Re: SLRG between Salida and Buena Vista - NNG

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Lastly, when the UP first filed to abandon the line, the town of Buena Vista just couldn't wait for an opportunity to pull the rails out of the grade crossings within the confines of the town so that they wouldn't have to cope with grade crossings dividing their town. To hell with any future rail-based transportation. Now, they are suddenly whistling a different tune?

Mike, there's a bit of 20/20 hindsight in your comment here. As a former BV resident back in the 70s, I can certainly understand (not agree with - understand) the town's attitude at the time and in the following years.

The RR very much did physically divide the town, cutting off the Main Street business district from the flow of traffic along US 24 and was, to the average resident or summer tourist, nothing more than a source of noise and inconvenience, as freight dragged through town, going from somewhere else, to somewhere else. And the benefit to the town was, and had been for decades at the time of discontinuance...? Transportation? Employment? Revenue? Convenience? Local industrial service?

A @#$%& (sorry, the software turns the acronym for "not in my backyard" into censored swearing ) attitude it may have been, but the answer was still "none of the above".

Quite honestly, I'm pleased to see that BV and Salida aren't taking a Creede sort of attitude to the idea TODAY, the past notwithstanding.

Scott