I know not every railroad can be saved, but seeing an abandoned railroad rusting away does hurt. In Paris, Texas lies the now abandoned Texas and Pacific's Bonham Subdivision. I believe it hasn't turned a wheel since the 90s, so as you can imagine, it's in rough shape. Antonito to Chama was only out of commission for a few years before Cumbres and Toltec came around, and the volunteers had a hard time getting everything back in operation. Granted, East Texas is not Northern New Mexico, but track maintenance is not cheap. There is plenty of washouts on the line, so obviously there is work to be done. My idea is to turn the abandoned T&P Ry line between Paris and Bonham, Texas into a tourist railroad. The length is around 37.8 miles, so that might be a little too long. I honestly have no idea how to manage turning 37.8 miles of abandoned track into a tourist railroad, but I do know that most of the greats exist because people made it happen. The main goal would to get trains running in a similar way to the Texas State Railroad. Keep in mind, this idea is not to compete with any of the tourist railroads in Texas. Static steam locomotives like T&P #316 (which would be at home in Paris because of the Texas and Pacific and the Paris and Mt. Pleasant) and the T&P #400 (ex- FW&D #410) could be used for special excursions. Both locomotives need major work, so it won't be cheap. Rails to Trails has already obtained the line between Paris and New Boston and overall it is somewhat successful, but I'm pretty certain people would rather ride in train, than on a bike imagining that they are. All in all, I do know that everything comes down to money.
To but this long paragraph into words: if I can dream, I can dream big... and expensive.
Here is the map so you Coloradans can get an idea about how boring the scenery in Texas looks like: [
www.google.com]
