trainrider47 Wrote:
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> Hi Kevin,
>
> I was speculating that the railroad might only
> sell one day to each group of 150. The first
> group could pick their day for the best chance of
> snow and so on down the line. They could easily
> plow from before Cresco to Cumbres (or on down to
> Los Pinos) over three days and by moving slowly
> allow people to get plenty of shots. Sure, we
> would all like to do the whole line, but this is a
> 50th anniversary celebration and should be made
> available to as many people as possible. Keeping
> it to 150 per day seems like a manageable number.
> People could rotate in and out of the hotels and
> there are plenty of hotels in Pagosa Springs.
> This would require a one hour drive but would
> avoid having to go over two mountain passes if you
> were staying in Antonito or Alamosa.
>
> This is all just speculation.
>
> Michael Allen
I suppose...... But tough for folks like you and me to justify flying across the country, renting an SUV, and driving 6+ hours in possible winter conditions, all for a possible one-day run. Add in the risk of a possible maintenance issue on a hundred-year-old plow that hasn't run in 22 years, and that's a ton of risk. When we went to White Pass in 2011, they asked us to plan on staying in Skagway Monday through Friday, during which the plan was to operate for 3 days. Ultimately, we got 4. The railroad said up-front that there might be maintenance or operational issues, and that was the reason why they wanted us to be there for at least 5 days.
I still don't understand why more folks didn't go back then. Obviously, that was never going to be a "drive-there" event. But when you add up all of the costs, I don't think it turned out to be a lot more expensive than this will be, at least for folks who have to fly to get there. Remember, the White Pass & Yukon funded the entire plow operation. We just paid for a diesel train to chase the thing. I think we paid $750 for 4 days. Today, that seems like an incredible bargain and based on the vibes I hear from the present railroad, I don't think there is any plan to do that again.
/Kevin Madore