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The Carillon Park Rail & Steam Society (CPR&SS), which operates the 7½”-gauge railroad, is a completely volunteer organization. All those helping you board, running the locomotive, and collecting tickets are donating their time so that you have a wonderful time riding our trains. Further, the CPR&SS receives no funding from the Carillon Historical Park. All funding needed to operate and maintain equipment, or to purchase new equipment, comes from our riders or our club members. Can you help? 100% of the money we receive from donations goes toward our maintenance and operating costs.
Costs involved with running trains include:
- For track, replacing:
- worn or damaged rails
- wood ties
- rusty bolts or other hardware.
- adding ballast under the track
- For locomotives:
- fuel
- oil
- hydraulic fluid
- repair or replace broken parts
- other locomotive maintenance.
- For the riding cars, replace:
- brakes
- wheelsets
- couplers
- other maintenance items.
- Property maintenance
- Paint
- lawn equipment
- lumber
- wall block
- other maintenance items
Replacing our aging locomotives is very costly. Lately, the cost of a new locomotive has reached $30,000 with the options we need. Three of our 4 locomotives are 35 years old or more! We also need to purchase the following items to carry passengers on our trains:
- fare tokens
- reusable boarding passes
- tools
- shade tents
- cabinets
- radios
- rope stanchions
- signs
- displays
- web hosting fees
- other hardware
- insurance.
Again, Carillon Park does not subsidize our operations and we must raise our own funding. This is why it is important to have your help, and you can do this by clicking the button below! Any amount helps! Thank you for your generosity.