The Lehigh Valley Railroad Historical Society, in cooperation with the Finger Lakes Scenic Railway, sponsored Santa train excursions over the former New York Central “Auburn Road” railroad line between Shortsville and Canandaigua on Saturday, November 29, 2008. Five passenger train excursions were operated from Shortsville to Canandaigua and return over the Finger Lakes Railway using two diesel locomotives and three passenger coaches. Each train ride lasted one hour and was a 12 mile round trip.
A total of 738 paid passengers rode the trains. All five round trips were considered sold out. Paid passenger counts for each trip were as follows: Sat. 10:00 a.m. - 160, Sat. 11:30 a.m. - 143, Sat. 1:00 p.m. - 150, Sat. 2:30 p.m. - 135, and Sat. 4:00 p.m. - 150. The average paid passenger count per train was 148. Thank you to all of the passengers who rode our train excursions. We appreciate your patronage!
Paid ads were placed in the Daily Messenger and the Genesee Valley Pennysaver. Press releases were published in the Courier-Gazette, the Daily Messenger, the Democrat and Chronicle, and on various Internet web sites. The Finger Lakes Visitors Connection also publicized the event on their calendar.
A big thank you to Deb Halderman for handling all of the telephone inquiries along with retail and mail order sales. A total of 514 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 good. The food concession operated by the Shortsville Presbyterian Church did a brisk business before and after each of the five trips. Special thanks to Joe Dickson, Bev Halderman, Deb Halderman, and Jack Tuttle for cleaning and decorating the station before the excursions. Thanks to Jim Kerins for bringing his sound system and supplying his Finger Lakes Railway DVDs for sale. Thanks to Dan Hodge for displaying his N scale model train modules. Thanks to the Red Jacket Madrigal Choir for entertaining the passengers on the 10:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. trips.
As always, we received good service and cooperation from the Finger Lakes Scenic Railway train crew comprised of Bernie Beikirch, Conductor/Engineer, and Irwin Kistler, Conductor/Engineer. Thanks to Deb Najarro, Judy Salone, and Adriel Douglas for their services on board the trains.
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, Dick Coffey, and Jack Tuttle for volunteering as parking lot attendants. Thanks to 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. Thank you as well to Joe Frasca, who once again did an outstanding job as Santa Claus. I appreciate the Society’s support of this fund-raising project and look forward to future excursions in 2009.
Ken May, Excursion Coordinator
