Official Conway Scenic Railroad Thread (CSRR)

They have 50 miles of track if you want to include Intervale to Redstone then Fabyan to Whitefield. If you look at the quote I posted about the 470 trip; the CSRR says from N. Conway to Intervale, Intervale to Redstone then Redstone to Whitefield and back to N. Conway is 90 miles round trip; the only thing you’re missing is the 10 miles to Conway and back. If you add that in then you would have 100 miles of track; now divide that by half and you have 50 miles, 30 of which they use on a regular basis.
Also, this will not be the first time the 7470 will head down to Redstone. It went down it a few times before they relocated the track for the new North South Road (I think that's what's called); however it has yet to go down to Redstone since the relocation of the track.
Yes the 7470 was delivered by the MEC to the CSRR from this route via Redstone. Before it was in North Conway it was in Portland, ME or somewhere near there.

Due to pending litigation , Matt Rines knew , I explained to Doubting Thomases that funding would be there when it needed to be. CSRR. would have recieved $25,000.00 for improvements to Stalls 3 & 4. The #501 fund would recieve $250,000.00 towards restoration to operational status. If the owner of CSRR and The 470 Club chose to respond and communicate they would have been informed within legal limitations of pending the final outcome this was a sure thing but private. As a result the offer haas been withdrawn and is now NULL & VOID Thanks a lot for killing the Goose that was about to lay the golden eggs. J.H. Smythe

cak4eva wrote:Removed by moderator: Does not pertain to topic. Leading for posting

Sorry Kay, this is how they treat a new member, it made my descision very easy. I saw what the moderator did to your first posting , you did fine, and NOBODY WILL GET A DIME , I owe you lunch. I,m sorry you did nothing wrong.

Regarding track maintenance...
when I rode the "Day White Mtns" during Railfan Wknd '06, I was surprised at the speed of the train between Fabyans and Hazens, given that this track isn't used regularly by CSRR excursions and is only for special moves. When I commented on this, someone said that it just goes to show how well the Maine Central maintained their lines. I have to agree with that. Maybe it was a good thing that Guilford divested itself of the Mountain Division early in its ownership, otherwise conditions may have gotten considerably worse.

Yes, ShadyJay, me too. I was on the excursion Sat. during Railfan's weekend last year, and instead of splitting the power, the just ran around and shoved us to Hazens. We were moving at a pretty good clip, and the cars were only rocking minimaly..

I too was on the saturday trip, and dissapointed that they did not split the power Hopefully thes year they will split the power

I was up at the intervale location yesterday...no work has been done on the siding that is planned just east of the satation. No word on when that might happen.

Hey guys. I have been up in North Conway NH since last Monday and will be leaving Saturday. Yesterday I traveled on the 7470. I had a pleasent conversation with my friend Micheal M. the firemen of the 7470. I asked him about the two whistles and they were both hooked up. The one that is behind the bell or "the peanut" was there, but the one in the front of the cab was replaced by a B&M 5 chime whistle. THe original whistle was taken off to be repaired. I heard the B&M whistle and it was so weird, it was like 7470 was a differant locomotive. That was today, but yesterday when I was on the 7470, the locomotive stopped half way through the West Side Road crossing and then started to slowly back down the line. They actually lost there head of steam and had to stop so they could build up more steam. I was tape recording it so I have all the sound, cassette, not video. It was cool when we started back up because the engine was really working hard as we started to move. I've never heard the engine chuff so loud before. I've never heard any steam locomotive chuff so loud. It was awsome. Also, today Thursday, all of the trains were 5 minutes late and left five minutes later than ussual and there was one of those pick up truck rail cars with two small storage freight cars connected to it. Does anyone know about this? Well just thought I'd inform you of what is currently going on up here. I'll keep you guys posted.

Matt #7470

Matt my good man, you had a front row seat to what happens when the Railroad Purchasing Agent/ Manager gets a SuperDuper deal on a load of coal of so poor quality, it just won,t burn right. Two fireman one to shovel and one to use the rake and break up the Clinkers. The Cumbres & Toltic RR had similar issues with product quality. Might as well bought crushed stone and painted it Black I read on some web page LOL !
Coal is graded according to size, and whether hard or soft has a BTU rating per pound. There are vatious designed fireboxes made just to burn a specific type/quality coal, style of grate system plays a role. At The Valley Railroad in Essex,Conn . they use a Smokeless Coal, somewhat a 50/50 of hard and soft as one product. Comes from the Pochohauntus reigon of Penn. Low Smoke, High BTU, Cleean Burn. The Cog burns the GOOD STUFF Lotsa Big Smoke and plenty of heat, perhaps CSRR should look into soaking that swill load with some of that Bunker " C " #6 oil in the tank car, a couple uf truck recaps cut in half ready to go in the tender coluld help, you know how hot and fast tires burn. Free car wash too11LOL !!

The W, W, & F Ry in Alna Maine burns the Pochohontas coal also. It burns wonderful, hardly any smoke, and a lot of heat. As for loud chugging, you should hear the W, W, & F Ry #10 trying to move a heavy passenger train on a 2% grade at Alna Center, when she first started to move the train, the chugging was so loud, it sounded unbelievably loud. I looked back, and there were passengers leaning out of the open air excurssion car, trying to see why the engine was chugging so loud. Due to the heavy load, the smoke also went from hard to see, to a dark grey color. It was awsome, and that type of chugging goes on at least once aday on the W, W, & F.

I noticed the other day, that 7470 was putting off a lot of smoke leaving Conway. The engine was hardly working, and the smoke was all black. That means the firemen either threw on too much coal, so unburnt gasses were being shot out the stack, or it is just the type of coal that is being burned. What type of coal do they burn in 7470?

Joe

Hey again guys. Thanks for the reply Mecnanic and Joe. Today, the 10:30 run to Conway was powered by the 573, and the 1:30 and 4:30 were powered by the 7470. Anyone know why? Also, that good old faithful 2820 is once again on the DL. Whats the problem with it now? Seems like they put more money repairing it than they did purchasing it.

#7470 wrote:Hey again guys. Thanks for the reply Mecnanic and Joe. Today, the 10:30 run to Conway was powered by the 573, and the 1:30 and 4:30 were powered by the 7470. Anyone know why? Also, that good old faithful 2820 is once again on the DL. Whats the problem with it now? Seems like they put more money repairing it than they did purchasing it.

And the owner wants to get rid of the sister's! They would have been in a heap load of trouble last year and possibly again this year. At least management listens to the master mechanic... deciding to keep them for the foreseeable future. Come to think of it, I don't think they've ever had any major mechanical problems with the sister's. The 4266 is certainly in no shape to be used in daily operations with its oil leak and electrical issues.

I don't know much about dynamic brakes (better yet I know nothing of it); could someone please explain to me what the difference is between dynamic brakes and "regular brakes"... that would be great (I do know who an air brake system works). With that said would it be possible to convert/install a dynamic braking system into the FB9's?
Last year one of the FB9’s was paired up with the 2820 for most of the year, what was the reason for that? Why do they not do that anymore?

Dynamics is when the engineer flips a switch. Instead of the traction motors turning the wheels the wheels roll and act like a generator sending power back to the traction motors where it is sent through a series of resistors. Because it gets so hot they need additional cooling fans which you can see on many GP series locos/

So if I understand it correctly the dynamic breaking system is similar to that of a tractor trailer truck using the engine to slow down rather than the brakes. Am I still off?
What’s the deal with the other U-Boat? Being used for parts or future addition to the roster?

More like shifting into 1st gear when going down a big hill so that the truck won't go fast...