Steam & Excursion > SP 2472 trains this weekend Sold Out

The GGRM has sold out the 2472 train operations on the Niles Canyon Railway this weekend. The first on-line sell out they have ever had. They tried advertising on facebook and it seems to have worked.

Trains leave Sunol at 11, 1, and 3. The Canyon is green and the photos will look good.

On Altamont Press discussion board there is a thread saying that GGRM is moving to Santa Cruz.

Either Tracy or Santa Cruz, it will be a interesting hospital train. Do not know if UP will allow it on their rails.

Posted from iPhone

They did  before.

According to an eyewitness report today (Sat., March 28)
the 11 am train left with one coach COMPLETELY EMPTY! 
And the 1 pm train left with that coach ALMOST empty!!

It was not sold out!!  (I am wainting to get an eyewitness
report on whether the 3 pm departure was also NOT sold out.)

I am very sorry this happened, and have no idea what the reason
for this is.  I hope all 3 of tomorrow's trains really are sold out.

czuleget Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> They did  before.

That was back in 2006, with the GGRM hospital train move.
That was 9 long years ago, and is irrelevant to what the UP's
rules are right now.   And -- that was under Steve Lee -- who 
is, very unfortunately, no longer in charge of such movements.
He managed to get top management to cooperate, bless his
very talented heart!.

I hope that rule is not a hard-and-fast one -- for the sake of all
RR museums and tourist RRs and PV owners, not just the GGRM.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/15 14:21 by Margaret_SP_fan.

An eyewitness report from the 3 pm departure said:
MULTIPLE cars EMPTY!! 

I am SOOOOO sorry this happened, and I have NO idea
HOW this could have happened.  None at all. 

Very disappointing. I was going to take my family to ride and was really upset with myself for not buying advance tickets. Their webpage for the event said it was sold out and that no tickets would be available in Sunol. We drove 30 minutes to go chase it, but didn't even attempt to buy tickets. The parking lots were packed for the
11:00 am departure's return to Sunol. I did see a car with seats empty, but figured people were leaving their seats to go stand in the open cars. The webpage now shows seats available for Sunday. Unfortunately I'll be going to Wrestlemania with my buddies. I feel bad for people who wanted to ride and for the GGRM. I will be making a donation.
Dave

Posted from iPhone

Near empty coach but crowded open cars were on the the first run today but I collected 255 tickets. I was the ticket collector on board. We had added another open car overnight so the was more room. So I added more tickets in the afternoon. We sold more tickets and still didn't fill because passengers were crowding 10 into seating for eight on the open cars and standing in the aisles.  We know how many seats, but for comfort we don't sell all so people do not have to sit with strangers.
Sold out on Friday night meant that all of the seats listed on Eventbrite had been sold. So I had a sold out train but empty seats.

I have added another 40 seats to the eventbrite ticket page so more can ride the train on Sunday.

We  will end up with sales over $30K for the weekend, a record for us in niles canyon.

I think it is off topic in this thread to speculate on the move of the GGRM collection out of the NCRY whenever it comes.  All I see is hot air and speculation on this topic, and I am in the middle of it as GGRM Treasurer.

Glad to hear the GGRM made record $$$$$$ in ticket sales!!! Hope Sunday goes really well for you too!

Dave

Posted from iPhone