Thanks to all who came out and dealt with the cold weather to participate in the New York RailFest 2018. While it was very cold and sometimes windy too, we should still consider ourselves lucky, since it was pouring rain on Friday, and temperatures were even colder just a few days prior including a snow cover that would not melt until the Friday rain took care of it.
Thank you to Steve, who initially called the restaurant to arrange for our visit, from which we derived the best plan to split up into smaller groups and call ahead from the train. Thanks also to Bill for creating the phone-friendly versions of the Fest documents, including patience for the inadvertent last minute changes.
The comings and goings both days made it interesting for me, as detailed in the Saturday and Sunday reports. It was nice hanging out with everyone and riding trains once more as we do twice a year. Thanks especially to those who either flew to or from the New York City area or took long distance Amtrak trains.
With crowded trains and platforms it is naturally a challenge to keep the group together, and at times we accidentally got split up -- and in some cases did not get to say goodbye to people who were intentionally leaving from the group. It happens, but consider your hand shaken in gratitude for your participation.
Now comes the record keeping phase of the Fest. The participant list now accurately reflects who was ultimately involved on Sunday. The itinerary is now final. The homepage is rewritten in the past tense. The Fest Itinerary for New York City Transit was updated to show that our group has now ridden the entire Q line, which we accomplished on Saturday in riding the Second Avenue Subway.
Other updates will be made within the next few days and noted here.
Feel free to post in this thread any thoughts, impressions, takeaways, memories, etc. of our weekend just past. If anything could be done better (or worse) I am always open to suggestions.