In the musings of my mind I roughly figured it would take probably at least 30 million to acquire, stabilize, improve, restore, bring current much of the property, equipment and structures not to mention ROW rebuilding and improvements. I had found an article that used the figure of $8 million to buy the property and used this as a basis for my figure without any real knowledge of actual costs beyond that.
Regarding location, is the remoteness a real obstacle? Altoona, Harrisburg and Lancaster are all within reasonable driving distances and each hold their own appeal for history AND railroad interest. Granted, the length of the current ROW is nothing like either of the Colorado/ New Mexico operations, but the intact shops and original equipment would be attractive. So your thought of a historic trust would probably be the best chance.
Considering lack of a true destination other than the picnic grove is somewhat hamstringing, but I guess I envision the EBT to be somewhat of a cross/ hybrid between C&TS/Como/ Strasburg. Geographically the railroad is within reach of a much larger population base for patronage purposes, so perhaps there would be some upside using strategic marketing, partnerships with other historical and tourist operations could make it viable.
Like so many others have said on here, anything is possible with enough $$$$. For me personally, to have all the associated shop buildings stabilized and able to function, even in just a demonstrative way, along with 1 of the mikado's operational for occasional steamups with possibly some short back and forth running (much like Como's operation) would be a great first step. Operating like the Como would also fix in the short term anyway, the need for many pieces of suitable rolling stock for ridership. Yes I realize that I maybe pie in the sky dreaming. My 30 million guess is certainly a VERY significant money figure, but hopefully some kind of a plan can be hatched to preserve what remains of the railroad. It really is too pretty to just fade and deteriorate away.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/07/2019 02:15PM by Brett B.
