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RRF/Post-Fest thoughts and housekeeping


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#1 KevinKorell

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Posted 20 July 2014 - 07:03 AM

Well another big summer Fest is in the history books, save for everyone getting home,

A total of 13 people were involved over the course of our 8-day event, which ran from Saturday, July 12th until Saturday, July 19th, with some smaller segments of the group together longer in travel to and from Chicago.

We had a wonderful time together, with almost everyone seeming to have enjoyed themselves. The goals of our itinerary were all met, as we were able to ace the FrontRunner and TRAX systems in the Salt Lake City area, and the RTD light rail and the Platte Valley Trolley in Denver. In between, there were four segments on the California Zephyr, with 3 crews who for the most part dealt very well with our large group (one crew and consist were the same).

The itinerary, which was kept up to date through our various stops off the rails, now reflects all of our travels. We can now remove the word "temporary". As we saw in Salt Lake City, some changes were made last minute to accommodate our late arrival. The homepage has been written in the past tense, with some things changed to show what happened in Salt Lake City.

If we have to discuss positives and negatives, well the biggest negative to me had to be how we both entered and exited Salt Lake City. We did so at 4:31 AM and 3:57 AM respectively, which meant for a couple of sleepless nights, or for some, an extra paid hotel night in Salt Lake City. This was not any of our fault, but rather a combination of factors stemming from a previous BNSF derailment in Nebraska, and Amtrak's inability to find enough working engines in Chicago to originate the trips.

Biggest positive to me was the camaraderie between members of our group. The faces of our participants have changed over the years, and it is always nice to see people having a good time and seeing that we are a harmless bunch. Of course to me, accomplishing the entire Fest makes the trip highly worthwhile.

While I am still in travel, over the course of the next few days you will see other housekeeping aspects besides the completion of the itinerary as we finalize this event.

So with that, I would like to thank each and every one of our participants for making this event yet another success. Knowing the Fests can continue to be worthwhile, educational, and fun makes me hopeful that we can have many more of these to come. We can build on our experiences and try to make each one just as great, if not better.

Please do share your thoughts, suggestions, complaints, favorite recollections, etc. about this event.

Edited by KevinKorell, 20 July 2014 - 08:54 AM.


Kevin Korell


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#2 KevinKorell

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Posted 20 July 2014 - 09:04 AM

Removed homepage links to SLC and DEN hotels & restaurants. These pages still exist but links were only provided here as a convenience before the Fest. One less place to document when updates are made. Links to SLC and DEN transit costs were also removed. This is because fares can change. Link still exists on the board, but keep in mind that fares most likely will rise before you might revisit either city.


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#3 KevinKorell

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Posted 21 July 2014 - 11:45 PM

Housekeeping after the Fest slowly continues, as I am still in travel mode and working on last minute personal trips in the Chicago area.

This 'History of Fests' page has been updated now, highlighting our most recent Fest and omitting both cities as places we haven't yet visited. http://kevinkorell.com/history.htm


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#4 KevinKorell

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Posted 22 July 2014 - 02:10 PM

My personal itinerary is up to date, including my own travels to the Fest, my light rail travel in Denver, and my extra couple of days in Chicago. The latter was made necessary by the Sunday & Monday cancellations of Lincoln Service south of Bloomington/Normal which prevented me from getting to Springfield without taking a bus. I therefore spent 3 days in Chicago, riding a lot of CTA, Metra, and some Amtrak points runs. Because of some gross misinformation given to me by the ticket agent in Glenview on Sunday (she said the train was 2 hours late when it was really only a few minutes behind), I hopped onto a Metra train with my weekend pass and missed the 100 Amtrak tier points getting an e-voucher for the return portion.

http://kevinkorell.c...in/itinkk20.htm

Edited by KevinKorell, 22 July 2014 - 02:30 PM.


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#5 pennyk

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Posted 22 July 2014 - 02:29 PM

I have a few Post-Fest thoughts. 1. It was a very enjoyable fest and I agree with Kevin that the camaraderie among the group was great. 2. Thank you again for Kevin for his attention to details in his planning. Although I was not happy about the 4am boarding/de-training, it was not Kevin's fault. 3. I have a suggestion, but do not know if it workable. The middle of the summer is my least favorite time to travel. When doing so, you encounter sold out trains and hot temperatures (i.e. 103 in SLC). I would like it if there is a way to plan the "summer" fest in another month that would still permit any teachers in our group to participate. My guess is that is not possible.

#6 KevinKorell

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Posted 22 July 2014 - 02:36 PM

3. I have a suggestion, but do not know if it workable. The middle of the summer is my least favorite time to travel. When doing so, you encounter sold out trains and hot temperatures (i.e. 103 in SLC). I would like it if there is a way to plan the "summer" fest in another month that would still permit any teachers in our group to participate. My guess is that is not possible.

Probably not possible. The same could be said for the "winter" fest, which always exposes us to the possibility of bitter cold, snow, etc. As for summer, I don't know if other months would be possible. June could be cooler than July, but then parts of the country did experience 100-plus temperatures even then. And it could be more comfortable in July too, like in the 70's or even lower 80's. It's really a crap shoot with the weather no matter what. The Fests started when I was a single father of a school-age child, who in fact was part of the group until he was old enough to stay home on his own. I don't have that limitation any more, but I am open to suggestions if another time of year in warmer months is agreeable to all.


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#7 KevinKorell

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Posted 22 July 2014 - 03:37 PM

The housekeeping continues as long as I can. The Fest Scorecard has now been updated. The Scorecard homepage has yellow backgrounds now for TRAX/S-Line in Salt Lake City, and Platte Valley Trolley and RTD for Denver, to indicate that we aced those systems. I did not do the same for FrontRunner, which has an operating segment between Ogden and Pleasant View that is very hard for people to ride out and back as I announced months ago.

As for the individual listings, there are now updates that in the cases of Platte Valley Trolley, RTD light rail, and TRAX/S-Line mark all routes as ALL completed, and in the case of FrontRunner, mark Provo-Salt Lake-Ogden as completed and Ogden-Pleasant View not completed.


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#8 KevinKorell

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Posted 25 July 2014 - 11:43 PM

Fest status by city was updated for Denver and Salt Lake City.


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#9 steve4031

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Posted 28 July 2014 - 09:20 PM

Kevin, this was another great fest. I like the July timing. I don't see that moving it to late June or early August would mitigate summer heat. The first half of June and 2nd half of August are going to create conflicts with the school year at times when it's difficult to take off.




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