This is a good point, that the public excursion was not sold out. In the normal world of supply and demand the price would have gone down as the date of the trip got closer in order to sell out all of the product. It's nice that the profit of the trip was a fund raiser for non-profits, but isn't it better for those orgainizations to have a sold-out train at, say, $200 a seat vs. empty seats at the higher price?

As to Smokebox's comments about his PAYING passengers, I personally seriously considered buying a ticket, but quite frankly the price for the product (a total of 4 hours of travel time) did not justify a purchase of $300 in my mind. I am saying this as someone who has been a paying passenger on many trips in the past, along with working many Pacific Limited trips as a car host. I do believe that offering that trip at $200 per coach seat would of produced a sell out however. As rare as a mainline steam trip is, there are still price points which will get the trip operator diminishing returns.