Видео

I've been saying this a lot but I really think that the US should get a successor to the Budd RDC. Cheap, reliable service for rural/less busy lines. See Victoria (Australia)'s V/Line system for example

Outro song ? ^^

This is a primary a freight railroad with weekend trips to Jim Thorpe

Thankfully not being a class 1 they should be able to run upto 12 passenger trains (in total so 6RT) on a route before they need PTC.

Jim Thorpe is a fantastic place to visit, but parking is a nightmare. Here's how I would help fix it along with helping the rest of the region build. New rail service on Amtrak: Harrisburg - Hershey - Reading - Lehigh Valley - New Jersey - NYC Philadelphia - Norristown - Allentown - Scranton this rout would likely go east towards the Delaware water gap not over R&N's main line. R&N could run trains starting in Allentown to Jim Thorpe and other stops in the rest of North Eastern PA and towards Reading. The idea of coming to see these eastern Pay towns and riding the train to do it could have a self reinforcing effect. If nothing else, it might help get some of the weekend day tripper cars off the road and out of street parking.

Great footage! It was worth the effort.

In Maine, I hope that when the MEC 470 gets restored, they run it on mainline in Mains

I still have yet to see Reading 2102, although I have seen NKP 765, and Pere Marquette 1225

Tame impala slowed and reverb? I see you Alan fisher..... lovely railfanning tho

Every little town the size of parkesburg, Elizabethtown, etc deserves the service that those two just happen to get from being between Harrisburg and Philly

Reminds me a bit of the Class III INER in OH, IN, and MI. They host two steam programs and have started restoring another depot along the line to host bike and train excursions with NKP 765. RN is definitely on my list next time I'm in PA!

I got to experience a steam locomotive up close and person when I was hiking the Oregon Coast Trail last summer. There's a section near Tillamook where hiking on the RR tracks is vastly preferred over the other possible route (the narrow shoulder of US-101), and when I was doing so an Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad train pulled by a steam locomotive came by! It was so cool.

Scranton to Buffalo to the lake shore can be rerouted earlier to make Chicago to NYC quicker

Totally agree with what you're saying about rural places only being accessible by car anymore, like just put a few request stops on these countryside lines or something! ha Cool video thanks for sharing though :]

yay liam

According to his former Vice President, the late Jerry Jacobson, former owner of the Ohio Central RR, was all set to start commuter train service between Newark and Columbus, Ohio. Then the bureaucrats at ODOT said whoa, we've got to do studies and put out requests for proposals and other nonsense. Jerry literally had equipment lined up to start service in a couple of months. I think a lot of good ideas and proposals die in the red tape. I was on that trip Saturday. The crew was outstanding. The best thing they did was have unlimited water on hand for anyone who wanted it for the entire trip, given the scorching temperatures that day. If Mr. Muller did want to run regular service, I think he has an operation capable of making it work, although speeds would have to be increased to make it competitive. I'm pretty sure we never got over 30-35 mph at any point, and that engine is capable of 70 mph.

The problem in the center of this entire issue is Norfolk Southern Corp. and that is something you can’t ignore. While on the excursion even the conductors who were chatting with my mother had said NS is deathly afraid of Andy Mueller and his Reading & Northern because unlike Norfolk Southern’s “Scorch and Burn” business model that is Precision Scheduled Railroading; Mueller and the Reading & Northern have refused to adopt that model and have brought back a lot of customers that NS usually would drive away! R&N gets their goods to their customers on time and with a reasonable rate. It is why Norfolk Southern should just give up the Lehigh Line to R&N and if possible snatch the Sunbury Branch from Sunbury, PA to Binghamton, NY (and even the conductors echoed what everyone is saying about those two lines how NS is basically killing both lines).

I'm saving this for a rainy day. Today might just be that day.

Great shots, I’ve been meaning to take a trip out to Pennsylvania and see 2102

Pural Rassenger Pail

Was that the unedited audio from the gorge shot!?!?! That thing was **BOOMING**!!!

PTC is another hurdle for mainline steam. Some organizations are installing/fundraising for it, but it is an additional major expense. (ATSF #'s 2926 and 3751 are two mainline engines currently getting PTC)

Small reminder that there are generally two trains on hour between Wiesbaden and Koblenz. And yes, it's below wires.

