Silver Lake
Railroad

The Railroad Report

Years Final Report

Silver Lake Railroad

December 18th 2011

Well, my procrastination to write up this report was rather high this late fall. The trains at Silver Lake were wrapped up and my attention turned to the the model railroad. We’ll a month late, here is the years Final Railroad Report.

As far as I’m concerned, 2011 was our best season yet! We’ve accomplished the most, and our ridership has been higher than ever! In fact we filled almost every Friday Night and Saturday Night 5:30PM and almost every single Saturday and Sunday 12,1 and 2 PM rides. The 12PM was over booked many times and we reverted to running a second train pulled by the A8. I can’t remember a time when our other train rides (6:30PM and 3PM on the various days) were under 50%! Donation wise, this was our best year as well! I would like to specially thank Marty Perault and Camp Calumet for helping us accomplish this! Your efforts have been greatly appreciated this season!

So whats the schedule look like for next year? We have some minor changes coming next year. We wish to avoid operating on Saturday nights. Day time operations Saturday is a six hour day for us volunteers and as much as we love running the railroad, we still have family and friends to see Saturday Evenings. Since Friday Night was such a success we will continue Friday operations. Cruise Night was Saturday the past two seasons, but next year we have to move it to escape Saturday Evenings. My idea was to make it a week day, but there have been concerns about volunteers on weekdays. I can’t run the place alone, so we believe Cruise Nights will move to Fridays next year. This is not engraved in stone, but is the tentative plan as of yet. One last thing of mention. We’ve been given the idea of a night train ride, and I’ve taken a liking to that idea. We often take the Orange A6 out for night runs and it works very well. I know if we hauled a coach behind then people would absolutely love it. It could very well turn into a great special occasion thing for next year! Food for thought!

What’s the marketing plan for next year? Well we operated at an average of 85% capacity this year. Now let me be clear on this, we don’t want to go crazy. The SLRR is a very special place and it is not there to be a business. It’s purpose built to be a fun place for volunteers and a place where people can go have a special time without spending a lot of money. We want as many people to enjoy it as possible while maintaining that it isn’t too busy, so people will enjoy it for the gem it is. Nevertheless we always want to have a marketing strategy. Next year we plan to contact local camps and have them mention us and hand out our flyer's. If you have an idea for a local camp, please contact me via silverlakerr@yahoo.com   Thanks!

   There are a few other things I want to mention. Unfortunetly the Halloween Train was cancelled this year. We're looking to build an arsenal of volunters for the halloween train to be "gouls ghosts and goblins." At this point I'm looking to collect a list of names of people showing interest in helping. At this point YOU DO NOT have to commit to anything, just contact me via silverlakerr@yahoo.com with your name and contact and we will get back to you in August and see if you are still interested. Any interest is greatly appreciated. We do not want to see this event disappear!

In the media department, Pocket Mountain Video released "Track Cars on Parade." Owner Joe Bradley did a fantastic Job showcasing the SLRR (and it had the best possible host out there :] ). It would make an awesome Christmas gift for railfans alike! You can purchase that great film via http://www.PocketMountainVideo.com/track_cars_on_parade.html. Also we have a great new promotional video by Mark Thompson. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCtsGosX5Ww&feature=player_embedded.

Other than routine maintenance, we have a few plans for next year. The coolest being a new cross-buck. Our milepost guy- Ross Hall will be painting a replica of an enormous RR cross-buck from the Conway Branch. The wood is six feed long for each part of the cross-buck. This should come out fantastic. It will hang on the top of a rail in the air- like the B&M put them up, up to and over 100 years ago. There are a few other minor projects, but i plan to mention them as they near completion next year!

Here's what we accomplished this year!

1. Repaint of the Blue A6

2.Repaint of the SLRR cross-buck’s in the yard

3. Prep of our Green Display Train for new paint

4. Preliminary New stones in the garden

5. Repaint of the trolley- 90% complete

6. Repaint of all three SLRR coaches

7. A successful first railfans day

8. Fixing the the shoulder washout at MP B128.5 2011 in a whole.

9. Final Exact Repaint of our three B&MRR Mile Markers (Thanks Ross!)

Well, that was 2011 in a whole. Those nine things may look small on paper, but believe me, they took a lot of work! 2011 was a great year for the SLRR. I just want to take a moment to give a thanks to all who rode the train and contributed via donations. It is donations that allows us to continue operating and I think we all want to see the SLRR last for many years to come! Enjoy your winter and we’ll see all you SLRR fans next Summer!

