Pull out a map. Elbe, WA is quite the jaunt from Tacoma, even from Olympia, road-wise. The problem is that it's way off of any highway. Even Hwy 12, which isn't exactly a high-speed route, is well away from there. No, the biggest draw for Mt Rainier isn't that it's near a population base (which it isn't), it's that it's right along the way to Mt Rainier and is often included in a trip to the mountain. "Oh well, as long as we're going there and probably won't be back that way for a while, we might as well ride the train, too."
I just used that as an example compared to the reasonably close my Chehalis group as to why each have the ridership they do. Like the OP said, location-location-location!
All that said, any of the former D&RGW lines are much further from a population base (as I've been to the C&TS as well) than Mt Rainier and Chehalis and to be honest, I'm not 100% I get why so many non-train-nut types go that far to ride the C&TS (though of course, I'm glad they do!).


rehunn Wrote:
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> Mr. Rainer Scenic might feel remote but it's
> barely out of the Tacoma suburbs, course the C&TS
> is really in West Antonito, isn't it?

-Lee

Flickr photo set of my On30 layout