Silver Lake Railroad

Silver Lake Railroad

The Railroad Report

May 2013

Let me begin by noting that the formatting for this “email blast” always gets messed up. I apologize for that, however there is apparently no way to fix it, so unfortunately, it is what it is.           

It is hard to believe that our opening weekend is only a few days away with trains running on Memorial Day Weekend- Saturday, Sunday, and Monday at 12, 1, and 2 PM. To contend with anticipated crowds we took the 3PM run off the schedule. This will hopefully better fill the trains that we do run. We will also be operating a limited schedule for Laconia Bike Weekends. In the past a lot of bikers have stopped in as they are cruising around with curiosity, so we may as well run trains! Bike Weekend Train Rides are Saturday, and Sunday on both weekends (June 8th 9th 15th 16th) with departures at 12, 1, and 2 PM.

The full summer schedule begins June 21st where we will be running trains on Fridays at 5:30, 6:30, and 7:30 PM (sunset run) as well as runs on Saturdays and Sundays at 11AM, 12, 1, 2, and 3 PM. This upgraded schedule is to accommodate the increased ridership we have had in the past two years.

Before we begin the season I would like to thank our particularly dedicated volunteers for their dedication and interest in Silver Lake Railroad. It seems that our volunteers never take back hours, but offer more hours form past seasons and that is really pleasing from my perspective. We have a great, knowledgeable and trustworthy group that keep this place running. In addition to our current volunteers we have picked up a handful of new volunteers who are interested in helping out. Not only is this an extraordinary assistance to us, but the new volunteers are genuinely a fantastic group of people that we are really looking forward to adding to the team, so THANK YOU to such a great group!

Now onto news and special events. First off in the next coming weeks we will be painting our excursion train A6 in Maine Central Green with yellow stripes. It will be numbered MEC 564, and as far as we can tell, that was the first GP-7 to hold that scheme. On Thursday July 4th we will be running trains at 11AM, 12, 1, 2, and 3PM. Sunday July 7th will be the railroads 7th birthday where we will be offering free cake to all guests. Saturday July 27th will be “Heritage Day,” a celebration of history in all shapes and forms. More info on this will come later on, however if you are interested in volunteering for a day like this please let me know! To pull this off we will need a boatload of “one-day” volunteers! We will have a “Madison Residents Appreciation Day” during old home week, which will consist of a potluck hors d’oeuvres in the diner, followed by a sunset train ride. Circus and Trains Day will be August 17th, a live circus performance followed by a train ride! Railfans Day will be on September 28th and we close out the season with trains Rides on Columbus Day Monday with departures at 11AM, 12, 1, 2, and 3 PM.

We are looking forward to an exciting, fun, and busy season! Don’t forget about our friends up at Conway Scenic Railroad, if you make the trip up for Silver Lake, you should take a run up to Conway and enjoy an additional ride on the big stuff! The Notch train is really spectacular, a ride everyone must take at least once in their lives!

If you are a group organizer and are interested in a midweek or weekend group charter, please send me an email at silverlakerr@yahoo.com and we can work something out!

Thanks for your interest in our wonderful little railroad and hopefully we will see you soon!

Will Scopa

Silver Lake RR

General Manager