Now that Windy City Rail Fest 2003 is over I want thank all of the participants who made it such a fun time.
But of course, major kudos go to Kevin Korell who planned the Fest and wrote voluminous guides and other material. The Fest went so well and was so well organized because of Kevin's personal efforts and attention to the details.
I also want to single out Alan Burden who proofread and printed the guides, etc., for particular thanks.
It was my great pleasure to be able to participate in this fest. As the oldest participant, I do believe I slowed everyone down a little now and appreciate everyone's thoughtfulness about that. I wish I could have taken Amtrak to/from Chicago, but didn't have the time to do it. Perhaps next year.
Thanks again guys!
Kudos for a great Windy City Rail Fest
Started by
RailHaRRy
, Jul 21 2003 02:56 PM
5 replies to this topic
#2
Posted 21 July 2003 - 09:38 PM
Thanks, HaRRy for the Kudos.
We are all grateful too for your presence, since you did come the furthest and endured the metal bird just to be with us.
Perhaps when we have a Fest closer to your neck of the woods, those of us going out there will do the same thing (although I am itching for a transcontinental train trip!).
And no, you did not slow us down, since we didn't miss a beat with the itinerary during the three primary days of the Fest, on which you partook of most of the train trips.
We were lucky to have no last-minute hitches and everything was relatively on time, except for the UP-West on Saturday.
I wish we could do this more often, but the planning process, as you can imagine, was quite long. Almost as soon as everything had been cleared up (website updated, report written) following last summer's "T" Party in Boston, I was already fiddling around with the Chicago timetables. You should know that during my son's school holiday concert last December (the parts he wasn't in) I was sitting in the back of the room with my colorful stack of METRA timetables trying to work out the best gameplan.
At any rate, we'll try to have these things at least every six months, and they have been working out well the third week of January and the third week of July. That does not mean we can't have more, such as the one we did here in New Jersey last October, the Cleveland Fest in August 2001, or the second impromptu trip we took to Port Jervis in mid-March (2 months after the AppleFest 2003-related trip). Those extra ones might be minor events and do not necessarily have to be full-blown "Fests", although they sometimes end up attracting just as many people!
Finally, although it was wonderful meeting everyone and logging so many miles on the rails together, it is in fact good to be home, back to reality of reading e-mails and catching up on what I missed.
Kevin Korell
OTOL Board Leader
Lakewood, NJ
#3
Posted 21 July 2003 - 10:18 PM
Hey Guys glad to hear you all made it back ok. And also glad to hear that all you guys had a great time. Sorry again I couldnt make it. But now the big question whats next New York/NJ in the fall, Philly? or a return to my neck of the woods in Beantown. I am curious what the consensus on this was during the WCRF, because I want to make the next fest where ever it is.
Jack Suslak
Jack Suslak
Bluffton SC
Boston Celtics
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#4
Posted 22 July 2003 - 12:26 PM
Ditto from me Kevin on the fine job!! Even the rain on Thursday didn't dampen the spirits of the attendees.
HaRRy, I bow to you as the oldest member of the group on the fest, as I thought I had the distinction of that title.
Hopefully, should there be another fest here in the Chicago area, I will be able to participate to a greater extent than I did this year.
Cordially,
Doug Heinrichs
Deerfield, IL
#5
Posted 22 July 2003 - 12:28 PM
The Windy City Railfest was a great success. I want to thank everybody but especially Kevin for doing such a great job of planning. I really enjoyed it and I got to see a great deal of Chicago that I probably never would otherwise see.
Also thank you Harry for going to the Museum with me.
Skip Howard
Skip Howard
South Easton, Mass.
South Easton, Mass.
#6
Posted 02 August 2003 - 10:09 AM
Indeed, it was a great trip. Thanks to everyone that contributed to make it such a success, and special thanks to Kevin and Alan.
BTW, luck helped us a bit too. We managed to stay one or two steps ahead of powe failures on electrified sections. On the last day we managed to complete our trips on METRA electric before a transformer chose to blow up, and on Monday a few of us managed to get back home before power failed on the North East Corridor!
Jishnu.
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