Crowne Plaza Hotel Philadelphia Center City
Philadelphia has always been a hotbed of electric traction, with streetcars (including an extensive trolley subway), elevated and underground rapid transit, suburban MU operation and electrically-propelled intercity trains. And now the metropolitan area even has a diesel light rail line.
This year’s convention will treat participants to much of what Philadelphia has to offer:
The Crowne Plaza Hotel Philadelphia Center City will be our convention headquarters. This full-service hotel offers such amenities as a health and fitness center, spa and an outdoor swimming pool. Single, double and twin accommodations are priced at $129 plus tax per evening and include a free group continental breakfast in our own private breakfast room. Click here to see our full 4-day Itinerary.
1800 Market Street, Philadelphia, Pa. 19103. P: 888-444-0401
Click here to go to Google Maps.
Skjoldenaesholm Tram Museum
The Electric Railroaders’ Association is proud to announce its ninth European tour. Tramways in Scandinavia constitute a diverse assortment of urban, rural and interurban traction, as well as modern high-speed lines. Trolley, light-rail, trolley bus and metro systems will be explored on our tour.
During 14 days of travel we will cover many systems including the following:
Our tour to Scandinavia will cover a large area, thus, in order to optimize our program, we will be staying in several hotel bases in the following cities: Copenhagen, Goteborg, Oslo, Bergen, Trondheim, Stockholm and one night on the rails aboard a comfortable Scanrail train in sleeping compartments. Hotels were carefully chosen to provide a blend of comfort and convenience. Intercity travel will be on comfortable Scanrail trains.
The tour will begin in Copenhagen on Friday, May 16th, with a late afternoon trip to visit Tivoli Gardens, site of our welcome dinner. The last excursion will take place in Stockholm on Wednesday, May 28th.
Air transportation is by individual choice. We have negotiated a group airfare with Icelandair which will cost $850 for roundtrip travel. Flights would leave JFK on the evening of Thursday, May 15 to Copenhagen, and arrive back in JFK on Thursday, May 29 from Stockholm. This option is listed as the air coupon below.
Land arrangements will cost only $2575 with double occupancy ($900 single supplement), and will include:
Full payment must be received by ERA by March 1, 2008.
A $500 deposit must be received by February 2, 2008.
Mail payments to: P.O.Box 3323, New York, NY 10163-3323
Questions: 917-714-7087
Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals
St. Louis, a hotbed of traction until after World War II, was the site of our 2007 Convention. The Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown St. Louis, at 200 North 4th Street, was our convention headquarters. It was only a short walk from the 8th & Pine station of MetroLink, and convention participants could reach it easily from both Lambert Field and the Amtrak station. Activities included an excursion to the Midwest Electric Railway, a MetroLink Light Rail shop tour and ride, and a visit to the Museum of Transport. A Day Ticket, valid for unlimited use on MetroLink from Friday, August 31 through Monday, September 3, was sent to all those participating in our Sunday activities.
Convention goers who stayed for the Memphis/Little Rock add-on were treated to private charters of the Main Street Trolley and Riverfront Loop heritage line in Memphis, Tenn. and the River Rail heritage line in Little Rock, Ark. Our hotel was the Comfort Inn in downtown Memphis.
Steven J. Brown, June 1996
Edmonton and Calgary, the two cities that began the revival of light rail in North America in the late 1970s, were the sites of our 2006 Convention. Our convention headquarters were The Westin Edmonton in downtown Edmonton at 10135 100th Street, and The Sandman Hotel in downtown Calgary at 888 Seventh Avenue. Both are convenient venues in the two traction capitals of Alberta. Our annual movie/slide show was held Saturday in Edmonton and our banquet took place Tuesday in Calgary.
The convention got off to a running start with a special trolleybus fantrip on Saturday. There are two electric traction operations in the City of Edmonton and we visited both on Sunday. In the morning we had a fantrip on the Edmonton Radial Railway Society’s High Level Bridge streetcar operation. In the afternoon we boarded a chartered Light Rail Vehicle and covered the LRT line and visited the system’s carhouse and shop for a tour.
