Extravaganza!

Frank writes...

Sunday was the 28th Annual Vintage Transport Extravaganza, and as usual it was a great event with a lot to see. There were something like 500 cars and other vehicles on display, plus we were running a full schedule on the railroad. Dispatcher Dan Buck did an excellent job of keeping everything moving like clockwork; for most of the day there were four trains on the main line (two three-car electric trains, the Zephyr, and the steam train), an 'L' train running shuttle trips out of 50th, and three streetcars on the car line.

It's not often that we run three-car CA&E wood trains in revenue service, and usually when we do it's for the Trolley Pageant or Showcase Weekend. But last year for VTE we just had two-car trains on the railroad and they were turning customers away, so we figured the capacity was needed. And we were right! The train was 36-308-319, with the 309 left behind since we're trying to limit its use until we can get its motor armature bearings replaced (you can help!). When we left the barn it was overcast but the sky mostly cleared by noon.

I was conductor on the wood train while Greg Ceurvorst was the motorman. You may note a slightly unusual destination sign... that's an homage to Geoff Thorne and his crew at Acton Depot who are working on London Underground Q-stock cars. When we first went into service we left on our first trip from 50th Avenue, but after that - once the 2200s went into service as the shuttle train - we ran through Station 1 for the rest of the day. The other electric train on the main line was a three-car train of 4000s, with Bob Opal running and Thomas Slater conductor.

We ran a total of six trips and the first five were very full - certainly more people than we could ever have fit into two cars. The Zephyr was turning people away most trips and I heard that even the steam train had to turn away some customers on one trip. Overall it was a great crowd and I think that the vast majority of visitors went away happy. It was also great to see the railroad running so smoothly; thanks to Dan and all of the operating crews, trains were leaving right on schedule and we had several running meets at Johnson Siding.

One problem we had was crews: we just didn't have enough people sign up. Besides motorman Greg, I was the only crewman on the CA&E train. So in order to have all three cars open I had to draft people as car hosts. Victor Humphreys helped out for our first trip and Mark Hoffman for our second. For the following three trips, Blake Bushue from the Steam Shop (on the right in the above photo) served as car host and watched the passengers in the 36. His help was invaluable - thanks Blake! Jeff Calendine from the Steam Shop, on the left in the above photo, was going to help with a trip too but by the time of our last trip the crowd had died down enough that we only needed one car open.

With four trips on the main line, each train ran hourly which meant we didn't have much time between trips. I barely had time to snap a photo of some of the cars arrayed behind the depot.

What a nice looking train! The B&G crew recently spread some gravel on the old bookstore car site and set out some baggage wagons, so that makes for a nice display. It was a hot day, with temperatures in the 90s in the afternoon, so walking across this pad was kind of like our own little slice of Orange Empire. But I digress. The only hiccup in operations was in the afternoon when the sub dropped, but Richard sped over there and got it reset in less than ten minutes. It was a reminder that this was a much more common occurrence in the old days; even 10 or 15 years ago I feel like the sub would drop out (at least once) on more special event days than it didn't. Nowadays it's a rare thing.

We put the train away at around 5pm. For more destination sign silliness, during the last couple of trips the 319 wore a destination sign which is a favorite of our friend from the mountain states, David Wilkins.

At the end of the day I found the 68 on the pit, where the crew was working on rebuilding some brake linkage parts. The car does run but isn't quite ready for revenue service, however Joel and the other car shop guys are working to fix that.