Train Festival 2011 - Rock Island, IL

[EJ&ESDM809]

Yeah, I'd highly suggest going to this event, the only place in the country where steam from the east and west will meet Chinese steam! Also, rumor has it 3751 will run Chicago-RI the day before the event and RI-Chicago they day after. If this were true, I'd think it'll either take the BNSF or the CP ex-IC&E line to the Quad Cities. Option 1 could get the 765 some high speed running, especially down the racetrack, and option 2 would result in a rather easy chase.

[TrainWatcher]

ATSF 3751 doing high speed down the race track?? Now thats my cup of tea, also might go for a Rochelle shot, but I better be there early. I hope BNSF is really gonna let her go.

[sd70accsxt700]

Who said anything about the racetrack? i woud guess that given the Amtrak mandated route, it will be BNSF to Galesburg then up the Mendota (?) sub to RI. How or where these RI-Chicago trip run is anyones guess, well except for one, it wont be IAIS to Chicago, as CSX owns half of that.

[TrainWatcher]

Who said anything about the racetrack? i woud guess that given the Amtrak mandated route, it will be BNSF to Galesburg then up the Mendota (?) sub to RI. How or where these RI-Chicago trip run is anyones guess, well except for one, it wont be IAIS to Chicago, as CSX owns half of that.

My GUESS would be the BNSF racetrack for a trip to Chicago. Its a BNSF line and already has Amtrak Services. Thats why my guess would be the racetrack for any Chicago trip.

[EJ&ESDM809]

3751 will not be going into Chicago, the engine that would run down the BNSF racetrack would be NKP 765, my bad for forgetting to put the engine number!

[GLC 392]

3751 excursion to Trainfestival has been suspended!

Santa Fe #3751 Excursion Suspended

Train Festival 2011 organizers, California Zephyr Railcar Charters and the San Bernardino Railroad Historical Society regrets to announce the operation on Santa Fe steam locomotive #3751 to Rock Island, Il in July of 2011 has been suspended.

When planning of Train Festival 2011 began several months ago, we shared our proposal of steam locomotives and their proposed movements with high-ranking officials at BNSF Railway. Provided that they were to be Amtrak trains, we were told that BNSF would ‘likely’ approve our requests, including that of the ATSF 3751, from Los Angeles to Rock Island and return.

In the intervening time, circumstances have changed, and BNSF is now projecting greatly increased traffic volumes this summer on their Transcon corridor. This is great news for the railroad as traffic on the BNSF Railway continues to increase as the economy picks ups. Our trips would use the Transcon between Albuquerque and Los Angeles.

Steam specials are highly consumptive of management time, and of course attract hundreds, sometimes thousands, of railfans, which in turn requires significant efforts on the part of the railroad’s police. The 3751 trip would have had us on the property for 18 days, during the time when traffic volumes would be at or near their peak.

For this reason, BNSF has reconsidered their position, and respectfully declined our proposed move of ATSF 3751 via the Transcon corridor to Train Festival 2011.

Other options are being explored to bring the #3751 East. In the meantime several excursions are being worked on and proposed for Train Festival 2011. They will be announced on the website http://www.trainfestival2011.com when they have received final approval.

We are sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused, no one is more disappointed than the organizers and the several months that have been invested in planning. We would like to thank the BNSF Railway and Amtrak for the hundreds of hours working on this routing.

Anyone that had purchased a ticket with the intention to ride behind the #3751 may get a FULL refund, hassle free. Just send your request to tickets@trainfestival2011.com and a refund will be given. Please provide the name the order was under in your request.

[TrainWatcher]

[rcb]

I may end up going with a friend, we will see though.

[EJ&ESDM809]

This one is 100% the fault of the organizers. Why they posted the whole excursion plan for 3751 before BNSF had ever approved the plan is beyond me.

[SD80MAC]

This one is 100% the fault of the organizers. Why they posted the whole excursion plan for 3751 before BNSF had ever approved the plan is beyond me.

Sounds like what happened earlier this year with WMSR 734 going to Potomac Eagle, posted it was going before CSX told had them their obvious "No".

[Larken24]

This one is 100% the fault of the organizers. Why they posted the whole excursion plan for 3751 before BNSF had ever approved the plan is beyond me.

Sounds like what happened earlier this year with WMSR 734 going to Potomac Eagle, posted it was going before CSX told had them their obvious "No".

Hey at least they did this 7 months ahead of time rather than at the last minute. Also I can See why BNSF would decline it because with traffic going up and with it going 2000 miles.

[GLC 392]

I think there is some other stuff going on as BNSF was a Sponsor at the beginning and they no longer are.

