Page 20 - September October 2014

A Trip to the National Convention Keith Webb
As you may be aware, this year’s National Convention was held in Cleveland Ohio. It was decided, as I had never been before, that to go while I was President of the BR would be advantageous for both the Region and myself. Now I’m not a big fan of articles about other people’s holidays, unless they are more about the railroad information, rather than a travelogue. So I can only apologise for my seemingly double standards (Hey! At least I’m honest about it!). However, if you are planning a trip to the same area, there may be a few useful items that are not necessarily rail-related. But I will not take offence if you do not read on.
As we had to consider the expense and Carol’s interests, it was decided not to spend the whole time at the convention, but to combine the trip with some exploration of the Eastern USA – somewhere we had not been before. For a rail-themed holiday, we saw very little train movement (although not uncommon for us). We arrived in Boston and toured around on the excellent Old Town Trolley. Now this is not as you would expect, it is a series of hop-on, hop-off open-sided buses. With a ticket lasting two days and discounts off various attractions, it came in very handy as a taxi service as we explored Boston!
Having arrived late on the Tuesday night, the first consideration was breakfast next morning. I wouldn’t normally cover such detail, but the South Street Diner is an experience that I would highly recommend and is a modelling opportunity!
Thursday saw us taking the train up to Newburyport from North Station on the MBTA, this our first trip on a non-preserved train on US soil. Following a tour around a factory and lunch with a work colleague (yes, that’s why we went there!), we caught the train back to Boston to meet Ted Smale (who was passing through) at Cheers.
Thursday morning after our third trip to the diner, we collected the hire car and headed towards Ronks and the Red Caboose Motel. Now I love driving in the USA, but this journey filled me with trepidation as it took us really close to New York, New York! The trip was estimated at six hours, but due to roadworks, took nine! The part I feared the most – queuing to cross the George Washington Bridge – was a complete breeze, with no queuing at all! I must say that paying the admin charge and having an electronic toll pass made driving the Interstates easy, normally roads we like to avoid.
The visit to the Strasburg Railway (near Ronks PA) did not go as planned, especially as it took a lot of expensive phone calls from the UK to book trains etc. (Like many US attractions, they can- not handle visitors from outside the USA.) With two locos in steam on arrival taking the trips in turn, we ended up with the one and only diesel (and you are not allowed to change the time of your train once booked). We did have steam for the Murder Mystery trip in the evening, but the food, the really poor acting, plus just one trip out and back, with a lot of time spent at the turnaround point, let the whole thing down, especially as it was so expensive. On the up side, they do have a lot of smart
passenger cars and the Museum across the road is awesome – and as you will read, so much better than Steamtown!
The other plus point at this location was staying at the Red Caboose Motel; nearly every room is in a caboose, and the food superb. I’m glad we stayed two nights.
Scranton was very disappointing, with little on display, most of the big locos hidden indoors in cramped conditions under poor lighting, with the bulk of the roundhouse given over to spacious, and to me pointless, displays. There was no live steam and we were informed on arrival by the ticket booth attendant there would not be steaming all year – so much for being called Steamtown. There were also a lot of unusual items rotting away outside in hard-to-see rows, some obviously now too far gone to restore! These should be indoors and the displays in a marquee. Again the real plus here was the hotel; we had front centre room in the Lackawanna Station Hotel (built originally as the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Station).
The day for travelling to and visiting Horseshoe Curve provided the worst rain we saw while in the States, and it worsened the closer we got, with visibility down to feet. Just as we got to Altoona (after missing our turn off the main road – we relied on Google directions, and Carol acted as a Naff-Nav) the rain eased;
16 ROUNDHOUSE