Fan trips and the LIRR

Have any of you considered contacting the New York Transit Museum about coordinating a fan trip on the LIRR? They constantly sponsor trips on NYCT, but by it's very nature, the museum also covers ALL MTA properties, sooooooo.......

Doug, we never thought that, Thanks!

Gota point,

See some Subways running to KO one day

I'm going back to the '70s with this, but LIRR used to have a Group Sales Department. We ran a series of parlor car trips to Greenport, using the DL&W parlors. There was frequently a coach coupled next to the parlor car with another charter group. I quess those days are long gone, though.

EDM5970 wrote:I'm going back to the '70s with this, but LIRR used to have a Group Sales Department. We ran a series of parlor car trips to Greenport, using the DL&W parlors. There was frequently a coach coupled next to the parlor car with another charter group. I quess those days are long gone, though.

I think those days are long gone on LIRR.

We (myself and a New Jersey shortline) contacted LIRR to plan a special train excursion, using LIRR locomotive(s) and Amtrak certified private cars, from New York City to Montauk and return, for a client's birthday party in January 2005. LIRR wanted nothing to do with us and the concept. Metro North operated a wonderful special train for us, with 2 of their Genesis locomotives and 3 of our PVs, from GCT to Poughkeepsie and return, on Saturday January 22, 2005 ... in a blizzard! Three photos of that excursion are online at http://www.dominionrailvoyages.com/page ... 4_2_1.html

How much did that cost? must have been a small fortune!

As you can see, Saturday January 22, 2005 was the day of a large winter storn in the New York area. Although Amtrak and New Jersey Transit did not operate some of their scheduled trains, Metro North operated their scheduled service and our special train.

thats from the link.

its's really a dam shame that MN can be decated to operating a "special" and or a "railfan trip" in the most inclment of days and on a system that snow can simply make operation holey hell, MN was not only able to run there own trains, but even with/with out delays they STILL managed to pull off that special charter train witch could have simply been cancled due to weather conditions, they still ran it and rain is successfully.

maby the LIRR should read and take note on that, MN get killed each year at 125st with snow and motors brakeing down but they still manage to run even if its 1 hr service with diesels makeing all stops. and even running a special to put the iceing on the cake. common guys. gota aplaud them for that.

ok this is not brain surgury, and has been done when real railroad personell and people that respected fan's were in management. so lets try this.
round up all remainable hacks and a few MP15s and run a short excursion for fans only from jamaica to HMC then HMC to seen the sad remains of the park, and then a trip to the coach yard. run the train around the Y to holban ect.. now thats a real simple excursion, and that probly does not take brain surgury to put together and all equipment is around and i beleive runnable, as we will be in yard territory slow speed and high speed will not be an issue.

so my LIRR friends please concider that as the start to future fan trips on LIRR tracks and any questions comments or concerns contact MN group travel to get advice on how to run excursions for both fans and people with money.

LIRR may never do such things themselves, so we have to rely on our groups as NRHS, and RMLI to do the tricks. Yes, to push LIRR, you need a whole group of us to fight. That's gonna be a very hard thing to do.

The guys who used to set up the trips within the LIRR are retired and your right it is a shame that they don't organize trips anymore.

In my opinion, it is possible that the "Group Sales" have the same mindset of many others in the Company...that their locomotives are not compatible with anything other than the C3's.

Depending on how and what you do the answer is correct or incorrect. You can use a DE to pull a freight train and you can use it to pull hundred year old antique passsenger coaches.

In the mindset of the new LIRR, you can't because you won't have a communication buzzer or *gasp* you might have to run the engine around the train using barbaric handsigns and the dirty old wye.

The amount of trouble they went through to try to make the Amtrak coaches compatible with our DE's was rediculous..all that so they could have an engine on both ends, a buzzer and door-light. Oh let's not forget the overated "hold" feature on the ABV. The real railroad that the LIRR was would have doubleheaded the train, gave the Conductor a hand held radio and used handsigns to signal the Engineer..and upon arrival in Montauk they would have split the engines to fit in the switching lead and ran around the train.

This is the era of bottled water and anti-bacterial soap..so, good luck with fan trips on the LIRR I doubt it will happen anytime soon.

IIRC some of the older equipment sitting up over at Morris Park is the property of the New York Transit Museum. Why not have a group of LIRR enthusiasts approach them about doing something with those old coaches besides letting them collect rust.

As clearly shown with the negative attitude from many fans and the Mighty LIRR it's self, they will never let a fan near them coaches in the park to even attempt to restore them. even if we painted thank you mta on it they still would not let it happen.

I hate to say this, and I have a lot of ideas that are all possibly and yes, do sometimes cost a lot, but are possibly, but welcome to the world of ANIT RAILFANS on the LIRR. it's almost like loosing the geeps meant loosing the hobby, interest, and dreams for train fans on this island, sad but true.

Exactly what equipment at Morris Park is part of the Transit Museum? I wasn't aware that there was anything of value left in Morris Park. What plans does the museum have for this equipment?

A couple of things...

The one 2900 coach in Morris Park (2960?) belongs to the Transit Museum. (The other coach is the former sandite car).

While in theory you could pull older coaches with a DE locomotive, but I believe it is either an FRA or APTA directive that they must be compatible with the door lights when moving revenue passengers.

Jay

Exactly what equipment at Morris Park is part of the Transit Museum?

RRChef, as far as I know one or more of the 2900 series coaches belong to the museum and prehaps an engine....not sure, but I was going to visit the museum next week (Court & Schermerhorn Streets in BKLYN) and ask some peritnent questions.

If memory serves me right, if/when the LIRR Eastside Connection becomes a reality the NY Transit Museum would have a track to display their mainline RR equipment (which would also include any MNRR cars on their roster). Obviously, the museum's only location to display railcars at present time is the subway station in downtown Brooklyn, hence the need to store their FRA cars 'out in the open.'

Ahh Form 19 keeps the rust off of the wye at MY isn't that right? It's always good to teach people how it used to be done in case it has to be done. You know god forbid technology wasn't working for a few hours you should know how to use hand signs.

You're right.. it's a lost trade.