Sanders to Present at May ARRC Meeting

Former Akron Railroad Club President Craig Sanders will be back in town this Friday to present the program at the May 26 ARRC meeting.

The digital program is titled, Somewhere West of Here and will consist primarily of images Sanders has made in Indiana since moving there in June 2019.

Among the railroad to be shown are Norfolk Southern, CSX, Indiana Rail Road, Indiana Southern, Louisville & Indiana, Amtrak, the South Shore and Indiana Northeastern.

The program also will have images made on the former Illinois Central mainline in Illinois, which is now operated by Canadian National; and CSX, NS and Indiana & Ohio trains in western and southwestern Ohio.

The latter will include a visit to Hamilton, which is a southwestern Ohio hot spot similar to Berea in Northeast Ohio.

Sanders served as ARRC president from 2005 through 2018.

The meeting will begin at 8 p.m. in the social hall of the New Horizons Christian Church, 290 Darrow Road in Akron.

After the business meeting the program will get underway at approximately 8:30 p.m.

ARRC to Take Magical Mystery Tour

The October meeting of the Akron Railroad Club will take attendees to various short line and regional railroads.

Chris Lantz has titled his program The Magical Mystery Tour — Part 2.

The meeting will begin on Friday, Oct. 28 at 8 p.m. in the social hall of the New Horizons Christian Church, 290 Darrow Road, in Akron.

After the business meeting the program will get underway at approximately 8:30 p.m.

RRE to See Shaker Rapids PCC Cars

The Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts will meet on Friday in Westlake.

The meeting will begin at approximately 8:15 p.m. at the Church of the Redeemer at 23500 Center Ridge Road.

The program will be given by Bram Bailey and show vintage images of Shaker Heights Rapid PCC transit cars.

The club also has announced plans for its annual summer picnic to be held on  Aug. 21 at Colony Park in Hudson.

The picnic area of the park is adjacent to the Cleveland Line of Norfolk Southern and a pedestrian overpass over the tracks is a short walk away.

NS trains in both directions can easily be photographed from that overpass.

Todten to Present at RRE Meeting on Friday

Bob Todten will present the program at the April 15 meeting of the Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts.

He will show a selection of images of locomotives built by Montreal Locomotive Works and Bombardier of Canada.

The meeting begins at approximately 8:15 p.m. on Friday at the Church of the Redeemer, 23500 Center Ridge Road in Westlake.

The club’s next meeting will be May 20. A program for that meeting has yet to be determined.

RRE also announced that by vote of the members at the March meeting the meeting date has been changed to the third Friday of the month.

There will be no meeting in June as the club plans to hold its annual outing to Bellevue.

RRE May Meet Online This Month

The Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts has canceled its January in-person meeting but may hold an online event in its place.

The group’s president, Marty Surdyk, said the meeting was canceled due to lack of a meeting venue and rising numbers of COVID-19 numbers in Northeast Ohio in recent weeks.

The RRE lease of a police union hall in Westlake expired at the end of 2021. The building recently was sold to a new owner.

The group held three virtual meetings in early 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic before resuming in-person meetings.

The Forest City Division normally meets on the second Friday of the month.

Slide Show to Highlight ARRC Meeting

A good old fashioned slide show is in store for the September meeting of the Akron Railroad Club on Friday.

Rick Varga will present Kodachrome slides made during the 1980s and 1990s. The program will include images of the Pittsburgh & Lake Erie, Conrail and CSX.

Varga, who recently retired after a career as an operating employee of Norfolk Southern, plans to emphasize in his program how CSX has changed over the years.

The club will meet on Friday (Sept. 24) at 8 p.m. at the New Horizons Christian Church, 290 Darrow Road, in Akron.

The meeting will begin with a short business meeting followed by the program at approximately 8:30 p.m.

Following the meeting, some members gather at the Denny’s restaurant on Main Street in Cuyahoga Falls for a late dinner, dessert or an early breakfast.

Next month the ARRC plans to hold its annual member’s night. It is set for Oct. 23, which is a Saturday.

Members who plan to show slides or digital images during member’s night or who simply plan to attend and watch the shows will be asked to indicate their interest on a signup sheet at the September meeting.

