Re: NNG: Creating a New Tourist Railroad in Today's Climate

Also, in my opinion, without steam you wont get nearly as many riders.

Tourist railroads are a plenty. Diesel locomotives are everywhere! If you don't have some kind of spectacular scenery, or a very populated city as a start, you wont draw many people with a diesel. Paris and Bonham are close to the DFW area, but I don't think close enough to reap the rewards with the available scenery and diesel engines.

Dave's idea of speeders is an interesting one, and possible. However, it would be a gamble. Without proper training on operating speeders, there is a lot of liabilities to be assessed. So, you would need operators for every speeder that set out. This would become expensive very quickly. I have personally driven along a portion of this line, and there are many obstacles that would need to be addressed. everything from rotting ties, to sinking grades, washouts, dropping and rotting bridges, multiple grade crossings without any current protection, and not to mention, current ownership of the ROW. My brother and I have recently come into the ability to possess a speeder but have yet to take delivery. One thing we have wanted to do is set it out on this line.

I for one, would be interested in seeing this line being restored, but the cost benefit probably would not be returned. If you have recently won the lottery and want to take over a short line, PLEASE DO, otherwise, it may be a lost cause....

Casey