pictures with Crotchety Clyde the Conductor (see picture) or the lights and trees. Every trip was sold out by early November, and ridership totaled almost 18,000. Like last year, Nestle Corporation donated an entire trip to the underprivileged of the Warren County area, and Helene Meissner of NORWESCAP distributed over 600 tickets for this trip. We also sponsored a food drive during Polar Express to benefit NORWESCAP’s Food Bank, and that helped them with needed food to area families for the holidays 142 and the Passenger Fleet Bel-Del News 2009 Operations What a year we had on the Bel Del. Things started off with a bang at Easter, we had over 3100 riders, an increase of 33% over 2008. The regular season was about on par with 2008, but we did see increases at the Susquehanna Mine, the Corn Maze and the Winery trains. The big news was that we had a visit in July from Thomas the Tank Engine, and for 6 days he shared the rails with our 142, delighting children and adults alike. All told, we had over 20,000 riders/visitors during the 6 day event. We had 6 circus style tents and an entertainment stage set up so the children could go from tent to tent and enjoy the entire Thomas experience. There was an Imagination tent, run by John Cannizzaro, a video tent, 2 food tents, a merchandise tent run by Gary Shea and Bill Doran, a tent for Sir Toppam Hat and one for an onsite professional photographer. Due to the success of Thomas, and the exposure of all these people to our operation, we decided to expand our Polar Express season. We added 8 additional trips, a big circus style tent and brought back the professional photographer and food vendor we used for Thomas. Again, this proved to be a big hit: people appreciated the food, warmth and opportunity to take Our CMO, Gary Matthews, spent a very busy year keeping the fleet and 142 rolling. He spent the winter doing his usual 142 work with help from members of the steam team – Devin Stasek, Greg Ruch Jr, Steve James, Don Young, Jesse Dorn, Doc Koschker, Ken and Kurt Christensen to name a few. He then was told that Thomas was coming. That meant he had to build passenger step platforms for the Kilns and Lehigh Station, laid ties at the station so 2 crossings could be built, worked with Joe Trench to add a second sluice run to the Mine, built step boxes for Thomas, and have his team replace 16 windows in the bi-level coaches with sliding windows. In his ‘spare time’, he welded 2 sets of steps that were rusting out on the passenger cars, replaced the brake pads on 3 coaches, replaced new air hoses throughout all 5 LI coaches with the help of Jesse Dorn and Kurt Christensen, and still found time to make trips up to Butler to work on the M-1 with Dave and Chris Hutsabaut, Les Coleman, Don Chadruc, Ken and Kurt Christesen, Martin Den Bleyker, Wayne Nilsen and others. Interior work on passenger car 530 was done in the spring, and Joe Trench replaced the old tiles with a new tile floor. Steve James took out and reinstalled all the seat frames. Keith Dorn put in a lot of hard work and magic to allow the seats in this car to FLIP! Needless to say this has been a passenger favorite, and as other cars get taken out of service Keith will continue to work his magic. In addition to all this, the BRW donated an old boom truck and hi-rail truck to us for use on the railroad. Don Chadruc, Al Elliot and Martin Den Bleyker spent many days working on the rails cutting brush, spraying weed killer and keeping the right-of-way clear. If you see a pattern here of names mentioned over and over again it is because these people are out there volunteering their time on a regular basis. There isn’t space here to mention everyone, but to all who have helped, Gary Matthews, the THS Officers and Board wants to say THANK YOU! The amount of work accomplished this year is absolutely amazing, and the pile of projects to be done is still increasing, so if you have any time or talent, please feel free to call us or just drop in to help. The most notable thing in all of this is that the 142 ran every weekend, and did not miss a day of work due to any mechanical failures. The steam team is to be commended on their dedication and hard work to make this happen. Prmotions Greg Ruch, Jr. – Fireman Steve James – Firemen Dave Hutsabaut - Conductor Crotchety Clyde the Conductor posed with our patrons for a professional “Polar Express” picture. 20
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