Lake Central Rail tours is calling it quits.

Bluewaterfan · Unread post by **Bluewaterfan** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 5:25 pm

A Message to Our Passengers

Due to rising insurance and fuel costs, we are cancelling further operations at this time. We would like to thank everyone who helped make Lake Central Rail Tours a success for the past ten years. Without our great network of friends and family, none of these great events that produced priceless memories, would have been possible. Special thanks must be given to the Tuscola & Saginaw Bay Railway and the Great Lakes Central Railroad; without their support, none of this would have been possible. We will continue to occasionally operate our Northern Arrow Excursions to Petoskey, MI in cooperation with The Cincinnati Railway Company. For more information on these events, please stay tuned to this website.

Thanks!

The Kammer Family

http://lcrt.homestead.com/homepage.html

mikerm19 · Unread post by **mikerm19** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:13 pm

SD80MAC · Unread post by **SD80MAC** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:36 pm

Agreed Mike. Had a great time on the fall color train last fall, shame they won't be running it again.

Unread post by **AARR** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 7:28 pm

Due to cost I was not able to make any of the trips but I always appreciated the many people / volunteers who made them successful.

RailCanon · Unread post by **RailCanon** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:16 pm

Thank you, Lake Central, for all of the trips you have sponsored. I rode a good number of them over the years and I always had a great time.

TrainNut85 · Unread post by **TrainNut85** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:52 pm

(taps being played)

Kudos to Ray and his family for doing such a nice job. Even tho I got to ride one of their trains once, they sure know how to keep a selection of good coachs(especially the ex-Milwaukee Road ones). Its a shame of what our government has done to cause this outrage of the fuel costs. Curses to Bush!

JCinSummerfield · Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:24 am

Why Bush and not congress? The American people voted for change in 2006 and put democrats in congress, where the legislative power is. How do they get off scott-free?

Unread post by **AARR** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 8:32 am

Finally, someone who realizes that when it comes to domestic issues the President does not act alone! Congress is also responsible and maybe even more so.

leo28150 · Unread post by **leo28150** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:33 am

Me thinks that the fuel costs COULD be tolerable if it wasn't for the leeches who need a multi-gabazillion dollar lawsuit to pay for something that more than likely is thru the fault of THEIR actions and not the rr's.

While we are playing the blame game, how's 'bout blaming the oil companies for their GREED: of course, when the oil runs out, there won't be any oil companies and I suppose they should make their retirement money now when they can....

Garry K · Unread post by **Garry K** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 10:27 am

Fuel costs haven't gone up that drastically. Read the first line again where it mentions *insurance*!

I used to volunteer as a carhost with the Bluewater Chapter NRHS in the 1980s, and they had to give up a lot of fan trips because insurance got way overpriced. I would bet that it was the insurance that did in Lake Central Rail Tours.

I went on a few of Lake Central's trips, and they were fun. They'll be missed, especially as they were good ways to introduce some folks to railroading.

And I always like when folks try to blame things on the "president" whoever that may be! Several years ago, Wilderness Outfitters, a camping-goods store in downtown Ann Arbor went out of business. The owner blamed her business' failure on President Bush. I wrote a letter to the Ann Arbor News saying, yep, I can see that Bush caused to store to fail because he didn't shop there. However, at the same time that Wilderness Outfitters went out of business, a number of other similar stores did NOT go out of business, and President Bush didn't (presumably) shop at those other stores either. Could it be that the Wilderness Outfitters owner just didn't manage the business properly? Hmmmm..... but that would then presume that the owner would have to believe in personal responsibility, which obviously she didn't. There are lots of folks like that around who always have to scapegoat someone else for their own failings.

-- Garry K

hobojim · Unread post by **hobojim** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:22 pm

Although I don't like to see threads deteriorate into political bs, I think it can be said that politicians are a selfish and self perpetuating lot and it doesn't really matter what party they are from.
The older I get the more cynical I become, I guess it might be due to the fact that I have voted for the winner in every presidental election since 76, the winner of every Michigan senate race since 78 and the winner of every governor race since 82. Now look at the mess we are in. It is all my fault.
MY problem is that I don't see us being any better off if I had voted for all the losers.
There, now I have confessed my guilt to all, I feel wonderful to get that off my chest.
Now lets keep this board on RR talk, please?

Raildudes dad · Tue Mar 11, 2008 4:11 pm

Fuel costs haven't gone up that drastically.

Just from about $1.50 / gal to just under $4.00 the past 3 years. Figure how much more to fill a 3000 gallon tank. Burn 600 gallons on a trip, takes lot of $50 tickets just to pay for the fuel.

i995impalass · Unread post by **i995impalass** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 4:20 pm

So are we not going to see 1225 anymore?

hobojim · Unread post by **hobojim** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 4:29 pm

i995impalass wrote:So are we not going to see 1225 anymore?

I think we are pretty safe for now, they don't burn diesel.

Garry K · Unread post by **Garry K** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 4:41 pm

But I thought that BIODIESEL was going to be the savior of us all! (Or was that ETHANOL!?!?) :-)

I've been reading a bunch of old Trains magazines I recently acquired. One of the magazines was from 1970, and there was an article mentioning diesel fuel was 10 cents a gallon. Wow. When I started driving in the early 1970s, gasoline was about 33 cents a gallon. Then suddenly in 1974 it doubled in price, and there were shortages where some stations didn't have gas at times.

But speaking of insurance, Bluewater had carried a $1 million or $2 million insurance policy for their fan trips. Then overnight the RRs that would haul their trips wanted Bluewater to have a $5 to $10 million dollar policy. That priced most of the trips out of the market, because Bluewater would have had to raise ticket prices so high just to pay the insurance that nobody would have bought tickets for that high of a price.

I would think with diesel fuel prices today that Lake Central could still price their tickets slightly higher to pay the increased cost of fuel, so I'm still betting it was high insurance costs that did them in. Perhaps if we're lucky someone from that organization can come on here and give us the facts?

-- Garry K

Norm · Unread post by **Norm** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:10 pm

Hobo,

You're right. No matter who we vote for they are covering their own butt first. It's sickening. No politicians are to be trusted.

JCinSummerfield · Tue Mar 11, 2008 6:51 pm

Love the photo in your avatar, GaRRy K.

RailCanon · Unread post by **RailCanon** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:09 pm

All of 1225's more recent trips have been sponsored by either Bluewater or SRI themselves. LCRT hasn't run an excursion with 1225 since 2005, I believe.

GLC 392 · Unread post by **GLC 392** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 9:15 pm

thanks ray for all the great years especially last years. the GLC BOOOZZZZZZZZZZEEEEEE cruise was the best ever and will be remember for a long time.

jukeman · Unread post by **jukeman** » Wed Mar 12, 2008 8:57 am

the GLC BOOOZZZZZZZZZZEEEEEE cruise was the best ever and will be remember for a long time.

Even though you drank pop, right?

RailRoadFan.com

B1G - The Big Train

Lake Central Rail tours is calling it quits.

Lake Central Rail tours is calling it quits.