Railroad cars

[Dann]

I took the train to hs. Not a big deal in this post. But I know a lot of people are interested in trains, old ones really. I imagine this state has quite the history with trains but I don't know much personally. I remember as a kid finding trains is several areas in the woods ppl just hang on to. I remember somewhere in the woods of a guys yard in Weston there being a train. I remember just off the platform over the bridge in Westport there being a train. Among others. Old ones are for sure around and can be found.

What stops us from acquiring a old train with some type of historical value to the state and painting it up blue with logos and putting it in the parking lot. Fix up the inside enough for function and sell merchandise out of it. Make a little parking lot show out of it? I think it would be a cool little niche to a overall growing product we need to produce. As usual I can go on for days with this type of ideas and stuff so I will see what u guys say. I assume the typical response to this will be money....

 

[junglehusky]

My nephew (he's 4) would love that.

Here's my idea - get an old WWII Corsair plane and park it on the runway. No need to change the paint colors cause they were already painted dark blue. Just add on a UCONN decal. Tie it into the history of Pratt and Whitney. Bonus points if it had an engine that was actually manufactured in East Hartford.

 

[Dann]

My nephew (he's 4) would love that.

Here's my idea - get an old WWII Corsair plane and park it on the runway. No need to change the paint colors cause they were already painted dark blue. Just add on a UCONN decal. Tie it into the history of Pratt and Whitney. Bonus points if it had an engine that was actually manufactured in East Hartford.

Even better! I actually want both now haha.

I always thought old rail cars are some what cool and I now the older crowd and the younger crowd would both be entertained by it. The other thing I was thinking was a couple cars and put some type of shake shack simple food place in them and let the tailgaters go wild with it. Being able to blow a big train whistle should be a great thing. It can only happen ones a game day and its like a fan privilege to be chosen. You have to send pictures of yourself tailgating being a uconn fan and if Jonathan or students or w/e picks you then you get to blow the whistle ring the bell type deal. It should happen at a certain time ore game that all fans know its coming and make it a bit of a event as part of the overall days event.

I realize this is all left field and more like parking garage beyond left field but what else is there to talk about lol? The on field product stinks and the school decided it would be better to hush the media so less negative backlash was in public while they try to sell tickets. They left us with a long dry summer because they thought it was better this way for uconn football(another crapy decision). So I'm left to talk about random things. This board is just dry.

 

[huskymedic]

I fear posting this because I don't need to invoke another rant about "big boy football and how UConn sucks" but have you never heard about the Cockaboose??



http://www.thestate.com/2006/08/26/429349/archive-nothing-like-a-cockaboose.html

 

[dsturdy5]

My father in law restores old trolley's, trains, and subway cars for the museum in Branford. They actually named a work shed after him. There is a ton of interest in these machines based upon the way work can pile up for them.

Not the worst idea you've ever had. Maybe it attracts a few extra people to the stadium before kickoff.

 

[Dann]

I fear posting this because I don't need to invoke another rant about "big boy football and how UConn sucks" but have you never heard about the Cockaboose??



http://www.thestate.com/2006/08/26/429349/archive-nothing-like-a-cockaboose.html

Yea. I think it's cool. But I'm not into that type of idea with building those inside back up and selling them and whatever else into that project happened. I'm looking for attractions and ways to pull fans and casuals into the game day experience in order to build product. Those are private party's basically. But the paint job is what I was talking about and it just confirms that old trains capture eyes...

 

[Carl Spackler]

See these are the kinds of things that can help fill the time and be useful. I know that there development plans for the rentschler field property. Some kind of monument park outside the stadium that you need to walk through to get in from the runway, with UCONN husky themes all over is a freaking great idea.

WIth all the industrial history of CT, we should be able to get all kinds of cool in there. New Haven line rail cars. A full Sikorsky blackhawk mounted up in the air on a 30 foot post with our husky painted on the nose would be my pick. god damn, find an old civil war winchester, or strong, or ames cannon - never mind ames - some massachusetts people would claim it, get the thing in working order, and fire some blanks out of a cannon manufactured in CT, 45 minutes prior to game time. Get a big old prop screw from Trident Sub and turn it into a gate, or use a piece of a hull of submarine as a tunnel to walk through. That would get people's attention.

 

[Durks07]

This is a pretty cool idea, and I would love it. Plan B in Simsbury is a restaurant/bar in a converted caboose sitting on old train tracks. Its a nice little venue, and having something similar at Rentscheler Field would be a place I would stop by before games.

 

[Carl Spackler]

One of the things I enjoyed about Maryland, besides, obviously winning, was that when you went in to their stadium, they had a little walkway, with stuff on the way in. I remember thinking it would be great to develop something like that outside of rentschler.

I think this is probably one of Dan's better ideas.

