10-04-2011, 02:35 PM
As a former tourist train operator I could never see the fascination of riding a train packed in like sardines just to see the colored leaves that could be seen on a drive through the hills away from the crowds. I didn't knock the revenue, we made 60 percent of our revenue in October, but the ride was always nicer in the summer when it was warm and when the seating wasn't so crowded. We had more time for the individual passengers too.
So, my advise, if you are a railfan, and want to enjoy the ride, ride anytime but the fall leaf trains, when the crew has more time to answer your questions.
If you do ride in the fall, and you find the crewmen a bit abrupt, consider the conditions working with crowds that have folks that have no consideration for fellow passengers, sit 2 people to a table of 4 and are insulted when they are asked to share, and others take 4 seats when they have only bought 2 tickets. The other folks bring the 2 year old children to ride the choo choo when we had the time in the summer after the train was in the station to take the children into the cab with their parents and let them have the thrill of being in the cab of a locomotive.
In the fall we ran 3 trains a day and did not have time between trains for the kids, and the kids were so muck fun when we had the time.
To be fair, we did have a group that brought enough beer, wine and food and served the entire train and everyone had a great time. That was one train out of 156 that I did over the last 13 years.
If you are taking children, please be considerate of others and have them remain in your care. We encouraged folks to get up and walk around, but we did not allow them to pass between cars while the train was moving, and we had a few folks that thought our crewmen were there to babysit their children.
So, my advise, if you are a railfan, and want to enjoy the ride, ride anytime but the fall leaf trains, when the crew has more time to answer your questions.
If you do ride in the fall, and you find the crewmen a bit abrupt, consider the conditions working with crowds that have folks that have no consideration for fellow passengers, sit 2 people to a table of 4 and are insulted when they are asked to share, and others take 4 seats when they have only bought 2 tickets. The other folks bring the 2 year old children to ride the choo choo when we had the time in the summer after the train was in the station to take the children into the cab with their parents and let them have the thrill of being in the cab of a locomotive.
In the fall we ran 3 trains a day and did not have time between trains for the kids, and the kids were so muck fun when we had the time.
To be fair, we did have a group that brought enough beer, wine and food and served the entire train and everyone had a great time. That was one train out of 156 that I did over the last 13 years.
If you are taking children, please be considerate of others and have them remain in your care. We encouraged folks to get up and walk around, but we did not allow them to pass between cars while the train was moving, and we had a few folks that thought our crewmen were there to babysit their children.