Mr Shoup ,
Your comments in this article were grossly disingenous and self-aggrandizing .
"The maintenance was virtually ignored" is categorically not true . Two of the three previous operators struggled with keeping the mainenance up on the locomotives especially . Maintenance problems with the track are due to the poor stewardship of the states in not seeking money for track work sooner .
Scenic Railways had to convert a closed freight operation into a tourist operation ,employing existing equipment and using their own money .During most of the the 1970s Scenic received almost no support from the two states . That Scenic was able to keep the operation going during a long recession and two gas shortages is nothing short of heroic . It is a tribute to some very dedicated people like John Oldberg , Bob Keller and Earl Bell . You have no right to slight those men nor their organization .
In 1994 ,Kyle Railways was able to line up six locomotives under steam .That cost lot of money to make that happen , plus the talents and resourcefulness of people like John Bush and Jack Campbell .
While the operators all hoped to turn the railroad into a profitable operation ,that was a bigger problem than any of the operators could solve on their own . Except for one operator that directly preceded the RGRPC ,the first two did not expect "obscene profits to roll in" .Again the poor stewardship of the owners ,the two states comes into play as they did very little over the years to help in promoting THEIR property .
Your statements are insulting to the previous operators who tried very hard to keep the railroad going and make it successful . Considering that under the RGRPC's watch the roster has gone from three engines to one ,and the operation declined from 14+ train movements a week to 4 a week and tens of thousands of dollars were embezzled , you and the RGRPC have absolutely no bragging rights in the eyes of myself nor other employees , both current and former .
