Sunday afternoon I spent a few minutes in Georgetown, visiting with John Hammond, of course, the topic of conversation had to do with the GE 44 tonner. John told me that at one point, the C&TS had a diesel at each end of the line, the #15 which he has maintained so well was at Antonito.
It would seem to make good sense to me to have a diesel at each end of the line, but I'm sure there is strong opposition to that idea.
Loop #44 has been moved up from the office in Georgetown to a lineup of equipment across from the depot. A small C&S caboose sits in it's place near the office. I suspect that #44 will go into the shop when tourist season is done for restoration.
I can't remember the machinist's name who was in the shop with John, but he told me that ridership was about 10% ahead of last year. That's a good sign to me.
Oh, the rain is nice. Traffic was terrible yesterday on I-70 west of Denver, complete traffic jam all the way to Georgetown.
Good day to all. Jim Burrill