Railroad Days 2009 is being seen as a success, not on the level of the old days, but it was generally agreed that more people attended this year than last.
Event chairman Merry Padilla estimated that “about 1,000 people showed this year versus 300 the year before.”
The Pie Social sold all their pies, and face painting and a chance to dunk a volunteer by hitting a target with a baseball were popular kid activities.
Kids loved Dizzy Hips, who holds the world record for quickest hula hoop rotations per second. He put on a great show and even hula hooped a tractor tire.
One vendor shared his perspective on sales and the number of people. “There were too few people on Friday.” He said after paying employees to sell T-shirts and after gas expenses he lost money, but the next day he said he made his money back and then some, selling T-shirts at $5 each. He said he'll give the event another try next year, and that it was better organized this year, so he looks forward to watching it grow.
Tim Holt a coordinator for the event, said Friday’s low numbers were to be expected because it was a work day. Holt believes this year's Railroad Days establishes a good foundation to build the event for years to come. He, along with Merry Padilla, would like to see Railroad Days grow to become an event that brings in people from afar. One of the ways to do that Holt suggests is, “to have something other festivals don't have.” He said bringing in historic trains like they used to do for Railroad Days seems like an appropriate feature that would be unique to the festival and appropriate considering its theme.
Padilla responded to that idea with a financial concern: “Feather River Rail Society would charge us $6,800 to have a train come out and where are we going to get that money. There's no way we can afford that.”
The winners of the parade were: National Guard for biggest float, Siskiyou Knights Football for organization. The Christian Motorcycle Association for vehicles, and Mountain Maddness for business float.
There was live entertainment and many activities going on in town at the same time. Local authors, food, model trains and train themed activities for kids. There was also a softball tournament at the Dunsmuir Baseball Park that brought another chunk of visitors to town. A Redding team called The Blazers took first place.
