https://www.rbmnrr-passenger.com/schedule nothing nada bumpkis
Probably because the website refers to regular excursions operated by the railroad, not a one-time special apparently sponsored by somebody else. Do your homework and find out who is sponsoring this excursion.
Does this help at all? It does, if you want to see what their new F-units look like!
Spoiler: They don't have the old Reading black and green scheme, but they do look good!
https://www.rbmnrr-passenger.com/new-f-unit-railfan-excursion
This is the only excursion posted at this time.
CSSHEGEWISCHProbably because the website refers to regular excursions operated by the railroad, not a one-time special apparently sponsored by somebody else. Do your homework and find out who is sponsoring this excursion.
That's more than a little harsh, because he followed a link directly from the Kalmbach Newswire item on this excursion that pointed him to the wrong place. And the arrogant tone you used is not particularly tempered by your being wrong, wrong, wrong; had you followed your own advice before posting, that might have been different.
I see Firelock beat me by a minute on the updated Web page (because I had to navigate the site from the wack link to find it); the telephone contact number is (610) 562-2102
Great minds think alike. Or something.
PS: Looks like the super-duper "Super Dome" car is sold out already! Wow!
Flintlock76Looks like the super-duper "Super Dome" cars is sold out already! Wow!
Guess there are more hardcore railfans than Kalmbach seems to have thought?
(I wonder what plans might be made if the special high-ticket 'sections' sell out early? There's already enough 'indicated demand' to think about another high-end run... )
Only 3 left for 'Premium', and only 5 for the open-air diesel-exhaust fiends. But I think this is an artifact of how many seats were put up on vendini.com, not how many actual seats may be available in the special accommodations -- see the note about 'call the box office for additional ticket opportunities'.
And it has always been my experience that there will be one last-minute cancellation or opening that will get you aboard if you really want.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were people waiting with their "fingers on the triggers" waiting for the tickets to go on sale.
On page 19 of Decembers "Railpace" magazine there's a good interior shot of the Super Dome's upper level. Nice! I can see why it's sold out already.
Can't say I consider myself an "Open-air diesel exhaust fiend," rolled on the floor over that one! "Open-air coal smoke fiend," now THAT'S another matter!
If I want diesel exhaust there's a Greyhound bus terminal about ten miles away...
Flintlock76I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were people waiting with their "fingers on the triggers" waiting for the tickets to go on sale.
Nice to see there are so many hardcore railfans out there. Railfans interested in F units. Railfans interested in F units rebuilt ahistorically with 645s and dash-2 electrics.
There was quite a thread over on RyPN about how so many museum operations would turn up their noses at frankenstored locomotives like these. I hope those guys are watching the numbers rise...
(Incidentally, it's my arrogant opinion that these locomotives are historical in their own right, precisely for having been rebuilt as they are, and furthermore that they are becoming even more historical in their new careers with Andy & Co.)
Flintlock76If I want diesel exhaust there's a Greyhound bus terminal about ten miles away...
It's not the same, not the same at all. (And keep in mind that there are some folks who treasure the 'legacy' smell of certain kinds of exhaust -- it's an acquired taste, to be sure, but so is coal smoke. (To my knowledge, nobody is on record as liking the smell of oil smoke, particularly downwind as the flues are sanded, but I'd be happy to entertain different opinions!)
I'll confess that when I was a small child living on Manhattan, one of my favorite smells was the exhaust from the old-look buses. (This was in the late Fifties, long before the age of mass-transit pollution control and perhaps before the advent of 6-72 engines in some of the coaches - one of you buslisters would know for sure). That is likely some genetic thing, but it does have to be said that large 567s (and who knows? possibly-pampered 645s) might produce some of the same chemistry as the smaller GM two-strokes.
Of course if there's lube oil in the plume, or unburned diesel fuel from bad injectors, Katie bar the door! that's bad smellin'!
I suspect most diesel fans really don't care what's under the skin, as long as it works. And of course when N-S rebuilt the units they were rebuilt to last for decades to come, and capable of being run by any present day head-end crew, I think any museum that turned up their noses at those units (assuming of course they could afford them) are probably kicking themselves at this point.
The other factor for the rapid ticket sales would certainly have to be where the Reading & Northern is located, the heavily populated Northeast. There's bound to be more than a few railfans in those millions!
Historic in their own right? Absolutely! Look at how long they've been around and where they've been over the years, irregardless of how they've been rebuilt. And now the story continues.
Diesel exhaust connoseurs? Well it takes all kinds, I guess.
As far as I know because of a tit-tat fight between the Reading and the City of Jim Thorpe/Maun Chunk over taxes this might be the only excusion this year.
divebardave As far as I know because of a tit-tat fight between the Reading and the City of Jim Thorpe/Maun Chunk over taxes this might be the only excusion this year.
Not so, as I understand it the town of Jim Thorpe has backed off the "amusement tax" demand.
At any rate, the R&N has plenty of other places to run.
Overmod I'll confess that when I was a small child living on Manhattan, one of my favorite smells was the exhaust from the old-look buses. (This was in the late Fifties, long before the age of mass-transit pollution control and perhaps before the advent of 6-72 engines in some of the coaches - one of you buslisters would know for sure). That is likely some genetic thing, but it does have to be said that large 567s (and who knows? possibly-pampered 645s) might produce some of the same chemistry as the smaller GM two-strokes.
