October 2009

Foliage season is now upon us, and this is certainly one of the busiest times of the year for Conway Scenic. Passenger loadings are not as high as last year, but we have still sent out some very full trains. One of the trends that we have seen the past few years is that of tour groups traveling one way to either Fabyan or Crawford and returning in the other direction by motor coach. This works especially well for us when we can sell the same seats twice on one trip. One group rides west and the next rides east changing either at Crawford or Fabyan Station. I hy-railed up through to Fabyan’s today and can report that the foliage is almost at peak up in the Notch and it really is a wonderful sight. I spent a few minutes stopped on Frankenstein Trestle to take in the view. “AWESOME!” Come on over for a Fall Foliage train ride!

As of this writing (Sat, 10/3), steam locomotive #7470 is an estimated “few days” away from running. Every time we estimate, though, we seem to get into trouble! What was supposed to be a simple welded repair of one very small area turned into a much larger project as we discovered thinning of the fire box sheets behind the grate bearer in the right front corner of the fire box. At first it was thought that the thin area could be quickly repaired by welding in some new boiler plate and installing some mudring rivets and some new staybolts. After a portion of the old fire box sheet was removed, some cracking of the sheet was found to extend into the corner of the fire box and there was another problem area discovered in the throat sheet. Any time you get into a corner it makes things much more difficult to repair. The new plate has to be formed into the proper shape, and it is not a simple 90 degree bend. It has to have the proper radius and flare given to it by hot forming, and then it has to be welded in place and riveted and stayed. Brian and Jason from Maine Locomotive & Machine Company have been giving it their best, and we are all determined that the sound of 7470’s whistle will soon be heard again in the Valley.

B23-7 #1943 was put aside for a while so that we could prepare for Railfans’ Weekend. It seems that the engine has a problem with its water pump, so we will borrow the one from U23-B #2820 and see if that solves the problem. Time is against us on this one, though, as we are approaching the end of the Notch season and freezing weather will soon force us to drain the engine for the winter. In other locomotive news, chop nose GP-7 #21 from the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic RR is currently on our line, although just barely. New Hampshire Central has temporarily leased the unit to switch empties around the Whitefield area and they are storing it when not in use at Hazen. The unit still has its 1500HP BC 567 prime mover.

I recently saw a screening of the new CSRR produced “Winter Steam” video, and I think it will be a hit. It shows 7470 running to Notchland in January of this year with passenger and freight trains. There are also some scenes of steam on our Polar Express™ trains and the B&M Snow train recreation and the Hannes Schneider 70th anniversary train. Interesting stuff, particularly the winter steam freight and diesel powered snow plow scenes. Regular, Hi- Def and Blue Ray DVDs should be available by the end of this month.

Next year's production HO car will be Dome Car “Dorthea Mae” and while not an exact match for our particular car it should be popular as it will be a reasonably priced RTR car from Athearn. The model should be available for sale at the Springfield show.

BE SAFE and ALWAYS EXPECT A TRAIN!

Paul Hallett