Re: Chama Railroad Visitor's Center (RVC)

George, I going to leave the RVC issue alone here, as I have spoke my peace about that. Working in the "heart of the yard" is another issue.

Friends members travel cross country to donate a week, sometimes more of their time to volunteer their labor to help preserve the CATS. I believe that just about every car in the 315's trains, as well as the long photo freights such as Jay's have been made possible because of all of the hard work of the Friends.

We have only ONE WEEK to get something done. The reason you see most of the work centered around the wood shop, (wool warehouse) is because we are walking back and forth constantly to get wood cut, plained, shaped, or whatever it needs to make a new piece. Metal parts must be fabricated as well. That, and the need of electricity we use at the job site must be an extension cord length away.

Our members are not young, just look at the photos, most of us do not do what we do here for a living, and we are working at 8,000 elevation to boot. Issues like John West brought up about the nut & bolt, and tool as well as the lunch cars could certainly be moved when there is not a work session such as now. There has been complaints about how long projects seem to take as it is, and that would even be longer if everything is moved farther away.

While I agree the situation is far from perfect, the proposed CRF in Chama when it is built will probably eliminate most of the issues. Until then, I would ask that until you yourself come out and help and experience what the Friends members do first hand, you might consider cutting some slack. John