The ARRC officers said this would give the club an idea of how many pizzas to order for the event.

As in past years, member’s night attendees will pay a $5 cover charge to cover the cost of the pizzas and some carbonated beverages and water.

Attendees of the member’s night event are encouraged to bring non-alcoholic beverages and snacks such as pretzels and chips.

The officers said those planning to show slides or digital images should limit their program to 10 to 12 minutes, showing 35 to 45 images.

There will be no business meeting during the member’s night event. Those who are unable to sign up at the September meeting are asked to contact Vice President Bill Kubas at 330-928-7025 (bkuboose@gmail.com) or acting Secretary Dave Kachinko at 440-537-6487 (dkachinko@aol.com) to indicate they are coming.

Doors will open on member’s night at 5:45 p.m. with pizza being served at 6:30 p.m. Presentations are expected to begin about 7 p.m.

Sanders to Present CONO Program on Zoom to Potomac Chapter NRHS

Former Akron Railroad Club president Craig Sanders will present his program on the famous railroad song City of New Orleans to the Potomac Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society via Zoom on Tuesday night.

The meeting, which begins at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, is open to all and can be accessed via the link below:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85872884361?pwd=QStGV1piS0w0WW9xUCsxOGQ0ckZKdz09

Meeting ID: 858 7288 4361
Passcode: 953143

Sanders will discuss how songwriter Steve Goodman came to write about the train with the disappearing railroad blues and how he went about trying to get a known performer to record it.

Although several artists have recorded City of New Orleans over the years the best known rendition was sang by Arlo Guthrie.

The Guthrie version reached the top 20 in summer 1972. A version sung by Willie Nelson became a No. 1 country hit in 1984 and earned Goodman a posthumous Grammy award a year later.

RRE to Meet Trackside in Berea on April 10

The Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts plans to resume in-person meetings this month.

The club has announced it will meet on April 10 in the west end of the parking lot for the Berea Union Depot Restaurant.

The outdoor meeting will begin at 2:30 p.m. Among the topics to be discussed during the meeting are the future of the club’s newsletter and future activities for this year.

Publication of the newsletter was suspended last year and the printing shop where it had been printed has since closed.

The club has been offered the opportunity to attend the picnic scheduled for July in Cuyahoga Falls at Waterworks Park to be held by the Akron Railroad Club.

The RRE expects to resume meeting next month at its regular meeting site at the Fraternal Order of Police hall in Westlake.

ARRC Eyes Resuming Meetings in June

The Akron Railroad Club expects to resume meeting in June and will hold its first outing of 2021 over Memorial Day weekend.

The New Horizons Christian Church, where the club has met since January 2007, has resumed holding in-person services but is still working out its policies and procedures for groups to hold meetings using its facilities.

The ARRC last met in February 2020. Meetings have been suspended since then due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Club officers recently met to set the slate of activities for the year.

The first of those will be the annual Dave McKay Day in Berea on May 29.

Historically, McKay Day was held on the first Saturday in April until 2019 when it moved to the first Saturday in May.

Other events this year will include the longest day outing on June 27 in Fostoria at the Iron Triangle railfan park.

The summer picnic has been set for July 18 at Waterworks Park in Cuyahoga Falls and will be a joint event with the Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts.

The ARRC plans to wrap up its year with the end of year dinner in December at the New Era restaurant in Akron.

The end of year dinner and summer picnic were canceled last year due to the pandemic.

In an unrelated development, the RRE is eyeing May as its first in-person meeting since the pandemic began a year ago.

The RRE last met in March 2020 but has held virtual meetings online in January, February and March.

The group is considering having its April meeting in Berea as part of a day of railfanning there.

RRE to Meet Online This Friday

The Cleveland-based Forest City Division of the Railroad Enthusiasts will hold an online meeting on Friday, March 12.

The program will be presented by Dave Beach.

The meeting is being held on the Cisco WebEx platform through Lakeland College.

The meeting will go online between 7:15 p.m. and 7:20 p.m. and begin at 7:30 p.m.

It is the third virtual meeting the RRE has held this year. The group last met in person in March 2020.