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Announcing OTOL Garden State RailFest 2008


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#1 KevinKorell

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Posted 10 July 2008 - 10:26 AM

And the Fests keep on coming! Given that our upcoming Florida Fest 2008 event is so short (owing a little bit of thanks to a Fisherman's Convention in Jacksonville that kept us out of that city), I have wanted to put together a second event for this summer.

As many of you know I have several 2 or 3 day Rail Fest events in the works for the New York/New Jersey/Philly area. My preference for this one had been to do the one with multiple Long Island Railroad trips, as we would have gotten a lot of daytime rail mileage. In order to make this as far as possible from the July event, while avoiding a holiday weekend, the weekend in question became the one involving August 23rd. Then the LIRR announced that all services on its Main Line (including Oyster Bay, Ronkonkoma, Port Jefferson, and Hempstead) will endure bus substitutions due to a major planned track/switch/signal project scheduled for the same weekend. While that would have still allowed us to do the Long Beach and West Hempstead branches, I was concerned with the expected bedlam in Jamaica and the uncertainty of connecting trains.

That leaves the Garden State RailFest. I have worked it so that the Fest is just a two-day event, over Friday, August 22nd and Saturday, August 23rd. That would leave people Sunday in case they need a travel day before returning to work on Monday. The way this is set up, we would meet for lunch in the vicinity of New York Penn Station, or just meet in the NJT Concourse before the scheduled 1:40 Montclair Midtown Direct departure. The NJT activities for the day will be riding out to Hackettstown via the Montclair-Boonton Line (change trains at Montclair University). After a brief layover, the same equipment then goes inbound over the Morristown Line (M&E) into Hoboken. We will get off at Newark Broad Street, and ride the light rail to Newark Penn Station, and then after quick dinner at the station, take Amtrak to Philadelphia (changed from previously published plan involving PATH and Hoboken).

Once in Philly, we stay in the area overnight. Then on Saturday morning we would first ride the SEPTA R3 line out to Elwyn and back, and then NJ TRANSIT's Atlantic City Line the entire distance to Atlantic City. I have allowed almost 3-1/2 hours in ACY which should give you enough time to have lunch, walk on the boardwalk, or find ways to lose your most recent paycheck.

The inbound trip on NJT would bring us back to Lindenwold. There are places to eat across the parking lot from the station, but if anyone prefers a steak dinner I recommend the Lone Star Steakhouse in Voorhees, about one mile north of the NJT/PATCO station. There will be two participants including myself who can park their cars at the station and shuttle people to the restaurant. After dinner we get people back to the Lindenwold station, where they can take either PATCO or NJT back to Philly (and go onward from there if they are going straight home).

As for hotels, if you don't live in the Philadelphia/South Jersey area, start looking in either Center City Philly or South Jersey for Friday night, August 22nd. For the reason above I will have my car there so I'm not limited to the offerings in Center City Philadelphia. So I may be able to take one or two people to hotels in NJ if they can't find or afford something in Philly. There is a Hampton Inn almost adjacent to the Lone Star in Voorhees. I am also looking at a Doubletree in Mount Laurel, about 5 miles away that seems reasonable. The Fest is over Saturday evening when we go to dinner, however if you cannot make it home at a reasonable hour on Saturday evening 8/23, you may consider remaining in your Philly area hotel through Sunday morning. I surmise that those headed north will go by different means and at different times, so your journey back to New York or anywhere else is on your own. I haven't yet decided whether to go home Saturday night or remain until Sunday morning, but if people need rides from hotels in South Jersey on Sunday I would be happy to hang around to facilitate that.

The homepage for this fest is here: http://pages.prodigy...gsfest/home.htm . To go directly to the itinerary: http://pages.prodigy.../itingsfest.htm . I still need to work on a Costs page, and that will be ready shortly.


Kevin Korell


OTOL Board Leader


Lakewood, NJ


#2 KevinKorell

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Posted 11 July 2008 - 08:42 PM

Costs page now available here.
Participant list is located here.


Kevin Korell


OTOL Board Leader


Lakewood, NJ


#3 KevinKorell

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Posted 17 July 2008 - 10:51 AM

The trip from Newark to Philadelphia is entirely up to the individual. While some will still take Amtrak, quite a few have expressed desire to save money and do either NJT NEC/SEPTA R7, or NJT NEC/NJT RiverLINE/PATCO. So we could end up with a triple simulFest if we have significant numbers of people doing the various options.


Kevin Korell


OTOL Board Leader


Lakewood, NJ





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