Tuesday was a very busy day, as we rode C-Train, Calgary’s Light Rail system, touring its shop facilities and then continuing on to Heritage Park, where we had the opportunity to ride and photograph the attraction’s streetcar and steam railway lines. We ended the day with our annual banquet.
Heritage Trolley, Galveston
The Electric Railroaders’ 2005 Convention was held in Houston and Dallas on Labor Day weekend. Participants had a chance to ride light rail lines and both diesel and electric streetcars.
Our Houston convention headquarters was the Houston Marriott Medical Center and our Dallas convention headquarters was the Hampton Inn Dallas-West End/Convention Center. Both hotels were conveniently located in the two traction capitals of Texas.
In Houston there was a day trip to ride Galveston’s diesel streetcar line and a Noon trip to Houston’s new MetroRail Light Rail Storage and Maintenance Facility. In Dallas, we took a tour of the DART Red and Blue lines aboard a private LRV and visited the Texas Electric interurban museum in Plano. We also had an opportunity to ride and photograph all available rolling stock of the McKinney Avenue streetcar line. Finally, as a convention bonus for tour members who stayed the extra day, there was time to finish riding DART, travel aboard RDCs of the Trinity Railway Express, and visit Fort Worth.
Sandy Campbell
The Electric Railroaders’ 2004 Convention was held in San Francisco on Labor Day Weekend. This year’s convention headquarters was The Best Western Canterbury Hotel, conveniently located in the central area of the city at 750 Sutter Street.
The convention included three excursions and a banquet. On Saturday we rode the San Jose light rail line and visited the Kelly Park trolley museum. On Sunday we had an all-day Municipal Railway streetcar fantrip and the banquet. And on Monday we visited the Rio Vista Trolley Museum. The cost of all excursions and our Sunday banquet was $153 per person. Individual trip pricing was also available. Plus, as a convention extra, those who were able to stay through Tuesday could visit Sacramento and Siemens for $43.
Frank Miklos
The Electric Railroaders’ 2003 Convention was held in Toronto, Canada. We stayed in the Days Hotel and Conference Centre at 30 Carlton Street, conveniently located along the TTC’s Carlton streetcar line and the Yonge Street Subway. Our 2003 convention included a free movie night and banquet. We rode streetcars, light rail and heavy rapid transit, and something in between, the Scarborough line. Those who stayed over got to cover GO Transit’s busy commuter services as well, or travel on VIA to Ottawa and see Canada’s only diesel light rail line.
Frank Miklos
The Electric Railroaders’ 2002 Convention was held in Portland, Oregon. Much has happened since our last visit to the Rose City. The MAX light rail line has been extended westward to the suburb of Hillsboro and a new branch has been opened to the Airport. In addition, service has begun on a new downtown streetcar line which connects many of the important attractions in the center of the city. Vintage trolley service continues between downtown and the Lloyd Center on weekends and an occasional service is operated with vintage trolleys on the new streetcar line.
We took excursions to other nearby places of traction interest such as Yakima, Washington and Astoria, Oregon. Jack May worked hard on putting the convention package together.
Sandy Campbell
The 2001 Convention, held in Chicago, was one of our most successful to date. We visited the Illinois Railway Museum; the new PCC streetcar operation in Kenosha; the East Troy Railway Museum, and the Fox River Railway Museum. We also had fantrips on the Chicago Rapid Transit system on two different days.
A particular highlight was our excursion on the Douglas Park Line, which was held on a Saturday. Since that line normally operates Monday through Friday only, we had the entire line to ourselves. We were able to have photo stops at nearly every station on the line because we didn't have to worry about interfering with regular service. The crew on our four-car train went so far as to split it up into a pair of two car trains which were then posed on opposite platforms.
The speaker at our banquet was Professor George Smirk who gave an excellent presentation on recent improvements to the Chicago South Shore and South Bend rail service along with some long range plans for that service. We want to thank Jack May for the excellent job he did in putting the convention together.