On April 3, 2009, Northeast Indiana Passenger Rail Association (NIPRA) held a rally at the Baker Street Rail Station to give people an opportunity to show support for passenger trains in Fort Wayne and to tell them of the importance of communicating their desires to the governor and the legislators.

 

I make a point of arriving at this type of event fifteen or twenty minutes early in order to get a good seat. Friday as I approached the station I saw people streaming in from the parking lots across the street. All the seats were filled and the standing room was being filled rapidly, and people were lined up at the doors to gain entrance. By NIPRA's estimate, more than 800 people turned out. It was a diverse and enthusiastic crowd and made a strong impression on speakers Rick Harnish of Midwest High Speed Rail Association, and Derrick James, Amtrak's Senior Officer for Government Affairs, as well as the mayor, city council members, and state representative Win Moses. I doubt if there have been many other occasions during the station's 90-plus years that it has seen that many people at one time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rick Harnish addresses the crowd:

 

I stayed around afterward as the crowd thinned out.

 

 

A small group stayed to watch videos presented by Rick Harnish showing High-Speed rail in Spain, and by Derrick James showing Amtrak trains in various places including Acela trains on the Northeast Corridor;

 

Fort Wayne's Baker Street Station was designed for the Pennsylvania Railroad by William Price, of Price McLanahan Architects, and built in 1914. It saw its last passenger train in 1990 when Amtrak rerouted its trains to the former New York Central line through Waterloo and the former Baltimore and Ohio line through Garrett. It stood vacant and vandalized for several years before being bought and extensively and impeccably restored by MartinRiley Architects.

 

The station now houses MartinRiley's offices as well as those of other businesses. The main concourse can be leased for for private events, with catering available.

Great pix of a great rally.  Let's hope the momentum carries through.

Robert, please keep these pictures available for a while. I'm going to make others aware of them. Don't be surprised if you get reprint requests!!

KJP, I don't anticipate any more site restructuring for a while, so the photos will remain available in the foreseeable future. I have the jpg and NEF (camera raw) files on hard drive, too.

 

That was exciting to see. In the past, rail advocacy events have attracted mostly "railfans" (in the pejorative sense) in their hickory-stripe bib overalls and engineer caps, who are there to play can-you-top-this with other railfans with their tales of fantastic locomotive sightings and rail adventures, along with old ladies who just want to talk at great length about when daddy was an engineer on the Nickel Plate.

 

This group was diverse in age, with some minorities present, and for the most part the people were there to find out what was happening to bring back rail passenger service in Fort Wayne, and what they could do to help make it happen. The mayor and supportive city council members were there, and Rick Harnish and Derrick James are strong presenters.

 

NIPRA has a stronger professionalism component than some previous grass-roots pro-rail movements in Indiana. Tom Hayhurst is a physician with a lot of respect in the community and a history of activism in areas related to public good. He ran unsuccessfully for the senate seat held by Mark Souder. He ran a good campaign, but in the absence of an informed electorate, ideology triumphed over the common good.

i was just thinking the same thing about that turnout. great to see such a crowd.

Fantastic.

Very encouraging to see.

Beautiful station, so well maintained.

That was exciting to see. In the past, rail advocacy events have attracted mostly "railfans" (in the pejorative sense) in their hickory-stripe bib overalls and engineer caps, who are there to play can-you-top-this with other railfans with their tales of fantastic locomotive sightings and rail adventures, along with old ladies who just want to talk at great length about when daddy was an engineer on the Nickel Plate.

 

LOL, the only way you could have made that funnier would have been to include a bit about foamers. I work at a hobby store, so I get these kind of folks all the time.

That was exciting to see. In the past, rail advocacy events have attracted mostly "railfans" (in the pejorative sense) in their hickory-stripe bib overalls and engineer caps, who are there to play can-you-top-this with other railfans with their tales of fantastic locomotive sightings and rail adventures, along with old ladies who just want to talk at great length about when daddy was an engineer on the Nickel Plate.

 

LOL, the only way you could have made that funnier would have been to include a bit about foamers. I work at a hobby store, so I get these kind of folks all the time.

 

:laugh: In my lexicon, "railfan" and "foamer" are interchangeable. I just thought some folks might not be familiar with "foamer."

 

That's why I prefer to say "passenger rail advocate" or something similar when I'm talking about someone who's somewhat knowledgeable and seriously interested in advancing rail-related causes. I think that a couple of years ago or more, we had a go-around on the forums when someone referred to KJP or me as a "railfan." It took a little while to make sure everyone understood just what the connotation was, but after the dust settled, we were all friends again.  :wink:

 

When I've gone to Waterloo on occasional balmy summer nights to photograph Amtrak's arrival (whenever that might be), there has almost always been at least one foamer on the premises. I've gotten to where I can sometimes sense their presence even before I see them, and take evasive action. If it comes to avoiding a foamer or giving up a special shot, though, I can put on a stony face  :x without even looking at them that makes them stop in mid-stride, reconsider, and then try to look like they weren't really about to try to talk to me.

 

I empathize with you in a hobby store setting; there's really not much you can do abut them without alienating potential customers. On the other hand, you're surrounded with all that cool stuff!

I never let foamers know anything about me if I can help it. If I'm speaking at a meeting and one comes up to me, there's not much I can do about it. But if I'm grabbing a carrying out lunch and heading over to Berea or some other rail hotspot, then a foamer comes up to my car, I try to be polite but never reveal anything. Once they ID me or I mistakenly engage in conversation, it's like getting a barnacle. And peeling them off is never pretty.

There's a senior citizen in Fort Wayne who's developmentally disabled and delusional but otherwise functional and happens to be nuts about trains (not me, honest! :-D) -- an exaggerated version of your typical foamer.

 

He shows up at every rail-related event and latches onto anyone who makes eye contact with him, and during the question-and-answer period he makes public announcements of upcoming events that sometimes are fantastically-enhanced but based on real events, and sometimes are purely figments of his overwrought imagination.

 

One of our local organizers and promoters, a major contributor to rail history knowledge and public relations, is a well-intentioned, kind person who befriended the above-described fellow. For years, now, he's gotten late-night phone calls with off-the-wall questions and suggestions on how to bring back passenger service, and "announcements" of the products of a foamer's fevered mind.

I haven't gotten any actual foamers at the hobby store just yet, more of the conductor hats and elderly folks talking about the train set that they got in 1937.

What's the connection between trains and this sort of OCD?

Tunnel vision? Ba-dum-bump

What's the connection between trains and this sort of OCD?

 

It's true in the roadgeek community as well. There's quite a bit of people with Autism and Asberger's Syndrome that are into the roads. With the rails, I think it's the "on time" and timechart aspect, while with the roads it's more about the rules, regulations and standards involved with the roadway system.