Re: D&S Rolling Stock, vs. C&TS

To fully explain the freight car situation, it's necessary to go back to the time shortly before the states purchased the C&TS. I was in on part of the effort to save as much of the D&RGW rolling stock as was feasible. We kept in mind the impending museum aspect of the C&TS and tried to get our hooks into as wide a variety of rolling stock as we could. As a result, the C&TS ended up with things like the tie and rail car, amongst several other one of a kind items. In contrast, such an effort was apparently low on the D&S priority.

So my own personal opinion is that it would be an unwise expenditure of scarce funds for the C&TS to go after the D&S cars. Generally speaking, there are an abundance of identical, or near so, cars on the C&TS already. Now that being said, if the D&S has a particularly rare car they would be willing to part with, then by all means go after it. The only compelling reason that I can think of for lusting after the C&S equipment is for the relatively rare metal parts they contain. If those cars could be had at a fire sale price, it might be worthwhile to approach the D&S with that in mind.

Another thing to keep in mind is once a yard reaches about 50% of capacity you are approaching a gridlock situation. The Chama yard is approaching that.

CJ