Again, Thanks for a fantastic season! We look forward to a strong 2012 season!

Next RR Report is in the spring!

Have an enjoyable and safe, Winter and Holiday Season everyone!

Will Scopa

SLRR Volunteer

NERFS Site Owner

Silver Lake Railroad

The Railroad Report

Early August

            The mid July report turned into a late July report, so there is not too much news for this report. To start off, Railfans Day was a huge success! Even though we were not able to ride the rare mileage, many of the railfan passengers have never rode our three miles of the Conway Branch. Essentially it was rare-mileage to them… Everybody seemed to have a great time! I was astonished over how busy we were. All of our paved lot, gravel lot and grass lot were filled. We had cars from the street to the freight house probably over one hundred cars! That’s a lot for our little railroad! This was an awesome “trial run” and we have a good idea of what to do next year!

            For their help on railfans day, I want to thank Bill Willis and Ross Hall for operating the semaphore signal at the depot, Neil for running the freight train, Bruce Stuart for operating the railfan extras, CVRTC for allowing us to use their two flat cars, Dave Brown for help setting and promoting our Railfans Day, Doug Scott for suggesting a cool photo run-by location and anyone who I forgot who took part in this event!

            In the paint department: Our three mileposts are officially complete and our blue engine has an awesome coat of paint on it. It’s a much better shade of blue than the previous shade!

New Hampshire Chronicle re-ran their episode about us on Thursday night and we’re expecting a busy weekend this weekend! This and next weekend are also Madison Old Homes Weekend, so it should be a super busy weekend! The A8 and third coach stand ready to depart form the depot!

That’s all for now SLRR fans! Thanks for reading the Railroad Report!

Will Scopa

SLRR Volunteer

Silver Lake Railroad

The Railroad Report

Extra Extra- Railfans Day Approaching fast!

            I apologize for filling your inbox again, but here’s an extra railroad report!

            Railfans Day is quickly approaching, and we haven’t filled all of our reservations yet! This is going to be an awesome day filled with photo opportunities. We will be using every piece of SLRR equipment with the exception of the dump car. We will also be borrowing CVRTC’s flat cars for our freight train.

            There are many rare occurrences for this day. Our excursion train provides most train rides. Saturday, railfan extra riders will be able to ride behind our A8, a rare occasion, and see a freight train out and about on our line: a very rare occasion!

Below are the seats left on each train

10:30AM- 0 seats

12PM- 2 Seats

1PM- 6 Seats

We would like to fill these, so please reserve your railfan extra seat AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. RSVP via emailing silverlakerr@yahoo.com, or by calling 1-978-470-2066

NOTE:

1)    The 10:30 is the best run for photo opportunities!

2)    We apologize for not being able to offer the rare mileage as we had previously hoped/planned. An insurance issue came up and we could not solve it in time!

3)    The excursion train will still be operating Saturday at 12, 1, 2, 3, 5:30, 6:30 with a maximum of 40 passengers per ride!

Will Scopa

SLRR Volunteer

Silver Lake Railroad

The Railroad Report

Early July

  The SLRR is now open and I’m excited! J Our little railroad just gets better and better every year and this year the area is looking fantastic! This year we’ve added Friday night trains! Friday night trains will depart the depot at 5:30 and 6:30PM. Our diner will be open Fridays from 4PM to 8PM. We hope the Friday night events will grow into a popular outing for the railroad. Time will tell!

Our complete schedule for the trains this year is Friday, 5:30, 6:30 PM, Saturday 12, 1, 2, 3, 5:30, 6:3 0PM and Sunday 12, 1, 2, 3 PM. Our diner hours are Friday 4PM to 8PM, Saturday 12PM to 8PM, and Sunday 12PM to 5PM. We will be refurbishing our diner page in the next few weeks. I keep prolonging this, but I’ll get to it.

We have been busy lately in the paint department. This past week we painted the maroon entranceways to the diner and north and south excursion train loading platforms. We are currently giving our blue A6 a much-needed fresh coat of paint. It will look fantastic when completed and our mileposts are almost complete. B127 and B128 are done and B129 is left. It’s cool to see this progress, and serves as more eye candy for excursion train passengers. One of the more time consuming projects was repainting our Silver Lake Railroad white X sign. This is up by the freight house. The paint was peeling and it was in disrepair. It now looks fantastic!

