Steam & Excursion > City Of Prineville Ry Dinner Train Quits - Shay Steams!

We announced last week that the long running City of Prineville Ry Dinner Train has suspended service. Yes, she is another victim of this failing economy. The Railroad is trying to find an operator who wants to lease the train and continue to run her on the COPRy. If that does not materialize, she may be leased and moved off the COPRy.

On a brighter note, this will not affect the operations of the Mount Emily Shay #1 at the COPRy. We still have her on a long-term lease and we will still run her on the COPRy. Even if the passenger coaches leave, we have our own train set of an open car and caboose and log cars that we use commonly with the big 90-ton Shay.

We are putting together our operating schedule for the Shay for 2009 at this time. I will keep you all posted.

Martin

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Martin,

How do run the engine and take photos at the same time? Guess I better get down to see it when the Shay runs, haven't seen one run yet. Watch out for those boats, you never know when one will pop up.

Tom

Tom,

Cute on the boat. You had better wait till the snow clears. You know how those ditches "pop up"!

The beauty of running a Shay is you can set the throttle at wide open, climb down, walk ahead, get your shot, and still have time for the engine to catch up to you and get back on.

Yes, you need to come down and see the how a geared engine works. I will give you the grease gun and oil can so you can get the most out of your experiance.

Martin

Glad to hear the Shay will still run. I hope someone will continue to run the diner train. Its a pretty nice ride.

Looking forward to the Mt. Emily's schedule Martin. We need to get folk out to Central Oregon to ride. Arlen

How's the City of Prineille RR doing otherwise? Any freight business? The last time I spoke to the city manager, they were in the process of developing that industrial park, but never heard if anything came of that.

Brian McCamish

The COPRy has built a freight depot that is used to transfer loads between rial and truck. This has been a big step for the railroad.
Freight was doing quite well until the last quarter of 2008 when the economy tanked. It now is slow.

The City fathers are committed to the railroad and to seeing it stay and be there for when the economy rebounds.

Martin

That's good to hear that they were at least doing we'll up until recently. I don't think there's anyone who isn't feeling this current economy.

Brian McCamish