Re: mike, i don't think jim was making...

My friends the Ashbys started out small in the 1960s, with both of them working, mortgaging their home, and "playing trains" on the side. Lindsey eventually quit to run the railroad full time early 1970s, but Rosa continued to work for a long time. I think the house was mortgaged several times in the intervening years. Eventually the Loop was built up and the Central City operation (which never recovered from the Arab oil embargoes) was phased out. The Royal Gorge enterprise was a lucky fluke which I prodded them into, and it has succeeded better than anybody, myself included, ever imagined (it helps to have the Royal Gorge in which to play). As messy as the Loop situation was, IMHO they got out at a good time, while the Hysterical Society took a bath. They now have a comfortable retirement. But it took them a lot of blood, sweat, and tears--and something close to 45 years--to get there. That should be a cautionary lesson to anyone with wild-eye schemes for tourist railroading.

BTW, even they were not in a position to do everything one might wish for. #44 remains in pieces, with no economic incentive to bolt it back together (and do a 1472-day inspection on it), #14 is O.S. with a bad axle, and #12 has various ailments (both Shays also need new water tanks). #40 soldiers on in occasional use at the CRRM--with our fingers crossed.

All of which is the long way of saying tourist railroading is not for the poor or the faint of heart!

Mike