Passenger Trains > CKS passenger Car on the Interstate.

Working on the interstate I spend the day watching traffic and every once in awhile something interesting will pass by. Today's offering was a CKS Railroad passenger car. It passed Englewood, OH going east bound a little after 10am with highway patrol escort. A little googling told me CKS was a small scenic railroad in Indiana that shutdown in 2013.

Posted from iPhone

The Carthage Knightstown & Shirley.    Would be interesting to know where the coach is going. 

Yes, this was a private operation that was isolated from the rail system and used a centercab switcher as power.   I beleive the owner just got too old to keep it going and perhaps maintenance issues began to catch up on them.  It was a fun little ride - but probably will not see a train again.

The owner of the CKS is in his 80s by now.  "(Tom) Allison reportedly “was also engineer, ticket taker,
concession stand operator, plus everything needed to maintain the railroad.” -TRAINS

Was that a PRR P54 (or a demotored MP54 from the Long Island) that you saw?

They also had a modernized Erie 1000 series coach.

GenePoon Wrote:
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>
> Was that a PRR P54 (or a demotored MP54 from the
> Long Island) that you saw?

Don't have a clue. I don't know the difference. It was an orange color with what looked like round windows at the end.
Further observation of its passing was ended by the driver of the Ford F-150 that decided they were getting pulled over by the escort patrolman. They pulled half onto the shoulder and started to stop till the patrolman passed them in the RT lane. the pickup then decided to pull back out in front of the semi with the passenger car. (3% down grade at this point on the highway) Some liberal airhorn use and general cluster Fu*k of cars and trucks trying to avoid the incompetent ford driver who was now completely stopped on the shoulder trying to pull back out - just another day in the construction zone.

Posted from iPhone

If it had round windows, it was definitely a LIRR P54D ping-pong steam coach. I hope it is not headed to a scrapper.

http://www.chessierail.org/lirr7045.html



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/16 17:59 by joemvcnj.

howeld Wrote:
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cars and
> trucks trying to avoid the incompetent ford driver
> who was now completely stopped on the shoulder
> trying to pull back out - just another day in the
> construction zone.
>
> Posted from iPhone

People have become idiots around emergency vehicles.  I see many people instinctively just stop - sometimes off the road, sometimes on the road whenever they see or hear any flashing lights.  I have been on 4 lane roads with a center turn lane and people are stopping in all lanes when that is clearly not necessary or helpful to the emergency vehicle or other traffic.   Drives me bonkers. 

P Wrote:
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> People have become idiots around emergency vehicles.  I see many people instinctively just
> stop - sometimes off the road, sometimes on the road whenever they see or hear any flashing
> lights.  I have been on 4 lane roads with a center turn lane and people are stopping in all
> lanes when that is clearly not necessary or helpful to the emergency vehicle or other
> traffic.   Drives me bonkers. 

==============================================

If it drives you bonkers, think of what the DRIVER of the emergency vehicle has to deal with,
and how many times each trip?

Been there...done that.  Probably responsible for a lot of the grey hairs.

 

    Attach a sturdy plow to the front of the emergency vehicles and pickup the incompetents on the way 'back' .

Sad to see the CKS shut down, hopefully most of it will be saved. Got my first cab ride at he age of 3 on one of there units, Now I'm a Conductor/Engineer.

Posted from Android

GenePoon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The owner of the CKS is in his 80s by now. 
> "(Tom) Allison reportedly “was also engineer,
> ticket taker,
> concession stand operator, plus everything needed
> to maintain the railroad.” -TRAINS
>
> Was that a PRR P54 (or a demotored MP54 from the
> Long Island) that you saw?

A friend and I ran into and talked to Mr Allison in September 2014. Basically as the economy slowed down so did the passenger revenue. He said that basically he waited in Knightstown all day on a really nice Saturday in 2012 (or 2013 can't remember exactly) and no one came to ride, no one. He more or less decided to give it up after that season. He was trying at the time to sell as much of the decent equipment to preservation groups as he could but expected some stuff would end up being scrapped.

1) Station in Knightstown
2) No hard feelings conveyed on the shut down signs on the windows of the Knightstown and Carthage stations.
3) Here is your car you saw, if anyone wants more I have more pictures of what it looked like in Carthage in 2014.

Jim

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Yes, it would be nice to get an accounting of what is on the property.  I know there was quite a bit in comparison to what they regularly used - which was not much. 

​More photos if you have them!

Zanesville and Western Scenic was the destination of the car.

https://www.facebook.com/Zanesville-Western-Scenic-Railroad-255169591355898/

Posted from iPhone

That is very good news for a car nearing 90 years old and design totally unique to the LIRR.
2 more of them are at the Ashtabula, Carson, and Jefferson, which shut down passenger excursions a few years ago. A privately owned car is there too, which was bought from the Knox and Kane liquidation.