Building on it, I would take the entire paved lot on the south side (it's pretty small) (south i think?) of the stadium facing the runway, and turn that into a monument park, that everybody that walks in from that side of stadium (which includes all the visiting team fans) has to funnel through to get to the two gates of the stadium, into a walkway, monument park, with all the biggest, baddest, and ballsiest, and nastiest military history hardware monuments to the history of manufacturing in CT, and interspersed with food vendors, beer vendors - ( higher end quality food and beer - not coors light buckets and stadiumconcession food) and sitting areas. Put some landscaping, greenery, bushes, trees along the way. make sure that there is a walkway from the other side of the stadium to get there to, or hell, make it go all the way around - there's enough large, and military and commercial manufacturing history in this state to put a park around the stadium.

You put something like that around the stadium, and now you've got a sporting venue, that rivals any in the country. Once you get inside the monument park, your in for good. No going back to the lots and back in. But there's reason to be within a 5 minute walk of your seats well before kickoff.

 

[SubbaBub]

My nephew (he's 4) would love that.

Here's my idea - get an old WWII Corsair plane and park it on the runway. No need to change the paint colors cause they were already painted dark blue. Just add on a UCONN decal. Tie it into the history of Pratt and Whitney. Bonus points if it had an engine that was actually manufactured in East Hartford.

Yes, pre-game barrel rolls!

Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Carl Spackler]

I can hear it now: "where will you be before kickoff?" "meet me at the helicopter" "We'll be at the rail car." Etc.

And you definitely need a statue of Jonathan in front of at least one of the gates as people walk in. I'm not so keen on the need of a statue in the locker room, wink wink, but a statue outside at least one of the gates at the football stadium, is way long overdue.

Good one husky dan. I think this is an idea that has legs. I would call it as industrial history of Connecticut park outside the stadium. Funnel people through it to get in to the stadium. Put higher end food and drink, and sitting areas for people. Get in touch with every major industrial manufacturer in CT to donate their large pieces of scrap metal ( i would love to see a Sikorsky helicopter mounted outside the stadium with the Husky logo on it, and a section of Electric Boat submarine tunnel and a giant prop screw outside the stadium decked out with the new, leaner and meaner Jonathan. The railcars are a frigging great idea - blue and white, with jonathan on the side.

Hell - students can find some piece of something to start painting regularly before games like the rock on campus so it's different every game. This idea has legs.

Maybe ideas like this is what happens when you don't start drinking too early in the day? LOL!

 

[UCFBfan]

I love the idea too. Another thing I'd love is for there to be some trophy, history, avhievement hall at the stadium. I know they have one up at Storrs but why keep the football stuff up there? At PSU, they have their sports museum attached to Beaver Stadium. I know it's a little different because the stadium is on campus but why can't the museum be football oriented and open all year. Maybe a separate building that can be accessed and located closer to Cabelas lot?

I also would love to see them bring that wall that's in Burton with the NFL helmets and current and past players listed put in that museum. I know we're a young program at the FBS level but it would br great to have. There's gotta be stuff from our pre-fbs level years.

This is a fun thread

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[Marty Jackson]

I took the train to hs. Not a big deal in this post. But I know a lot of people are interested in trains, old ones really. I imagine this state has quite the history with trains but I don't know much personally. I remember as a kid finding trains is several areas in the woods ppl just hang on to. I remember somewhere in the woods of a guys yard in Weston there being a train. I remember just off the platform over the bridge in Westport there being a train. Among others. Old ones are for sure around and can be found.

What stops us from acquiring a old train with some type of historical value to the state and painting it up blue with logos and putting it in the parking lot. Fix up the inside enough for function and sell merchandise out of it. Make a little parking lot show out of it? I think it would be a cool little niche to a overall growing product we need to produce. As usual I can go on for days with this type of ideas and stuff so I will see what u guys say. I assume the typical response to this will be money....

here's a game day idea... Instead of the actual train, how about the band make like a train through the parking lot into the stadium (ie a parade). Tailgaters could use that as the clue to fall in behind and follow the band into the stadium.

 

[Carl Spackler]

The band? What instrument do you play? Come on.

You go to pretty much any of the what 112, 114? small towns in Connecticut, and to the centers of the cities like hartford, waterbury, new london, new haven, bridgport....and you'll not only find railroad tracks everywhere, and rail cars sitting out in the woods, but you'll find a piece of military hardware sitting by the side of the road in every single town, on every city green, getting overgrown with tall grass, and getting rusty. There are sherman tanks, M109 self propelled units, to apache helicopters mounted in the air, to revolutionary war cannons, and a lot of it, if not all of it, was either manufactured in CT, or was built by people that came from Connecticut.

