Re: How can chasers be of more benefit to the railroad?

I don't think "The ones who declare it as nothing are the ones for which money is no object for a specific subject." is an accurate assessment of the situation. It's often a matter of choices. I drive my cars for 10 years and 300,000 miles so I can afford to go on charters. Anyone that spends $50K or more on a truck and ATV has made a different choice. For that person to then feel they have the right to crash a party that someone else has paid for is being more than inconsiderate.

The Friends September 29 charter still has spaces and it's $259/person-Friends Members or $309/person-General Public. If you can't afford that, cut out one pack of cigarettes every other week for a year, or cut out one visit to Starbucks per week for a year. It's all in the choices that people make. The British built a new steam locomotive by getting a group of people to agree to donate the price of one pint of beer per week to fund the construction. If you would rather have a coffee than pay for a charter, fine, but don't complain that it's too expensive. As Kevin pointed out, the C&TS charges $10,000 per loco per day. Add to that meals for the participants, car rental for the historic preservation fund, painting and lettering the loco Rio Grande and you are looking at more like $12,000 per day. That is 47 participants to break even. The last I heard, the Friends had sold 48 seats on the September 29 train. I don't see much room for charters costing less then they are currently, unless someone has a way back machine so they can go back to the 1970's when you could charter a train for a couple of thousand.

Michael Allen