Park Trains

Let's not sell the boys at the shop at Knotts short. They've done wonders with the two C-19's. I've talked to the guys there several times, and they seemed to feel that neither Albert or Jenny would prove to be any problem to them. And they're a Cedar Fair park to boot!

The bad thing about all of that, is that we have explored the options of sending to Tweetsie for rebuilds. The park just doesn't want to spend the money to have stuff rebuilt.. They'd rather entertain people who come to the park wondering if they could buy Albert and Jennie K..

I'm not selling either short, but as far as Knotts goes, they cant do the work anymore, they just don't have the staffing or the stuff anymore. We were always told that Cedar Fair just cut the hell out of their railroad's budget just like they did to ours.. hell they've gone as far at CP as to have us only run two trains for like a month and a half or 2 months out of the season now.. making it that we cant have the rider numbers as we used to have.. is it a sign and a way to get us out, who knows.. just know the park as a whole is gettin shady when it comes to the budget... Think Mr. Keller needs to get his head out of his ass and learn that you have to spend money to make money.. Ok, I've vented for the night.. sorry.. :)

Next season we have 4 operational, just only ever run the three engines.. the two vulcans and George R., that's it.. wish we could run the others.. Oh, on a side not, someone asked about the other coaches and stuff we had a few years back, we've done sold them all.. Sold them to a railroad place out in Indiana.

Mr. Kellor probably figures that since they ran with a solitary Crown at WOF, why not just one at CP. Except I remember Dan Kellor when he was the food service manager at CP some thirty years ago. In thoses days we ran three trains on five minute headways on most days. We hauled a lot of people. Apparently this has been forgotten. George Roose must be rolling in his grave.

Man, I sure do love trains. Hey Dutch, ya here they might start hauling freight through the Carrizo Gorge soon?

Also, what's going on with your carousel? Think they might move it to old town? (I digress)

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trainboyjon said:
Hey everyone, i'm Jon. I'm currently an employee on the CP&LE RR. I'm going on my 7th season there and I have loved just about every moment of it. some of the memories and experiences i've taken away i'll never forget, but i'm not here to talk about memories. I'm here to talk about how important the CP&LE RR is to Cedar Point. The talk has gone on for the past few years of doing one of two things... 1)converting to fuel oil or deseil.. or 2)removing the railroad all together. Myself, i don't see them removing it anytime soon, but who knows the way CedarFair works things anymore. The beauty of the 6 engines we have(only 4 w/ ohio boiler liscenes) is incredible. I started back in 1998 as i was comming right out of highschool, it was always a dream of mine to work on the railroad and on a steam engine fired by coal. I finaly did it, and what turned out to be one year job, well, need i say more.. now i'm the supervisor of the enginehouse. Not in charge, but kind of so to speak. Anyways, we have only one of the two coal fired operations in the country when it comes to parks. I've also want to say thanks to everyone who has said how much they like us and enjoy it and how we look good and all.. and to thoes who get ash on them in line for MF, well then i know i'm doing a good job.. It's a steam engine, you run a risk of gettin dirty from that just as you do from sitting on a park bench. If there is any information that i could help with here, let me know, i'd be happy to post anything i can..

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No, I wasn't saying I don't love the ash or steam. I'm the type of railfan that will stand by the cylinder cocks just so I get blown by it. I just wish you all had some less sulfur-rich coal ;). *** Edited 2/13/2004 8:03:08 PM UTC by Chris the Coaster Freak***

It's kind of funny sometimes over here at SFGAm. We have a steam outline, and every so often people who ask how come there is no smoke coming out of the stack, and they comment on how quiet it is. He He He!

I wish we had a steamer here. Always have. We deal with what we have though, which is a pretty good looking steam outline, and it's kept in good repair mechanically and appearance-wise. They both have been good little engines, and they have quite a lot of miles on them. Both a little slow for my taste. I'd like them to move a little quicker. Oh well.

You want speed, then you should come over to SFoG and engineer on our 3 percent downhill grade by the front of the park :).

I've tried to make our new deisel smoke many different ways. We're thinking about running a pipe from the exhaust, through the cab, and up the stack. One time I put a Water cooler in the stack (it fit perfectly) and put a huge block of dry ice in the water. It worked for about 20 mintues. All the employees were staring wondering why Gretta was "steaming";).

Well we have an onboard boiler thats "supposed" to make steam for the stack. It doesnt work as well as it should. So I thought that maybe we could put a smoke machine in there with a hose and control it from the cab. Then put the hose up the stack. What do you think? Any better ideas? I really want to make the thing smoke.

We have about a 3% grade at our park coming down from the front gate. When the track gets wet she slides and goes pretty quick. *** Edited 2/13/2004 11:24:33 PM UTC by yeah-right***

On a sad note, Lou, one of SFOG's current engineers passed away last night. He will be sorely missed by the rest of the team. In his memory, we will be running black flags on our locomotive for the beginning of the 2004 season. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

He was a great freind and a wonderful fireman. He will be sorely missed.

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yeah-right said:
Well we have an onboard boiler thats "supposed" to make steam for the stack. It doesnt work as well as it should. So I thought that maybe we could put a smoke machine in there with a hose and control it from the cab. Then put the hose up the stack. What do you think? Any better ideas? I really want to make the thing smoke.

We have about a 3% grade at our park coming down from the front gate. When the track gets wet she slides and goes pretty quick. *** Edited 2/13/2004 11:24:33 PM UTC by yeah-right***

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I dunno, if you figure out a good way to make it smoke, tell me ;).

Janfrederaick, the subject you broached is a very sensitive one to me right now. If you want to know more, contact me of site.