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Notice I haven't talked about the railfans. Neither the D&RGW, or today's D&SNG or the WP&Y would survive on our rather small volume of business.
yeah, I get that, I really do. But my point was not that railfans make up a high percentage of any tourist operation or museum, but that a tiny percentage of railfans have ever gone there.
Huge difference.
I've driven to the former D&RGW locations as well as going to the WP&Y twice, and I contend that they're not
that much easier to get to than getting to the WP&Y, at least to merit the heavily leaning percentage that goes to the D&S/C&TS as opposed to the WP&Y.
The only well-ridden narrow-gauge in the US (in the past, anyway) that I understand why few ever go was/is the Lahaina, Kaanapali and Pacific on Maui. That's hundreds of miles of open ocean to get to a very short NG run (and not much else, RR-related). That said, I've ridden that, too, back when they still had steam running there...
-Lee
Flickr photo set of my On30 layout