Professional photographer Kristin Woodman came up and took some fantastic photos for us over the 4th of July weekend! They are on facebook and here is the link http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.245771568771937.79420.165182730164155.

In recent news the local paper the Mountain Ear wrote a terrific little article about us. The article is on page eight. Take a look at it via http://www.newhampshirelakesandmountains.com/pdf/MTN.2011.07.07.pdf. We now anticipate a busy weekend this weekend! We want to thank Rachel Brown for that awesome article!

That’s all for now folks! We’re open so come pay us a visit and we hope to see you soon!

As always thanks for reading the Railroad Report and is there are any questions or comments please send me an email via silverlakerr@yahoo.com!

Will Scopa

SLRR Volunteer

PS. Thanks to Hunt and Caitriona for allowing us to publish this from your porch  

Mid June Pre-Season Report

Silver Lake Railroad The Railroad Report Mid June It’s hard to believe its mid-June already! Preparation for the 2011 season is going great! We have prepared a photo album showcasing our progress up to the date of this Report. It is located at http://www.silverlakerailroad.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=11674517 . We are also happy to be receiving so many email comments and questions about the railroad. It is good to see interest in the SLRR is growing!

Our new signs are now complete. We have five for the station area and four for the local roadside. Hopefully these will attract a few more people to our little railroad! There are photos of these signs in the paragraph above. In terms of painting we need to complete our mileposts before July 1st and we wish to paint our original yard-limit’s sign, locate just north of the freight house. We located that when cutting the area a few years ago and it would look great all painted up! We also would like to grab the old Boulder Rd RR crossing sign now buried in the woods. We’ll get it painted up like it was 50+ years ago and put it back or place it in the station area.

Our line is in need of a mow, but unfortunately we have postponed this until next weekend due to the rain. I hope the rain comes now, not later. As you ay know when our train gets stuck in a storm the passengers unfortunately get soaked. We will overcome this issue this year by placing porta-glass (pardon my spelling) on top of the trellis roof. While this still wont allow us to run in the rain, it could help passengers stuck in a storm!

This past weekend, we cleaned all the windows in the station. All of the photo’s are up and the place is really looking fantastic! The museum is all set for the season! Operations manager Bruce found some antique track equipment for the museum, which will help add to the historic setting. This equipment includes tie tongs, guerrilla wrenches for the track-joint bolts, and much more. This is rare antique equipment and yet another reason to come visit the SLRR! We have started cleaning up the diner for the season. It has a long way to go, but we almost have it cleaned up enough for the season! The diner opens July 1st. The tentative schedule will be Friday 4-8, Saturday 12-8 and Sunday 12-5.

We will be refurbishing the SLRR diner page on our site. That should be completed for the beginning of the season! We have been working on a series of short films highlighting our progress, events, etc. We plan to release a video every 2-4 weeks this summer and it will be called the 2011 SLRR video series. The first episode- “Spring Cleanup” will be out soon enough.

We have recently released an awesome promotional film on our homepage. It’s one minute long and I think it does a great job of explaining the railroad in a brief and interesting manner. This will replace the old three-minute promo on our homepage. The old promo can be seen in our video gallery and YouTube channel. Here is the link to the 2011 Promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAxq3fCQWWM&feature=player_embedded .

We are trying to promote membership for our website. As most who read this newsletter know, we don’t fill your mailbox with junk, just railroad news. We ask for your support in the railroad, simply by encouraging family and friends to sign up! They can sign up via this link http://www.silverlakerailroad.com/apps/auth/signup .

Reservations for our Railfans Day are starting to take off! The 12PM is half full, and the 10:30 AM and 1PM still have plenty of openings. If you want to travel past Boulder Rd, 2.5 miles past the returning point of our Excursion Train, make sure to sign up today before we fill up!

This is a incredibly rare opportunity. For more info check www.silverlakerailroad.com/railfansday.htm That’s all for now folks! Remember we will be running trains on Fridays at 5:30 and 6:30PM and we begin July 1st. if you have any questions or comments please send me an email at silverlakerr@yahoo.com!

