Cedar point and lake erie railroad

I seem to remember as a young kid in the 80's, maybe even the 90's, unused cars sitting on sidings along the mainline. Specifically, I remember coaches that were enclosed, and gondolas that appeared to have ties and rails in them. Obviously the RR track has changed it's route over the years, I specifically remember around Frontier Town, back when it was still kind of Frontier-y, a siding that seemed half over grown and unused coaches sitting there.

Can anyone shed any light on what became of these cars? When were they last in service?

As a kid, I always wanted to ride in one of the enclosed cars, it seemed more passenger train like to me I guess.

operative_me said:
I seem to remember as a young kid in the 80's, maybe even the 90's, unused cars sitting on sidings along the mainline. Specifically, I remember coaches that were enclosed, and gondolas that appeared to have ties and rails in them. Obviously the RR track has changed it's route over the years, I specifically remember around Frontier Town, back when it was still kind of Frontier-y, a siding that seemed half over grown and unused coaches sitting there.

Can anyone shed any light on what became of these cars? When were they last in service?

As a kid, I always wanted to ride in one of the enclosed cars, it seemed more passenger train like to me I guess.

I believe that the enclosed coaches are in service at mid west central Mt. Pleasant.

The enclosed coaches as well as several cars of the baby train are in operation in Hesston Indiana. The enclosed cars were low capacity and difficult to load and unload when you were running three trains with one station. This the same reason the cabooses were taken out of service. A lot of the spare cars, trucks, and parts we had were sold off to make room for new rides. We used to have several flat cars from the Rio Grande. The siding in frontier was used for storage and the loading and unloading of equipment from lowboys. All this info is available on www.cplerr.com

cple_engineer said:
The enclosed coaches as well as several cars of the baby train are in operation in Hesston Indiana. The enclosed cars were low capacity and difficult to load and unload when you were running three trains with one station. This the same reason the cabooses were taken out of service. A lot of the spare cars, trucks, and parts we had were sold off to make room for new rides. We used to have several flat cars from the Rio Grande. The siding in frontier was used for storage and the loading and unloading of equipment from lowboys. All this info is available on www.cplerr.com

I've seen their website and I look up information that I want to know about and find just what I'm looking for. Isn't the caboose at frontier town one of the ones they used in 1963?

Yes it used to be the yellow one They both were purchased from the NKP but it is most likely from the Wheeling and Lake Erie.

cple_engineer said:
This the same reason the cabooses were taken out of service.

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Speaking of cabooses, I recall being told (when Maverick was being built) that the caboose set up back there was originally used when the trains were transporting people to and from the park. Is that accurate? If so, where were the stations set up when that was the case?

operative_me said:
I seem to remember as a young kid in the 80's, maybe even the 90's, unused cars sitting on sidings along the mainline. Specifically, I remember coaches that were enclosed, and gondolas that appeared to have ties and rails in them. Obviously the RR track has changed it's route over the years, I specifically remember around Frontier Town, back when it was still kind of Frontier-y, a siding that seemed half over grown and unused coaches sitting there.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/8-x-10-Photo-Cedar-Point-Amusement-Park-199...2ec7ae548c
^These were the ones back in FT. There was even another set of cars on the double track next to where Millenium Force's station is now. I remember those back in the 70's-80's.

There was never a railroad to the park from the mainland. There was a small railroad at one time to deliver supplies and luggage to Breaks but that was way before any of our times! The baby train as we called it was constructed using the old parking lot trams, maybe that's where the confusion is. The double track where MF's stations is now was part of the original inbound main before the station was moved to its current location. In my memory, the red train sat on the main, the green train sat on the passing siding, the baby train was on the siding by the shop where we park green now, tenders and Albert sat on the short siding, and the cabooses, D&RGW flats, the enclosed cars and some trucks sat on what was left of the old main which was connected to the passing siding as the old cross-over switch was used to cut in the passing siding.

cple_engineer said:
There was never a railroad to the park from the mainland. There was a small railroad at one time to deliver supplies and luggage to Breaks but that was way before any of our times! The baby train as we called it was constructed using the old parking lot trams, maybe that's where the confusion is. The double track where MF's stations is now was part of the original inbound main before the station was moved to its current location. In my memory, the red train sat on the main, the green train sat on the passing siding, the baby train was on the siding by the shop where we park green now, tenders and Albert sat on the short siding, and the cabooses, D&RGW flats, the enclosed cars and some trucks sat on what was left of the old main which was connected to the passing siding as the old cross-over switch was used to cut in the passing siding.

I heard a roumer that at one time you could connect the engine house from both ways of the mainline,front and back. You should have engine house tours I would totally go on that.

The Engine House was open for the 50th Anniversary June 22nd and 23rd. To be honest, there isn't much to see inside. Mostly storage of spare parts, pits to work on the engines, and some machines to build parts. With 22 and Judy out in the yard, the Boekling (with George's tender) and George is stored inside of the Engine House. There is an office area with lockers for the Engine House staff.

Bill Abele said:
The Engine House was open for the 50th Anniversary June 22nd and 23rd. To be honest, there isn't much to see inside. Mostly storage of spare parts, pits to work on the engines, and some machines to build parts. With 22 and Judy out in the yard, the Boekling (with George's tender) and George is stored inside of the Engine House. There is an office area with lockers for the Engine House staff.

Yeah I knew that but didn't make it to the celebration, but I did get a 50th anniversary brochure(I emailed cedar points office)

The shop was never connected on both ends as far as we can tell from old pics. The curve to make it into the shop would have been to sharp regardless of which side of the shop of the tracks were on. The tracks do however run all the way through. With the cross-over between the mains it was possible to reverse the direction of travel as we have pics of Maud and Jennie running tender first though the train was still traveling clockwise around the railroad.

Ah now it makes sense.

Sorry to bring back an old topic but remember a few years ago they added music to the trains? What ever happened to that?

They thankfully removed the music after only one or two seasons.

Every time I go to CEDAR POINT why do they only have 1 Train running?

I don't think they have enough engineers to run two trains this year.

Not True. Saterday after Lumanasity I went to the Train to ride it to the back. I asked if it was one or two trains. He said that they had just transferred the second off.

Maybe they just hired some new engineers because I have yet to see 2 trains run this year. It's nice that there are 2 trains again.

Alex is somewhat correct. We do not have enough full time engineers and firemen. We have only ran two trains three times this year. This was only made possible due to all the part time engineers being able to work on those days. We cannot just hire people to be engineers. Remember this is a coal fired steam locomotive and some intensive training is involved. You must first learn the duties of a fireman and be proficient in that job before you can even began to train as an engineer. We also have to be able to have a third person on the engine to train you in either job. This year we only had two full-time seasonal crew members return. One engineer and one fireman. The other returning engineers including myself are part time. We have spent the last two months training the new hires to firemen and then engineers. Now we are running into problems with people already returning to college.