Eastern Railroad Discussion > Gettysburg Railroad first public excursion

My follow-up a week later to my Gettysburg and Northern post ( https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,6068999 ) from last Friday; this evening (Friday 8/29) passenger affiliate Gettysburg Railway ran their first public excursion.    They run from the station in downtown Gettysburg out to just south of the town of Biglerville (They apparently don't want to trip the two crossings in town right now, though hopefully the ride will be lengthened in the not too distant future.)

Here we see them departing north through Gettysburg National Battlefield from the observation tower, then again at Rake Factory Rd, the last crossing before they reverse direction south of Biglerville.

Third we see the return trip southbound crossing Biglerville Rd (PA Rt 34) as they close back in on Gettysburg.   

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Three shots of the return from the Oak Ridge Observation tower again.

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And a pair of videos of the return trip, first at Herr's Ridge Rd, then from the tower.  Unfortunately the breeze had picked up and caused a bit of noise in the video, I'm not a video expert, so what I got satisfies my needs.

There are limited photo opportunities along the line for the excursions, the weekday freight operations, especially if they go all the way to the interchange at Mt. Holly Springs, obviously offer a lot more.

There is a scheduled 10:00 am excursion on Saturday and Sunday which should offer some different photo angles and lighting, I plan do do that some weekend in the future and then ride either the noon or 2:00 pm trip.

 

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Good coverage. What is the history of those coaches?

Tom Loftus
Omaha, NE

Sam,
Excellent series. I'm happy to see they classed up the act and painted the train in a cohesive color scheme. When I rode back in 2010 or so the cars were quite rag-tag and they had that awkward double deck car made from an autorack or something. This train should be much more appealing to the riding tourists.
Thanks for sharing and look forward to additional photos and footage.
Considering my daughter and husband live about 30 minutes from there maybe I should get out there to visit them and persuade them they need to take a train ride.
Gonut

Good to see and good pix.   How was the ridership?   Hopefully they are using social media to advertise. 

OmahaTom Wrote:
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> Good coverage. What is the history of those
> coaches?

Former PRR "Inn" series 21 roomette sleepers, converted to coaches in 1963-64. Served on various commuter operations in the Amtrak era, and ended up on the Ringling Brothers circus train. Patriot got them from Ringling. They have been totally rebuilt for this service.

Art House
Gettysburg, Pa.

Sal,
I was standing right next to you on the Oark Ridge observation tower. My two photos follow.

Art House
Gettysburg, Pa.

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Looks sharp! Need to get down and ride.

Posted from Android

Car information from eighteen months ago  : GETR 1860 -former Amtrak  bag. rebuilt for HEP and Commisary service . GETR 1862 Elmira Inn - built as a 21 roomette sleeper for the PRR ,rebuilt as coach 1514 for PRR ,to PC then NJDOT . GETR 1863 Coatesville Inn - built as a 21 roomette sleeper for the PRR , rebuilt as coach 1527 , to PC then NJDOT. GETR 1864 built by The Budd Company in 1955 for the Seaboard Air Line , 55, to SCL as their 6404 ,to the original  auto-train as their 604 then RBBB Circus . As built this car had : 5 double bedrooms/ 1 compartment/ 4 roomettes and 4 sections  - the same as Canadian Pacific's Manor series , Cedartown on the GETR . GETR  1865 The Patriot was built as a 10 roomette/6 double bedroom sleeper for the Norfolk and Western Railway named Duke University . The car was sold to the PRR and rebuilt in 1964 as PRR 1497  a coach/snack bar  car. PC renumbered it as PC3239 , snack bar series . Later sold to NJDOT as a coach, without snack bar . From the photos posted of this equipment  the interiors  and window arrangement have been heavily modified.  Hope this info helps , it is dated early 2024 .  

Gonut1 Wrote:
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> Sam,
> Excellent series. I'm happy to see they classed up
> the act and painted the train in a cohesive color
> scheme. When I rode back in 2010 or so the cars
> were quite rag-tag and they had that awkward
> double deck car made from an autorack or
> something. 
> Gonut

Your ride was long before 2010 as this operation shut down in 2007, and the double-deck was apparently OOS after Pioneer took over 2001. The much-maligned car was offered for sale for 13K in 2010, and was finally cut up on site in Gettysburg in 2018.

A tourist rail industry expert once wrote that this operation does best with steam, and that the Sloan Cornell-owned outfit had its best ridership in the early 1990s, right after the 125th anniversary of the end of the Civil War (1990)
He was echoed by the last manager of the property before Pioneer took over, that the steam engine attracted people from the battlefield tours...

They are really burning up the ballast.  Smokin baby!  Smokin!

Totally rebuilt is right!  They enlarged the windows, as Pennsy should have done but I'm sure couldn't afford to do.  In Amtrak's early days, I used to want Amtrak to collect as many of those and convert them back to sleepers, probably using Slumbercoach double rooms to create a much-needed fleet of economy sleepers.  Wasn't to be, though.

If they are only going as far as Rake Factory road crossing, that makes for a pretty short ride. They should at least extend it to Biglerville.