Conway Scenic Railroad (CSRX) discussion thread

Indeed, the forecast does call for 5-8'' of overnight snow, (I'm not one to ever check the weather) that will certainly aid the visual portion.

BandA, it also helps that their ticket sales seem to be doing well with whatever they throw out there during these strange times, I remember checking the site a month or two ago and saw that many cars were sold out weeks in advance. Tourism is certainly still going up here, these trains give all the visiting flatlanders something to do instead of being holed up in a vacation rental.

Considering going up to chase the train tomorrow. Is there any chatter on the radio? Does CSRR use radio's?

They're boarding at 10, and advertising a 4-5 hour trip to go about 30 miles. It's not a difficult chase, given the low speed they run at. If anything, the weather (still clear here west of the notch as of 2100) and heavy traffic of others chasing are your biggest hurdles to worry abut. They've been running a hyrail behind the train the last few times I've been in Crawford Notch to see them, so I would assume they have some sort of radio communication.

arthur d. wrote: ↑Fri Jan 01, 2021 6:29 pm Considering going up to chase the train tomorrow. Is there any chatter on the radio? Does CSRR use radio's?

161.250 is the scanner channel for CSRR.

CSRR573; thanks for the frequency. It did help me track them down. Caught up with them during the water stop. I did manage to get a few nice shots.

Has the 4268 be re-engined yet ?

Per the 470 club newsletter progress reports, the engine and main generator are in, work continues on support systems, cooling, wiring, etc as covid and funds permit.

Isn’t a funding issue, it’s a COVID / manpower issue.

Eric

When is the shell of 1757, going to be cut up?

With the growing popularity of Railbike Tours, I'm curious to know if one would work for the Conway Scenic? Where could they set up an operation on their system? The first one that comes to my mind is the Redstone Branch with operations based out of the platform at Kearsarge, and unless they have plans to expand excision trains to Redstone, this in my opinion would be the best option, it's close to their station, it's within walking distance to all the shops, plus has room for parking.

Railbike tours from Crawford's into the Notch would be really special! Far from the station and harder to separate from the trains themselves, but really spectacular. I don't know what practices laws and/or insurance would require in order to consider it safe to do a railbike tour on a line that sometimes has trains.

I could be wrong but my understanding is, railbikes cannot be used where trains operate regularly. That limits them on the tracks to Redstone or somwhere up by Twin Mountain. Besides, I'm not sure how spectacular railbike tours would be in Crawford Notch for the return trip, they would probably have to supply oxygen tanks.

That's not true.
Valley RR in Essex, CT does railbike tours occasionally on theyr mainline.
The trick is "WHEN regular trains are running."
Come to think of it, there's a railway out West (maybe Heber Valley, but I'm not certain,) that will ferry people with railbikes to the top of their mainline and allow them to follow the train down.

a good chunk of the Valley RR is not safe for service beyond the normal tourist runs,track was cleared but not upgraded to allow service,but useable for speeder ,Hi-Rail trucks,and the bikes.

The section you're talking about is actually physically disconnected, for the time being, from the active main line, but they do run speeders, hi-rail and railbike trips up there, but that's not what I'm talking about. There have been railbike trips on the active portions of the mainline. Not very often, and not when regular trains are operating, but it does happen, so there's no reason at all that CSRX couldn't do the same thing on the Redstone branch.