Next RR Report is in July!

Will Scopa

SLRR Volunteer

1st 2011 Season Report

I for one sure am happy that the 2011 season is almost here! We have a slew of things that we plan to add this year to the railroad, online, etc. as well as many projects that need to be completed. It was my intention through the winter to publish this report in the beginning of April, but I decided to hold off until now when we would have more information on the upcoming season. 

First I'd like to write about the winter. The trains may have ben silent on the siding, wrapped up with snowmobilers zipping up and down our line, but we the volunteers have been busy. Operations manager Bruce has been working on our forth Fairmont A6. He hopes to have it completed in the next few weeks. This will serve as our second train's locomotive power, sharing the duty with the A8 which was restored for last season. This locomotive will also share use with the A8 as a recovery locomotive. It will have the power and tractive effort to retrieve any broken down train stuck out on the line. Owner Neil has been busy with the state renewing our line lease. I (Will) have been busy finding new ideas on how to direct more tourists onto NH113 and into our trains as well as remaking some of the pages on this site and planning Railfans Day 2011. Our milepost painter Ross Hall has been in contact with the Boston and Maine RR Historical Society discussing how exactly the B&M RR painted the mileposts on our line. He has also found out that northbound trains read I # (for Intervale). He has completed stencils for the "I" side of the mileposts as well as the "B" side of the mileposts. We plan to have this 100% completed this spring.

For the most part our line survived the winter well. Memorial Day WKND was our first work weekend. We accomplished a lot. For some photos from the weekend see this link: http://www.silverlakerailroad.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=11674517. One of the bearings in the transmission in our Excursion Train's A6 was whining, so we pulled it and sent of to the mechanic over the weekend. While the transmission is out we will install a new clutch as well. The Blue A6's air compressor quit, so we replaced it. Stone was spread in front of the depot and it looks great. At the first beaver pond we installed a new culvert which should fix any problems there. At the location of last fall's washout we tamped the tracks. The line is all set for the season with the acceptation of a few low branches!

Our basic list of projects for the season includes installing a new electric fuel pump in our A8, A new floor in our A8, painting the floor in our Blue A6 with enamel. We plan to paint all three coaches, the EXC train A6, Blue A6, and the trolley. We are considering running the trolley on the other side of  NH113 by Silver Lake. The mileposts are promised to be completed by the end of June. I kept mentioning this last year, but I've been assured we will install new whistles in our main loco's. Bruce our operations manager has two steam-engine-like whistles. The best will go on our primary A6, and the second best will go on our soon-to-be newly refurbished A6, and the current horn on the EXC train A6 will go on our A8. That will leave all of our loco's with a good working horn. We just need some bells now!

I have a lot of interesting things to report that will happen this year. First off we plan to now run two friday night trains at 5:30 and 6:30PM. What I think is the most interesting is July 30th where we plan to have a Railfans Day! This will be a great day with many extras, and a chance for 60 railfans/ riders to ride the extra rare mileage up to Colemans Pit. Three of the days trains will allow you to do this but they are all by "Advance Reserve Only." Seats may fill fast so visit our railfans day page and reserve your seat. http://www.silverlakerailroad.com/railfansday.htm. I want to note that this rare mileage trip is essentially a once-in-a-lifetime trip! RSVP ASAP because I have a feeling these will fill up super fast!

Online this year we have reached well over 1100 friends on facebook!, as well as over 20 subscribers on YouTube. We intend to launch a slew of SLRR films this year, so please subscribe to our YouTube Channel!  http://www.youtube.com/user/SilverLakeRailroad Keep a lookout for the new video series coming this year. I would also like to mention that i intend to have a 2011 Photo of The Week and post it around the SLRR links.

We ask all Silver Lake Railroad fans to do us a favor and write us a review on google via http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=15719571010000531832&q=silver+lake+railroad+madison+nh&hl=en&dtab=0&sll=43.888228,-71.173314&sspn=0.024072,0.053733&ie=UTF8&ll=43.905375,-71.218786&spn=0,0&t=h&z=14 . This would be a great help!

We are also accepting any ideas on how to promote the SLRR. We all want to see the SLRR grow and live strong for many years to come, and we wish to add clients to our roster as well as keep all our fans coming back for a ride time and time again. We love seeing your happy faces when you disembark! It truly is a hidden gem, and if you have any ideas on how to make it a little less hidden, please email silverlakerr@yahoo.com!