Congratulations for chasing this steam loco! Rail chases are fun indeed! 😊

The Netherlands might not have the best public transportation, but atleast it's better than Germany... And France And Belgium And the UK And Sweden But still not as good as Switzerland or Japan though (atleast their trains run on time)

I’ve always really liked the idea of rural passenger rail. Many people who think that such services are unnecessary because folks would just drive might not realize that a significant portion of our population, including rural residents, do not have a car at hand or otherwise cannot drive, and the older rail infrastructure often includes stations at the heart of those smaller towns (many of which the railroads helped build), which along with speed could make rural trains more convenient to passengers than coach buses, which are left to the mercy of traffic and in many places stop at out-of-the-way stations. If one is concerned that such services provided would yield little financial return, so does the Interstate Highway System (and at a much greater degree), and we rely on it all the same. Even then rural passenger rail is the one of few applications where I would think battery-powered locomotives or one or two DMUs would work well, as an alternative to locomotive-hauled trains which might be too inefficient. Maybe wires could be put up and the train becomes an interurban, however. If the United States had a system of rural passenger trains connecting small towns and parklands, I’d certainly use it over my car, even if it was a little slower.

I had the pleasure of riding this excursion, agree with you that the rdc's would be a great way of introducing daily passenger commutes

UP's steam program is one of their biggest PR assets, CPKS came close to match it with the Empress tour but Mexico accidents happened

I’ve had similar thinking that R&N should run more passenger service. I’m with you Alan!

I was thinking exactly this about the Alaska Railroad. They have stations and serve a lot of places but outside of freight are set up almost exclusively for serving excursions and cruise ships. We wanted to book them once to travel between towns but the schedule and pricing because of that made it not really an option.

Hell yeah back to intercity steam baby

That is a great idea about such a a rural passenger rail service. I've thought that myself when taking their highly popular RDC service from Reading North Station to Jim Thorpe on a few family vacations. My experience is they always provided excellent customer service such as when we were delayed by an hour by a tree on the track they let everybody have a free soft drink and snack from the cafe and comp tickets for the Lehigh Gorge that let me just by luck ride behind 425 in the semi-open air car. I think the demand for this is really there and Penn DOT already gives them grants in the millions to fix the track for freight a little more and you could have regular rural rail passenger service. It would do so much for these old towns that have such good bones with the kind of walkeable downtowns yet access to nature and open space that so many desire.

Lost in yesterday for sure. It’s a shame we can’t travel our beautiful country without a car

Amtrak should conect the planned Allentown line to Reading then to Harrisburg, linking it with NYC and creating another connection to Philly in Reading. Possibly even a special express SEPTA line from Philly to Allentown? I really think the transit density from the NJ/NEC could continue into PA The infrastructure and the density of towns is really good.

Next time I play Monopoly, I'm putting on my monocle and correcting people's pronunciation of Reading Railroad.

I'm writing my MA thesis on passenger services for rural rail, studying the french context. It really does work if the station is connected to the town here. The ridership numbers would be a dream for American planners. And its something that should be done everywhere.

[ASA PACKER LIKED THIS]

I've seen N&W 611 for 4 times and reading 2102 once.

I heard the reason most freight railroads don't sllow steam is due to insurance reasons

We definitely need more transit accessible nature. Beautiful mountains and trails and things shouldn’t be gate kept behind access to a car

In addition to the points you made, from what I heard many people onboard this train were not there for the steam or views but for the destination. Many of these people rode in deluxe seating cars, of which some have already been added to the "commuter" Pittston-Jim Thorpe service by demand from passengers. Perhaps adding incentives like this to regular rail travel again could be beneficial in ridership growth...

A family friend of ours is the owner of the R&N, yep, I know him. Next time I see him I can ask about the logistics of such a thing.

I lived in a town of 15k that would get swamped with traffic because their main street was turned into a highway. They desperately needed commuter rail.

I am SUPER excited to see big boy, twice, as it comes through utah on the 4th of july and thr 20-21st

Rural Passenger Rail is something we NEED. Out here in Utah we need to connect our smaller towns to the megaregion in Salt Lake City. I personally believe that all starts with the Rio Grande Plan and then the Link Utah Plan after that. Who wouldnt want to take a train from SLC downtown's (the Rio Grande Depot) to Moab to look at the beautiful red cliffs or go down to Vegas connecting to our small towns of Cedar City, Beaver, and St. George. Way better than a freeway. Also we need more steamtrains! I am heading up to the Wisconsin Great Northern Railroad they just got a steam engine, DM&IR 348. I cannot wait to go around their yards and see some trains in rural Northern Wisconsin.

Never thought that Fisher would upload a video relating to Reading 2102

Just go to Germany and tell pendot to buy some second hand bonbardier talents

Hi

Budd was truly our Buddies

1:54:07 Last call Amtrak northeast regional train 172 to Boston