Re: Waynek, some good questions, but ..

My question is, what are we trying to preserve?

We have a living, working, railroad, with all the change that comes with such.

The Union Pacific is a living, working, railroad, but I don't see everybody complaining that they aren't running steam locomotives on 90% of their trains, that they replaced a signal design from the 1950s, that they aren't respecting their history properly.

Change comes with time...you can replicate a certain point in history in a museum, but on a living railroad, everything changes every time a bolt changes....every time the boiler gets rebuilt to a new specification...every time a new, better air pump gets installed...you can only get so close, and beyond that you're just investing money keeping a certain piece of equipment functional.

True, the C&TS is a museum of sorts, but you have to make changes if you want to stay running trains. History should be respected, and preserved if possible, but the railroad itself should come first.

And remember....

Any change now will be remembered in the future as history, just as 1968 and the D&RGW are remembered now

Remember, I'm 18--feel free to correct me on anything and everything I just got wrong!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/04/2008 10:41PM by Robbie.