I liked that smell as a kid too! Mom and Dad thought I was nuts, and warned me how toxic diesel exhaust can be. (To be fair, they were right)
I knew I wasn't crazy. All these years later, I finally feel vindicated!
My neighborhood buses were the "New Look" models with those classic fishbowl windshields and 6-71 Detroit engines. What a sound those things made, and boy could they ever climb the hills out of the North Saskatchewan valley!
The only things in Edmonton Transit's fleet that climbed the hills better were these. Silent and odourless too (my parents liked them better):
http://www.trolleybuses.net/edm/htm/can_h_edm_bbc_160_20070928_ss.htm
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
With all due respects, there's something about a GMC 'New Look' bus with trolley poles that doesn't look quite right. This may be due to the fact that CTA trolley buses in the 1960's and 1970's were Marmon-Herrington buses.
CSSHEGEWISCHWith all due respects, there's something about a GMC 'New Look' bus with trolley poles that doesn't look quite right.
Or Flyer E800s (like the ones that supplanted Marmon-Herringtons in Dayton) too.
I'm just so used to the diesel version that the hump and the poles seem wrong.
Conversely, the postwar Pullman-Standard trolleybuses built for Memphis looked perfectly right their whole lives.
As to trannsportation smells and such, try riding in the cab of a handbomber for about 65 miles--after arriving in Birmingham, Mrs. Purdie (who was sitting on the fireman's box of 722) told me that my mother wouldn't know me. She had a light tan makeup on when I boarded the engine in Anniston (I'm sure she had washed her face before leaving Atlanta.). The engineer did shut the steam off just before we entered the Cook Springs tunnel.
Johnny
Overmod CSSHEGEWISCH With all due respects, there's something about a GMC 'New Look' bus with trolley poles that doesn't look quite right. Or Flyer E800s (like the ones that supplanted Marmon-Herringtons in Dayton) too. I'm just so used to the diesel version that the hump and the poles seem wrong. Conversely, the postwar Pullman-Standard trolleybuses built for Memphis looked perfectly right their whole lives.
CSSHEGEWISCH With all due respects, there's something about a GMC 'New Look' bus with trolley poles that doesn't look quite right.
Each to our own, and we are influenced by what we see. As a child I just assumed that the Brown Boveri trolleys were as normal as their GM diesel counterparts, only much later did I learn that they were unique to Edmonton.
Edmonton Transit maintains a historic bus fleet that includes one Pullman and two Brill trolleys. Unfortunately they have had nowhere to run since our wires came down in 2009.
If you want to shake your head at the design in person, ETS 181 is now part of the Illinois Railway Museum's trolley collection:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx_zPcLtl04
Flintlock76 I suspect most diesel fans really don't care what's under the skin, as long as it works. ........
I suspect most diesel fans really don't care what's under the skin, as long as it works. ........
That is exemplified by some who suggest putting a diesel prime mover inside one of UP's turbines to get the locomotive back in operation. Unfortunately, museum preservation and tourist operation are not entirely compatible. There is more to preservation than the external architecture; just as important is the internal technology.
Having said that, there is nothing inherently wrong with preserving heavily upgraded units like the ex-NS F-units in their present configuration, as long as we don't claim them to be examples of mid-fifties technology. They have an interesting history behind them in their own right. Most locomotives, especially on the larger roads, received numerous upgrades over the course of their working lives, which makes the few that are close to original quite rare.
An extreme example of changing what is under the skin is the ex-Canmore Mines, ex-CPR 0-6-0 at Calgary's Heritage Park. It looks like a steam engine, but a diesel hidden inside provides the actual power. It probably satisfies a good percentage of the general public since it looks the part, and has the advantage of not needing boiler maintenance. (The Park later acquired and now usually operates one of their two real 0-6-0s that provide a more complete experience.)
John
cx500That is exemplified by some who suggest putting a diesel prime mover inside one of UP's turbines to get the locomotive back in operation. Unfortunately, museum preservation and tourist operation are not entirely compatible. There is more to preservation than the external architecture; just as important is the internal technology.
Except that there is a diesel prime mover in one of those gas turbines, and it was capable of moving the unit in restricted settings as well as providing a variety of turbine-related functions that could easily be utilized for 'museum display' of the historic powerplant. If I remember correctly it's a Cooper-Bessemer of more hp than many historic switchers. While it only drove a couple of axles... is more than that involved in historic operation at, say, IRM?
I'd agree up to a point if the 'renovation' were done just to put one of the units back on the road for long fantrips, perhaps having to 'simulate' the turbine sounds and exhaust plume. That would be as "dishonest" as dieselizing a PRR GG1 'to get it running' (even though I suspect you could make it quiet enough, with dummy pans, to get a rise out of a great many paying railfans...) The argument I'd make, though, is that if the work that is done is reversible, with minimal if any damage or loss to historic fabric, there is no real 'harm done' -- no more, certainly, than putting a 645 and dash-2 electricals into an F-unit carbody. In the days that multiple 'Big Blow' locomotives still existed, it would certainly make sense to repower one rather than scrapping it... even if what you produced was neither historically accurate nor technologically significant.
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