By Kelly Young
kyoung@jacksonvilleprogress.com
The Texas State Railroad sold only half the tickets available for today’s Special Photo Excursion, but railroad officials said that wouldn’t keep them from trying again with the event in the future. Representatives from American Heritage Railways, owners of the TSR, said attendance will be light for the event partially due to the fact that a train show is taking place in Dallas this weekend.
The Special Photo Excursion will be the first-ever trip in the history of TSRR where riders will be able to debark the train at points between the two depots in order to take photographs.
“We’ve received some calls from people expressing interest in this type of event, but I know that many of the railroad enthusiasts who would normally want to go on this excursion will be at the Dallas train show,” said Marketing Manager Lori Kastrop. “Some have called to ask if they can come late and join up with the train at one of the stops, so they are definitely interested in the photo excursion when we do it again in the future.”
The Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad and the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad, both AHR properties, also offer special photo excursions which have proven very successful for the company.
The event will begin at 8 a.m. today, when the train will leave the Rusk Depot and travel to the Rusk Maintenance Shop. Riders will be able to take pictures of the engines as they are being worked on.
Other photo stops throughout the day include the Maydelle Turntable, Jarvis, the Neches River, the site of this summer’s washout and the Palestine Maintenance Shop. Patrons will enjoy a continental breakfast before embarking from the Rusk Depot, and will enjoy a boxed lunch at the Palestine station.
“Al Harper (chairman and CEO of AHR), the mayors of both Palestine and Rusk and several members of the railroad authority will be participating in this event,” Kastrop said. “This really is a great chance to see all the different aspects of the Texas State Railroad, and to capture some great pictures.”
The event is scheduled to finish about 4:15 p.m., when the train will return to the Rusk Depot.
Tickets for Sunday’s event are $89 per person. To make reservations, call 1-888-978-2461 or go to www.TexasStateRR.com.
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