The Lehigh Valley Railroad Historical Society, in cooperation with the Finger Lakes Scenic Railway, sponsored train excursions over the former New York Central "Auburn Road" railroad line between Geneva and Cayuga on Saturday, July 30, 2005, to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Finger Lakes Railway. Three passenger train excursions were operated from Geneva to Cayuga and return over the Finger Lakes Railway using two diesel locomotives and two passenger coaches. Each train ride lasted two hours and was a 26 mile round trip.
A public open house was held at the Finger Lakes Railway Offices and Shops in Geneva during the excursions. Railroad equipment was on display for visitors to view and photograph. Operation Lifesaver set up a railroad safety information booth at the open house.
A total of 292 paid passengers rode the trains. One out of the three round trips were sold out. The average paid passenger count per train was 97. Thank you to all the passengers who rode our train excursions on July 30. We appreciate your patronage!
Paid ads were placed in the Auburn Citizen, the Daily Messenger, and the Finger Lakes Times. Press releases were published in the Auburn Citizen, the Courier-Gazette, the Daily Messenger, the Democrat and Chronicle, the Finger Lakes Times, the Post-Standard, and on various Internet web sites. The FGLK 10th anniversary train excursions and open house event was listed in the Railpace Newsmagazine Calendar in the May, June, and July issues. A news article about the event appeared in the "Empire State Limited" column in the June 2005 issue of Railpace. WENY-TV Channel 36 in Elmira sent a crew to tape a news story about our excursions.
Thanks to Deb Halderman for handling all of the telephone inquiries along with mail order sales. The Finger Lakes Railway sold tickets for the excursions at their offices in Geneva from July 11 to July 29. Special thanks to the FGLK office staff (Holly, Janet, and Kathy) for their help with ticket sales.
As always, we received outstanding service and cooperation from the Finger Lakes Scenic Railway train crew comprised of Kevin Buckland, Trainmaster; Dan Smith, Engineer; Kenny Maines, Engineer; Bruce Habberfield, Conductor; Bonnie Buckland, Snack Bar; Judy Habberfield, Gift Shop; and Adam Buckland.
Thank you to all of the Society members who assisted with the excursions in one way or another. Thanks to Joe Dickson, Dave Halderman, and Roger Halderman for volunteering as parking lot attendants. Thanks to Deb Halderman for handling ticket sales at trackside. Thanks to Bill Young and Dave Fleenor for volunteering as car hosts. I appreciate the Society’s support of this fund-raising project and look forward to the fall foliage trains in October 2005.
Ken May, Excursion Coordinator