[Larken24]

I think there is some other stuff going on as BNSF was a Sponsor at the beginning and they no longer are.

Yeah your right. I just noticed that. That sounds very weird for BNSF to do that

[A No.1]

Here is some info that was sent to me by a friend.

This note is addressed to those of you who responded with positive interest to my note about a transcontinental trip on NYC 3 this coming summer.

Some of you have emailed me after hearing reports that BNSF has rescinded their provisional approval for moving ATSF 3751 from Los Angeles to Rock Island, IL in July. That information is accurate but somewhat incomplete.

What's accurate--or at least what people directly involved in the negotiations have told me--is that BNSF's traffic projections for their transcontinental route out of Los Angeles have gone up from 60-65 trains/day to 100-110 trains/day, based partly on increased traffic predictions in general and partly on their having signed an agreement to transport some 10 Fedex trains/day in each direction. This increase will put them at capacity in terms of both their railroad and their personnel, so they cannot handle the complexities of a steam excursion that would tie up the railroad with short-distance trips each day for a week in both directions.

BUT--they are willing to move the 3751 between Los Angeles and Albuquerque in a continuous move on a one-way basis so that the 3751 could take an excursion over the little-used Cajon pass route (now owned by the state of New Mexico) and ultimately into Rock Island, probably via other railroads once they reach an area where there are additional routing options. After Trainfestival2011 concludes, the excursion train would return to Albuquerque and the engine would be based there for a couple of years before (possibly or possibly not) returning to LA. While in Albuquerque, it would be synergistically associated with another, even larger Santa Fe steam locomotive that's being rebuilt there.

Bottom line is that some sort of 3751/private car steam excursion to Rock Island is still possible. Some uncertainty concerns getting approvals for the alternate routings into Rock Island, but that is believed to be a solvable problem. The biggest variable depends on what the board of directors of the 3751 group decides at a special meeting in Los Angeles in early January. Apparently they have already decided that long-term operations out of their San Bernardino, CA home base are not viable for the same reasons that are at play today: the current traffic congestion in the area, the fact that traffic is increasing and the situation will only get worse, and the fact that they can only operational opportunities are very infrequent short trips between LA and San Diego. But their volunteer crew and steam experts mostly reside in the greater LA area and Albuquerque is about 1000 miles away--so it's a wrenching decision to make to take the locomotive to Albuquerque with the understanding that it might never return home. The hope is that this "one-time opportunity" will force the issue in a positive way, partly because it will open up substantial operational opportunities out of Albuquerque above and beyond the Trainfestival trip, and because the Trainfestival people would be paying for the move. As you know, steam locomotives are costly and they don't get many opportunities like this to both make money and cover expenses of long moves.

Meanwhile, the folks at Trainfestival2011 have plans A, B and C for getting cars moved between Chicago and Rock Island for the excursions planned for the festival. The cars will include a number of Steve Sandberg's coaches from Minneapolis as well as the Hiawatha tail car from the MILW 261 train inventory, and they'll make room for NYC-3 if we want to come via that route. Plans A and B involve moving from Chicago on two different railroads under steam behind the NKP 765; plan C would be an Amtrak special w/o the steam locomotive. So despite the Los Angeles setback, I still think NYC-3 will make it to Rock Island in July.

[DR]

Gotta love the "Foamer" talk.
I think if ya pay attention to the TrainFestival2011 website something interesting has happened. Notice BNSF is NOT a sponsor anymore! Wonder if someone pissed someone off.

[sd70accsxt700]

And really they are expection a 30 train per day increase. I know FedEx is going to start shipping more, but FedEx them selves said it was not going to be as big as UPS's shipments. At 20 more trains a day that is way bigger then UPS's shipments.

[Larken24]

Ok. My list for engines still candidates to come
Soo Line 2719
Southern 401
Canadian Pacific 2816 "The Empress"
Flagg Coal Co. 75
Hawkeye Express F40
Southern 630
Silver Creek Railroad's Heisler

[GP30M4216]

Which steam locomotive is being worked on in the Albuquerque area?

Side note: I believe Just Aaron is referring to the Raton Pass route eastward from Albuquerque, not Cajon Pass. Hopefully they can still pull something together and make this happen!

[Larken24]

Which steam locomotive is being worked on in the Albuquerque area?

ATSF 4-8-4 2926 is the engine in New Mexico. It's a heavier and larger version of the 3751

[EJ&ESDM809]

Supposedly we are going to be hearing a announcement regarding more equipment that will be at the event, hopefully it's something good!