Re: Steamfreight 99 - Hightlights and not-so-highlights

[Michael <mk@netstra.com.au>]

Krel  scribbled something with a chicken feather on 20/07/1999 in
<3794151d.755964@news.netconnect.com.au>: 

>Kids could not be banned. I, for one, would not be able to attend if I
>couldn't take my girls along. We could not convert RM58 cos our DERM
>is RM61 :-). Everyone would love to see it converted back but lots of
>other things come first. Extending to Castlemaine and doing up the D3
>come to mind.

Big oops on that one, I was thinking of RM58 as was in great railway
adventures a week ago :-) 

>>High levels of inconsiderate cars travelling trackside. Okay, I don't
>>mind so much allowing cars but for gods sake, if you are going to drive
>>trackside BE RESPONSIBLE! 
>
>The road blocks on Saturday seemed to work out okay. Our road block
>attendents copped heaps of abuse whlst trying to stop cars driving on
>our access tracks. All this takes valuable human reasources away from
>other duties. 
>
>> Better still, do what most people, 
>>including me did. WALK, CATCH A TRAIN. Why are there the four stops
>>that most pass. trains stopped at? For people who wanted to be track
>>side. 
>>
>What would you think of the idea of cutting out the stops at "Top of
>Grade" and "Sinclairs Lane" and serving these by a much more frequent
>minibus service? This would speed up running times and allow more
>trains ( and a more realistic timetable).

Sinclairs Lane in my opinion is not really required. You may be able to
service that with the bridge stop moved down the line about 50-100m. Top
of Grade came in handy for me at least twice however, owing to being a
very good photo spot. Aside from this, i did not see many people use
Sinclairs Lane throughout the weekend. 

>>Aside from all that, thank you for bringing us all, gunzels and non
>>-gunzels alike, a great and successful weekend. I hope to be there next
>>year as well, and along with that, hope to see some more faces familiar
>>to this group! 
>>
>Thanks for the constructive feedback. It is only by giving the railfan
>what they want that we can get them to come back next year for
>Steamfreight 2000. We need more ticket-buying attendees to ensure the
>events survival.
>

I know I will most certainly be attending next year, and will recommend
any unenlightened gunzel friends to come along as well. The only thing
that may stop me going next year is what nearly stopped me this year, and
that is not being able to arrange shift swaps for the weekend (I normally
work Saturdays). 

Expect to see my membership application form in the mail in the coming
week :-) 

Regards
Michael