the US we are generally prosperous enough to indulge interests such as steam trains, horse and carriage, and even a frontline military jet from our Cold War adversary.
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
Paul, your analysis is absolutely terrific. Thanks!
The EBT has been living on borrowed time for the last 50+ years. I hope the time to secure its future has not slipped away.
On a more positive note, the owner of the railroad, Joe Kovalchick, has requested that the restoration work being performed by FEBT crews continue this year. We have agreed to this and that's where I'll be this coming weekend.
The biggest news that came out about the same time as the announcement of nonoperation is that the Blacksmith Shop building, that was leaning badly (one side was 30 inches lower than the other) has been straigntened by professional barn straighteners from upstate New York. Their work was paid for by the Tickets to Preservation fundraiser (about 1/3) with the balance paid by the owner.
TomDiehl On a more positive note, the owner of the railroad, Joe Kovalchick, has requested that the restoration work being performed by FEBT crews continue this year. We have agreed to this and that's where I'll be this coming weekend. The biggest news that came out about the same time as the announcement of nonoperation is that the Blacksmith Shop building, that was leaning badly (one side was 30 inches lower than the other) has been straigntened by professional barn straighteners from upstate New York. Their work was paid for by the Tickets to Preservation fundraiser (about 1/3) with the balance paid by the owner.
That's good to hear. At least the restoration aspect hasn't stopped since the railroad still looked in bad shape when I visited last summer.
The challenge is to maintain relevence in today's changing world. Those operations that do so will survive and those that do not will fail. That is a challenge that the big organizations such as NRHS and some very well funded museums are facing. To be frank, it takes a lot of money and quality leadership and even then, there's no guarantee of success. I won't say it's too late to save the EBT, but doing so will be an uphill fight that will need dedicated volunteers, professional leadership and suffient funding (probably in the millions of dollars and very quickly).
Give youngsters hands-on experience of some kind or another. I learned to run a streetcar as a teenager. Possibly I became a railfan at 2-1/2 when scared while standing with my parents on the platform as the steam-hauled train to take us to Grand Central passed in front of us. To calm me down, Dad carried me to the front of the train and placed my hand on main or connecting rod.
daveklepper Give youngsters hands-on experience of some kind or another. I learned to run a streetcar as a teenager. Possibly I became a railfan at 2-1/2 when scared while standing with my parents on the platform as the steam-hauled train to take us to Grand Central passed in front of us. To calm me down, Dad carried me to the front of the train and placed my hand on main or connecting rod.
How old are you? Service to Grand Central Terminal, New York, was electrified in 1907.
MidlandMike daveklepper: Give youngsters hands-on experience of some kind or another. I learned to run a streetcar as a teenager. Possibly I became a railfan at 2-1/2 when scared while standing with my parents on the platform as the steam-hauled train to take us to Grand Central passed in front of us. To calm me down, Dad carried me to the front of the train and placed my hand on main or connecting rod. How old are you? Service to Grand Central Terminal, New York, was electrified in 1907.
daveklepper: Give youngsters hands-on experience of some kind or another. I learned to run a streetcar as a teenager. Possibly I became a railfan at 2-1/2 when scared while standing with my parents on the platform as the steam-hauled train to take us to Grand Central passed in front of us. To calm me down, Dad carried me to the front of the train and placed my hand on main or connecting rod.
Mike, you didn't finish the sentence. ....from NY GCT to Harmon, NY. I got doused by a Niagara taking water on the fly north (compss direction) of Harmon - and my parents weren't even born in 1907. The Century got diesels in 1948(?) but the locals ran behind Hudsons for quite a bit longer.
Will someone who knows identify the present end of electrification on the Hudson River route?
Chuck
tomikawaTT Mike, you didn't finish the sentence. ....from NY GCT to Harmon, NY. I got doused by a Niagara taking water on the fly north (compss direction) of Harmon - and my parents weren't even born in 1907. The Century got diesels in 1948(?) but the locals ran behind Hudsons for quite a bit longer. Will someone who knows identify the present end of electrification on the Hudson River route? Chuck
The electrification nominally ends at Croton-Harmon, but you can see on Google Earth it extends to just past the former Croton North station.
To answer the question, I am 80. Dad took me to the front of the train BEFORE we boarded at Hartford. And neither parent gave a satisfactory explanaition as to where the steam locomotive dissapeared when I noticed it missing as we existed the platform at the front of the train at GCT.
But minutes later I noticed that the IRT 42nd St Shuttle and the Broadway Local (first subway rides in my memory) also didn't have steam engines and were also trains, and my curioiusity was answered, partially and temporarily at 2-1/2. But I did want to see and ride behind a steam engine again.
Then nothing like lookiing out front of the front car on subway and elevated trains and on NYC, PRR, NYNH&H, DL&W, and LIRR mu trains in following years, standing next to the motorman on streetcars, and finally running one.
I know where there is an ice harvesting museum, which sort of fits your list.
Mike
That really SUCKS!!!!!!!!
I was wanting to go to the EBT this year in addition to Railcamp, but I guess I will just need to get my fill at Railfest 2012, and, with any luck, BLW #26 will be back by then.
I forgot to mention, sorry EMD pulled out.
The Lehigh Valley Railroad, the Route of the Black Diamond Express, John Wilkes and Maple Leaf.
-Jake, modeling the Barclay, Towanda & Susquehanna.
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