All would take is time and effort, to build a pretty impressive monument park outside of Rentschler field with simply most of the scrap metal laying around this small state and that towns and cities are tired of spending money maintaining. The money aspect, I think, would actually be much less than expected, because I bet most of the stuff you can get would be donated, because most of this stuff, that people are actually interested in restoring, and putting stuff like that in places where the public can see it, they're not doing it for money, they just like to be reminded of where we live, and what we've done in this country to be able - to sit and write whatever we want on a website for instance.....

 

[Dann]

here's a game day idea... Instead of the actual train, how about the band make like a train through the parking lot into the stadium (ie a parade). Tailgaters could use that as the clue to fall in behind and follow the band into the stadium.

I like the idea but I think the band needs to be inside early for there stuff. Maybe you could make it work.

I like a wolf(see what I did there) howl at 45 minutes pre game. Imagine the fans knowing its coming as it becomes routine. Just 40k ppl howling at the moon with the speaker system. Would be a awesome thing and very cool to new and visiting team fans. Imagine that being played by the announcers right before a game when they show a 10 second clip of tailgates before games on tv. That would be cool beans.

I have all these kinds of things stored away in my brain(empty bottles). A good amount of them are park of what I call the "bone program" and "Jonathan's crew or pack".

I believe that these 2 ideas I have are what uconn lacks from a fan base/student/alum perspective. The bone program are little bone stickers like helmet stickers. But it's way way way much more than that and its not just a football thing. The Jonathan's crew is basically the school creating its on beat report for sports and all things uconn. It's taking Emily and adding another blonde and one athletic male and the. A lot of things I can talk about later.

What really frustrates me is that not even simple things get done. I mean how hard is it to goto stop and shop with a ford explorer, steal a cart and bring it back to campus. Full that sucker up with block c car stickers and bring it to game day. Have a student job be walk around pushing the cart around the parking lot selling the stickers for 5 bucks. 1 buck of it going to the med center blah blah. That would kill. It hits home several things. The med center whatever fund. And it gets blocks c's on the road everywhere. It becomes a trend. Stuff like this pains me day and night.

Also speaking of bands. Ct used to have a couple top national bands. I'm not sure if we still do but I remember norwalk having 2 of the best around every year. Just like everything else, uconn band should be recruiting and that's the show. We should have some type of game invite for a local band to do a quick show and watch the game. Recruiting and show business mixed together 101. Your talking what 7 bands a year? Makes it somewhat special to get he invite once every ten years. I think it's something very interesting to build on. Imagine having the band have a club suit for recruiting hs kids etc...

Also, if Carl is ok with it I plan on putting the ussct in the blue lot. Anyway...

 

[Carl Spackler]

psst - dan - the band already walks through the parking lots playing, and lines up outside the stadium and plays before kickoff. I'm pretty sure that was a comment meant to...."derail"

Last thing I'll say - is that my opinion is that right now, the primary draw for the season ticket buying fan base, is not the football field on the field, it's the game day experience, which right now, consists mostly of individual/small groups tailgating.

Winning football, will draw ticket buyers. There's no doubt about that, but finding ways to enhance the game day experience, so that's a common experience for everyone at the stadium, and not simply pockets of tailgaters, in their own groups, is a very important concept that you've nailed with your idea.

Putting a stature of jonathan outside a gate, for everybody to touch on the way in. Creating some kind of monument, or park, or rail car, or something, that fans all need to pass by on the way in.

This is a very good way, to give everybody that goes to the stadium, a common experience.

None of this would be necessary, of course, if we were winning titles and ranked in the top 25 every year. But this kind of thing all helps, for those years, when we're not.

Have a nice day all. I hope that people that matter read these ideas.

 

[Carl Spackler]

oh, yeah, and if a piece of a warship were to actually find it's way onto the grounds of Rentschler field, for people to pass by on the way into the stadium for a football game, it damn well be labeled USS CONNECTICUT and it's ok if it's on the blue lot side. Hell, get a piece of a sub, and make the Husky Walk players go through it. You know what F9ck that - while we're at it, make the tunnel that the players come out onto the field, a section of hull from a united states navy submarine that was built in Groton.

The good ideas far outweigh the bad, Dan - keep em going!

 

[Dann]

Carl I really like the idea of one of the stadium gates being built into a sub so the crowd walks thru it. Maybe call me crazy but one entrance can be on the Groton side on the stadium with a walk thru sub and the other can be a helicopter on the Stratford side of the stadium or something like that.

Or we can just play our football games on the ussct deck.......while bombing Boston. When we score touchdowns fans can shoot off cannons pointed at Boston. Lol serious tho I want a cannon somewhere random on top of the stands that after a touchdown its tradition to blast.

