It was a great experience being one of the on-board entertainers. There were sixteen cars and sixteen acts, so each act was assigned a car to start in. We started working upon departure from Everett, and were supposed to work half the train between Everett and Leavenworth. On the return trip we worked the other half. Some acts, like the OOMPAH bands, had three, four, or even more people. I was just a lone folksinger, although occasionally my girlfriend would join me (see youtube videos linked below). In addition to the musical acts, there were magicians and comedians. Everyone was supposed to move to the next car after twenty minutes. This didn't always work out as planned and sometimes two or three acts would be in the same car. The train was divided in half: Cars A-H and I-P. So if I started in say, E, I would do twenty minutes each in E,F,G,and H, and then go back to A,B,C, and D. As you might imagine, there was a lot of congestion when a quartet with string bass and accordion had to hurry through eight cars and pass all the other entertainers along with conductors, car attendants, and patrons using the narrow aisles of the train. I learned to play my banjo at an angle so that I could lean out of the way of anyone passing through. It was like having sixteen gigs in one day. Some songs got repeated way too much and I got real sick of them. In each car I would read my audience and try to find just the right song for the group. The return trip was always amusing. After a day in Leavenworth, some folks were exhausted and sleeping, so they got lullabyes. Some folks had had too much to drink in town, but they were still drinking and partying hard, so they got sea chanteys and drinking songs. I was usually done around Gold Bar, and had a chance to eat dinner and have a glass of wine myself.
While all the passengers were in Leavenworth for the day, most of the Alki Tours crew and the entertainers stayed on board while the train went to Wenatchee for servicing. It was nice to relax with my scanner and enjoy the scenery and then have lunch in Wenatchee. Several times we were running so late that they told us not to detrain in Wenatchee and they had pizza delivered to the train.
Thanks for the opportunity to reminisce about the Snow Train. Great memories.
Youtube Videos from Snow Train 2010:
[www.youtube.com] (this one is in one of the CZ domes)
[www.youtube.com]