Messages

1

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Train Crash?

« on: March 04, 2023, 04:24:38 PM »

While the cause of the train incident is undisclosed, it has been confirmed that it is at the fault of no SDC employee. I am close with the train crew, and they are so passionate in their job that they wouldn't have let any of this happen. The maintenance foreman also declared it is nobody in the train maintenance crew's fault. It is extremely hard to wreck SDC's train unless you are going extremely fast, and considering the train settled on the inside of the curve, speed was not a factor.
I believe it had to do with a kingpin connecting a truck to the frame of Car no. 3. In an on-ride POV filmed 4 hours prior to the wreck, you can see the car is riding a lot rougher than the others, especially on the curve it derailed.

2

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Train Crash?

« on: December 16, 2022, 06:38:01 PM »

The wreck site is already cleaned up. They silently brought the train back to the roundhouse, and everything looks to be repaired from guest POV. There is also new rail visible on the side of the roundhouse. The new track and investigation results are likely the only thing holding them back now.

I believe the steam train M&C are taking this time to rebuild and renovate everything they can while the train isn't running. Work continues machining new parts for #76 (getting some big work done on the bottom half of the engine). There are also many other projects for these 80+ year-old steam engines.

3

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Frisco Silver Dollar Line 60th Birthday

« on: May 13, 2022, 08:03:44 AM »

If there is a new depot, it must retain a hydraulic bench!!!

4

SDC Memories/ Park History / Re: The Frisco Train Whistle

« on: April 25, 2022, 08:16:11 PM »

Just looking at really old threads on here that contain train phrases, lol.
Silver Dollar City's whistle code is like this:
2 short blasts: release brakes, proceed forward
3 blasts: reverse
1 blast: acknowledgement when shoving backwards, conductor signal, etc
2 long blasts are used on most grade crossings on the FSDL route. The engineers like blowing their whistles in fancy ways, which may sound confusing to untrained ears.

5

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Silver Dollar Line Engine Dimensions

« on: February 15, 2022, 01:36:10 PM »

I'm assuming you want to build lego models? I'm doing a similar project myself.

6

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Silver Dollar Line Engine Dimensions

« on: February 15, 2022, 01:35:38 PM »

76 and 43 are 21 ft, 6 1/2 in from cowcatcher to rear coupler. I'm unsure about 504 and 14. If you want, I have a couple of original builders' drawings that could help with some of your troubles. (trevlyngamer89@gmail.com). The rails are 24 inches apart, and the engines are 600mm gauge (enough to fit). 13 and 14's drive wheels are 25.6 inches in diameter. 43's are 24 inches.

7

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Frisco Silver Dollar Line 60th Birthday

« on: February 08, 2022, 02:52:42 PM »

Their Henschel was quite similar to 43. 43 is able to produce 50 HP.

8

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Re: Frisco Silver Dollar Line 60th Birthday

« on: February 07, 2022, 05:40:13 PM »

Outside of ribbons for us to hand out- which our lead at the time had a major role in getting produced- they didn't have us do much of anything to commemorate the 50th.  It really got kind of overlooked by the park. I would expect the same this year.

if any rides gets special notice it may be Fire in the Hole since it is likely the last year for it

The steam train in general is very overlooked by the park. I know for sure the staff and crew for the steam trains very much care for them, but it is just a little kiddie train to anyone else. (It’s not)

9

General Silver Dollar City Talk / Frisco Silver Dollar Line 60th Birthday

« on: February 06, 2022, 09:12:29 PM »

As some of you may know, the 60th birthday of the steam train is creeping up upon us. The original opening day of the steam train took place on May 27, 1962. According to Springfield News-Leader, over 4000 people were in attendance to the ribbon-cutting including the GM of the 'real' Frisco Lines, and the only surviving son of Casey Jones.
The locomotive operating at the time was the original 76, commonly referred to as the "Davenport" hence where it was built. That engine recently turned 100 in the month of January (it is 2022). That was the only operating engine for about 3 years until no. 43 (built in 1934 by O&K in Germany) joined the line. 43 still runs to this day.
Though the inaugural run of the railroad was in 1962, most the equipment is much older. The oldest operating engine is 43 (circa 1934) and the newest, still pretty old, is 504 (circa 1941, Prague, Czechoslovakia)
There are 2 sets of passenger cars, 1 being built in the 1970s, and the other being constructed last decade.
The locomotives operating at Silver Dollar City are extremely rare industrial tank engines that originally worked for construction firms and quarries in Germany during the 1940s and 50s. They were all purchased and imported by Jim Valesh from Iowa who sold 4 locomotives to Silver Dollar City in the mid-late 60s. The locomotives purchased from Minnesota in 2016 also have ties to Valesh.
The Silver Dollar Line is an extremely historic and recognizable attraction, being a pioneer in theme park railroading. I think this line deserves some kind of a special event to celebrate 60 years of steam. I have sent letters to a few SDC personnel regarding this topic, but I have not received very promising replies.
I know a few of the engineers would like to see a double/triple/quadrupleheader. I personally want an event that is a bit different but doesn't involve the train actually running.
What are everyone's thoughts on this? If we can get enough support, this event might be able to happen.