As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Anybody here chase trains? I'm thinking about going to California between semesters this August and was wondering if you could successfully do Tehachapi and Raton Pass in a week. This is kind of my dream. Actually, my dream was to catch some of the big steam on one of them, but ... I do have a short movie of 610 pulling the Bicenential through College Station and 4449 going up the coast. But that's from the mid-late 70's. Thanks
My husband chases trains!! Funny to meet someone else on here who does as well. I forwarded your question onto him and he sen me back an answer:
To do it properly...No. Raton Pass on the Colorado and New Mexico boarder is currently held by BNSF railway who took the line over from ATSF (Santa Fe) after merger. The line used to be the tallest pass on the railroad and was very busy under its old owner prior the BNSF merger. After the merger, other cheaper and lower elevation lines became available for the bulk of the rail traffic. The line now only sees a scheduled Amtrak train (Eastbound and Southbound) the Southwest Chief (Train number 3 and 4) routinely and otherwise the line is very quiet with only occasional detours and oddball coal trains.
Currently, BNSF stopped replacing the 1931 USS&S upper quadrant semiphore signals and this route is one of the few Class One major railroad lines with working old school signals. BNSF is now working on potentially selling the route and the State of New Mexico has reportedly bought some of it for local passenger service in and around Albuquerque. The general feeling is that if you haven't gotten pictures of the railroute yet and the old school signals...Get on it!
I suspect that this person means Cajon pass and not Raton pass. Cajon pass is one of the main line routes out of both Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) and Union Pacific (UP) railway and follows around Highway 15 east of San Bernardino up to Hesparia, CA. This is a rediculously busy rail route that connect to both of these railway transcontinental railroad routes. And its not unusual to see a collective 200 trains a day or more on these routes. Warning...Its snaky, security is rampant and likes to screw with people with cameras, and efforts have been made to gate and block access in the area. Tresspassers are quickly called in by passing trains and security, boarder patrol, and local fuzz patrol the area. Currently, significant expansion and curb improvements are on going and it is photogenic this time of year.
Tehachapi is also a great for a photo shoot as trains coming from the southern valleys north of LA challenge the hills and make their way into the desert. Most notable is the Walong loop and tunnel system. Highway 58 and all places along the Kern County route outside of Bakersfield kick serious butt especially if its not smoggy or filled with smoke from the annual forest fire assaults. UP and BNSF use this route and frequently, trains fall down (schedule) breakdown on the route which provide for great photops. Beware of tresspassing signs with police and Forest Service response (like no driving areas) and be aware of snakes friggin everywhere! This route is not as busy as Cajon, but enough to fill lots of memory cards.
So the answer to the question is....Can you do both passes in a week? Sure, but that's really pushing it. Pick one and hit the approaches to the transcon in the desert as well as the pass. You must do Cajon! And if you're good with radios and a computer, you can give your sound card a raw digital feed and then decode Automated Track Control Signal (ATCS) computer/radio code. Its a lot easier to shoot trains when you know where they all are on your laptop!
Yeah, I think I'll try Cajon again. By again I mean "we were there in 1978". We were going to do the loop, but something strange happened. It rained. For three days. In July. We were told that people were sacrificing sheep in thanksgiving and that there were some kids who hid, not knowing what was falling from the sky. BTW, there's a grass roots effort to resteam the Big Boy at the Dallas Fairgrounds. Current estimate is around $3M. UP will provide facilities, but that's it. Apparently someone has all of the drawings from Lima, which would help. Thanks so much.
Dillon,
Seeing your post reminded me that in some states there are very few railroads, many kids may not even know how to behave around grade crossings! So many locomotives and stock need to be preserved! We toured a very nice museum in Roanoke, VA when we were there a year or two ago. Some very interesting stuff!
Oh, by the way, the pres is putting pressure on Amtrak again, so who knows what's next with railroads!
I was an accident inspector for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT, much hated at present) in the late 70s while in college. Yes, lots of people don't know how to behave at grade crossings. And I sadly got to see some of them. There's a nice little museum in Galveston, across the street from one of the off-site parking areas.
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