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