The Lehigh Valley Railroad Historical Society, in cooperation with the Finger Lakes Scenic Railway, sponsored fall foliage train excursions over the former Lehigh Valley Railroad mainline between Shortsville and Victor on Saturday, October 11, 2008, and Sunday, October 12, 2008. Five passenger train excursions were operated over the weekend from Shortsville to Victor and return over the Finger Lakes Railway using two diesel locomotives and five passenger coaches. Each train ride lasted two hours and was a 24 mile round trip.
A total of 1,248 passengers rode the trains over two days – 744 on Saturday and 504 on Sunday. This was a new ridership record for our fall foliage excursions. All five round trips were sold out. Paid passenger counts for each trip were as follows: Sat. 10:00 a.m. - 247, Sat. 12:30 p.m. - 248, Sat. 3:00 p.m. - 249, Sun. 12:30 p.m. - 255, and Sun. 3:00 p.m. - 249. The average passenger count per train was 250. Thank you to all of the passengers who rode our train excursions. We appreciate your patronage!
Paid ads were placed in the Daily Messenger, the Finger Lakes Times, and the Genesee Valley Pennysaver. Press releases were published in the Courier-Gazette, the Daily Messenger, the Democrat and Chronicle, the Finger Lakes Times, and on various Internet web sites. An article about our excursions was published in the “Empire State Limited” column in the October 2008 issue of Railpace Newsmagazine. The Finger Lakes Visitors Connection posted our news release on their web site.
A big thank you to Deb Halderman for handling all of the telephone inquiries along with retail and mail order sales. A total of 871 tickets were sold in advance. Tickets were sold by Bright Ideas at the Five Seasons Gifts in Canandaigua, Country Corner in Phelps, Depot 25 Restaurant in Shortsville, Ivy Thimble Quilt and Gift Shop in Victor, and Manchester Village Hall in Manchester. Special thanks to these merchants for their help with ticket sales.
The Society freight station museum was open to passengers during the excursions. Sales at the gift shop were very good. The food concession operated by the Shortsville Presbyterian Church did a brisk business before and after each of the five trips. Thanks to P&J Lawn Care for mowing the lawn before the excursions. Special thanks to Joe Dickson, Deb Halderman, and Jack Tuttle for cleaning the station and repairing the deck on the Friday before the excursions.
As always, we received good service and cooperation from the Finger Lakes Scenic Railway train crew comprised of Don Brown (Sat.); Bernie Beikirch (Sat. & Sun.); and Bruce Habberfield (Sun.). Thanks to Deb Najarro, Judy Salone, and the FGLK on-board crew (Adam Stoneham, Adriel Douglas, Nicki Race, and William Storrs) for their services.
Thank you to all of the Society members who assisted with the excursions in one way or another. Thanks to Deb Halderman and Deb Gulvin-Chase for volunteering at the ticket sales table. Thanks to Bev Halderman for volunteering in the gift shop. Thanks to Joe Dickson, Gary Lembke, Ross Liddiard, and Jack Tuttle for volunteering as parking lot attendants. Thanks to Dave Fleenor, Dave Halderman, and Lynn Heintz for volunteering as guest conductors. Thanks to Roger Halderman for helping out at the station. Thanks to Sean Angelo for helping out on board the trains. I appreciate the Society’s support of this fund-raising project and look forward to the Santa trains on November 29, 2008.
Ken May, Excursion Coordinator
