Tom,
It's obvious you've given a great deal of thought to motive power management on the C&TS. However, all the planning and scheduling in the world, while helpful, won't put more locomotives under steam. There is one simple commodity, which, when supplied in sufficient quantitiy, will transform the C&TS into the first class operation we'd all like to see. That commodity is $$$, and plenty of it. Here's a shoot-from-the-hip laundry list:
1. Erect and outfit a large, heated, well-lit machine shop, complete with wheel lathe, quartering machine, 100-ton hydraulic press, two-axis overhead bridge crane, etc. $4,000,000.
2. Put in place the following minimum full-time, year-round locomotive maintenance force:
a) 1 shop foreman, minimum of 10 years experience supervising the maintenance and repair of coal-fired steam locomotives used in daily service on a mountain railroad. Must have excellent managerial talent and people skills. $60,000 per year.
b) 4 highly skilled, experienced machinists, $45,000 per year, each. You may have to go to $50,000 per year to entice them to relocate their families to Chama.
c) 2 skilled, experienced welders. $40,000 per year, each.
d) 2 skilled, experienced boilermakers. $35,000 per year, each.
e) 4 skilled and experineced steam locomotive mechanics. $35,000 per year, each.
f) 6 dedicated, motivated laborers/hostlers. $30,000 per year, each.
To above salaries, add medical plan, pension plan, workman's comp., etc.
3. Maintain a $500,000 per year fund for consumables (boiler flues, steel, bronze bushing stock, driver tires, firebox grates and refractory, flue sheets, oils, grease, appliance parts, nuts, bolts, etc.).
4. Maintain a $500,000 per year slush fund, to replace money removed from locomotive maintenance/repair budget by management to pay for non-locomotive-related expenses such as forest fire supression, slides/washouts on right of way, etc.
Beginning in 1981, a huge infusion of cash transformed the D&SNG from a 3-worn out locomotive operation to an honest to god, in your face, 5 trains a day, serious enterprise that, save for the management style, was a fun and exciting place to work. But, the money black hole that a tourist railroad operation is eventually caused its millionaire rail fan owner to seek other ways to dispose of his money.
Not to say that the C&TS was not fun and exciting to work for, as it was, but it has never achieved its full potential as a tourist railroad, and I would venture to guess that it never will while under state ownership. What we need is a billionaire rail fan owner. I wonder if Bill Gates is a rail fan.