 

[sdhusky]

I took the train to hs. Not a big deal in this post. But I know a lot of people are interested in trains, old ones really. I imagine this state has quite the history with trains but I don't know much personally. I remember as a kid finding trains is several areas in the woods ppl just hang on to. I remember somewhere in the woods of a guys yard in Weston there being a train. I remember just off the platform over the bridge in Westport there being a train. Among others. Old ones are for sure around and can be found.

What stops us from acquiring a old train with some type of historical value to the state and painting it up blue with logos and putting it in the parking lot. Fix up the inside enough for function and sell merchandise out of it. Make a little parking lot show out of it? I think it would be a cool little niche to a overall growing product we need to produce. As usual I can go on for days with this type of ideas and stuff so I will see what u guys say. I assume the typical response to this will be money....

I think we should all contribute and get HFD a Thomas the Train set.

 

[CTM626]

Love this idea, too! Obviously would be a ton of money but would be sweet if we could restore the a few trains, setup tracks around the runway/stadium and have each Huskies cart be its own unique "food train" (similar to the "food trucks" in NYC, that are now becoming the "it" thing in CT). Everyone could get a schedule of the trains and depending on the color lot they are in, could look at the time and say "Oh, its 10:21 AM! The lobster train will be here in 2 minutes!". Being the pioneer of this in cfb would build a culture were lacking. Or I suppose, why not just simply capitalize on the food truck culture from NYC and bring a ton of them up to Rent every home game? Or would this take away from the tailgating culture? Just thinking out loud!

 

[formerlurker]

Even better! I actually want both now haha.

I always thought old rail cars are some what cool and I now the older crowd and the younger crowd would both be entertained by it. The other thing I was thinking was a couple cars and put some type of shake shack simple food place in them and let the tailgaters go wild with it. Being able to blow a big train whistle should be a great thing. It can only happen ones a game day and its like a fan privilege to be chosen. You have to send pictures of yourself tailgating being a uconn fan and if Jonathan or students or w/e picks you then you get to blow the whistle ring the bell type deal. It should happen at a certain time ore game that all fans know its coming and make it a bit of a event as part of the overall days event.

I realize this is all left field and more like parking garage beyond left field but what else is there to talk about lol? The on field product stinks and the school decided it would be better to hush the media so less negative backlash was in public while they try to sell tickets. They left us with a long dry summer because they thought it was better this way for uconn football(another crapy decision). So I'm left to talk about random things. This board is just dry.

Like the concept but no way you're getting Shake Shack or any other restaurant to open a spot on private property that will be guaranteed crowds only a handful of times per year.

 

[Dann]

Like the concept but no way you're getting Shake Shack or any other restaurant to open a spot on private property that will be guaranteed crowds only a handful of times per year.

Well there is a reason I mentioned shake shack actually. It can be any restaurant but SS actually has a setup in Saratoga. If u know toga the horses only run in August. So they only do it for a select amount of days. It's very doable. Places likes moes have food trucks and trailers for events. As always I'm on mars with things but I have at least thought them thru a bit....

I think we should all contribute and get HFD a Thomas the Train set.

More cowbell

 

[HuskyDevil]

Also speaking of bands. Ct used to have a couple top national bands. I'm not sure if we still do but I remember norwalk having 2 of the best around every year. Just like everything else, uconn band should be recruiting and that's the show. We should have some type of game invite for a local band to do a quick show and watch the game. Recruiting and show business mixed together 101. Your talking what 7 bands a year? Makes it somewhat special to get he invite once every ten years. I think it's something very interesting to build on. Imagine having the band have a club suit for recruiting hs kids etc...


I'm from Norwalk and one of my daughters just finished up her marching band career there. You are right, Norwalk, and Trumbull, are two of the top HS bands in the region. Problem here is twofold...one is that major band competitions are usually all day affairs every Saturday from mid September to late November, and most of the top bands compete every week. Other factor, as usual, is cost. A staggering amount of fundraising takes place to support 125+ kids for uniforms/instruments/transportation for a season. Add in one more day of bus cost chaperoning and that's another car wash/can and bottle drive/crappy gift wrapping effort for kids and parents alike. Would still love to see this happen someday though...I know I would have been beaming with pride if I ever saw my high schooler out there with the UCMB.

 

[Fairfield_1st]

Why not have a mobile truck with goods from the Dairy Bar. It'll help bring the campus experience to the game. Since I think I only ever got the shakes (no double meaning intended) when I had a hangover, I'll wait until the game is over and get one on the way out.
I like the military theme on the outside as a prelude to the battle inside. I mentioned this before, but I'd also love for the team to come in to "Flight of the Valkyries" right after they play a clip from Apocalypse Now with Duvall saying "I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like ... victory."
The current game day experience is flat and repititious. It needs a good kick in the arse.

 

[thatguyed]

Train cars, no matter how cool, at the Rent add nothing to market reach. Putting ads on Metro North trains is another story.

Add Southington and Bunnell to the top state HS bands list.