Thats pretty much all for now folks. Help us have another successful fifth year in 2011! We hope to see you around the railroad, and as always if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at silverlakerr@yahoo.com!

As always thanks for reading The Railroad Report!

SLRR Volunteer Will Scopa

We have noticed that some of the pictures did not work through the emails sent out so here is the link to the Album "SLRR: Filling A Washout" 

http://www.silverlakerailroad.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=10485580

We have also taken some pictures of the Filled Washout. This link to that picture Album is here: http://www.silverlakerailroad.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=10516892

-Will Scopa

SLRR Volunteer

SLRR Washout Update

Thanks to the volunteers who helped fill the washout and workers from the state our washout is now filled. 

Here's how it happened- After we close for the season, we rarely do track and line inspections. The "busy beavers" got to work very quickly, and nearly completely clogged our 5*7 ft. culvert. One of the passing rain storms raised the level of the beaver pond to over the culvert ceiling and the water pushed on the soft sand that was underneath the ballast. (soft sand was in that location because that section of track had laid dormant and washed-out for nearly 15 years, and the sand was brought ashore. (we filled it in 2008 ) The State has cleared their culvert (line is owned by State of NH- we only own nearly 1000 feet of track), and provided us with fill and labor. We completed fixing this washout on tuesday 11-23-10. Picture of the filled washout are linked below along with captions written by operations manager Bruce Stuart and I!

Thanks to all who helped out on Monday and Tuesday!

Photos: credit to Joe Sheehan

Joe Sheehan Loads The First of Many

It took a joint effort by the SLRR, NH Bureau of Trails, Ossipee Valley Snowmobile Club, and Colemans Sand and Gravel to accomplish this washout fill.

Workers Starting to fill the Washout

SLRR Operations Manager Bruce Stuart and Trails Bureau member Josh utilize the 1931 Anthony bodied hydraulic dump cart to start filling in the washed area.

Fill Starts Taking Shape

Positioning Dump Car Over Fill

 

Rail was jacked and four by four pillars were cut, sized, and placed on the eastern side of the track for support.

Continued Dumping of Fill

The heaviest rains and cold temperatures prevailed on monday, but the fill continued throughout the day.

 

Frank Spreads Gravel

Trails Bureau member Frank spreads fill through the washout. It took two eleven hour- four man work days to complete the project.

Support Pillars Used On Every Other Tie

The washout encompassed fifty linear feet by three feet of depth and ten feet of width. Pillars were needed in order to support the work train. (Blue A6 and Dump Car)

Fill Arrives Monday Morning

A total of 110 yards of gravel were needed to fill the washout. A Colemans truck delivered the fill to boulder Rd on monday morning at 9AM. Colemans input toward this project was essential.

Work Train Shuttles Gravel

Unloading Dump Car

-Will Scopa

SLRR Volunteer

Washout On The SLRR- "Read All About IT!"

The year's final railroad report has been reported, and any new news will be reported on the railroad report page.

Last week we were told about a washout that had occurred on our line. This washout is located around Milepost B128.5. This washout is located in the same place as where it had washed out nearly twenty years ago. As our line is owned by the State of NH, and the state uses the line as a primary snowmobile corridor, filling this washout is a priority. Some workers from the state and a bunch of the SLRR's volunteers plan to fill the washout on Monday Nov 22nd. Pictures of the washout are linked at the bottom of this article.

The washout is around fifty to sixty feet long and five or more feet deep. The washout is believed to be caused by a clogged culvert, which had been work of the "busy beavers." The water couldn't adequately flow through the culvert and had washed out the tracks. The tracks are currently dangling over the washout.

On  monday our blue A6 and dump car will be used to move gravel out to the washout where the volunteers and state workers will distribute and fill the washout. Pictures of "filling the washout" should arrive by midweek. 

Hope all goes well!- If there are any questions please contact silverlakerr@yahoo.com.

Pictures: http://www.silverlakerailroad.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=10432317

Until next time,

-Will Scopa: SLRR volunteer.

NOTE: If you haven't already- sign up for the SLRR site and have railroad news, the railroad report and other cool stuff emailed straight to your email inbox! Sign up today- http://www.silverlakerailroad.com/apps/auth/signup