I_love_D&RG Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yea. Well, guess the best way to see how La Veta
> pass was is to just do it in model or virtual
> form. Unless there are more people than me who
> like Old La Veta pass. Don’t think I would do a
> restoration anyway as it would too expensive, plus
> it’s too far away from my home state.
A few general thought, points not yet really mentioned:
1) The time window for this sort of thing in Colorado closed, for the most part, about 30+ years ago.
2) You'd have to pry the grade out of the hands of those who use it now. In the case under discussion, a road (holy ground in the USA) in general, hikers, bikers (some motorized, some not) horse riders, etc, etc.
3) If none of the uses in #2 apply, somebody will oppose you putting a dirty, stinking train through that pure, untouched wilderness. (Kinda like the people in NY state who think the Adirondacks are a wilderness).
La Veta pass in particular:
IF you could somehow overcome all the problems mentioned above and by other posters previously, raise the money to actually build and equip such a line (rough estimate about $20 - 25 million. That's for the 15 miles from La Veta to the top of the pass with Mule Shoe Curve & Dump Mountain) then you'd need a big enough reserve to operate on for several years ( 5? 10?) until you get well known enough to break-even on some sort of regular basis, barring forest fires & pandemics. I'm not certain how much that would be but if you truly are trying to do it with 19th engine replicas, presumably built to modern standards, you're going to need several engines to haul each train, since the grade on the curves was uncompensated over much of this line it is, in effect,
more than 4%, about 4.5%.
From what I recall of driving over the pass more than 40 years that the West side would not add enough scenic value to put more bums on seats and would just be an added expense. Just another ride through the woods. One thing I will say for La Veta is that it, so far as I am aware, has less local development nearby and thus fewer (but never zero!) conflicts of the sort mentioned above than most other grades that are sometimes put forward for restoration in Colorado. (For ex: Marshall, pretty much any part of the RGS or South Park, etc)
To be honest however, If I had the money I'd probably open talks with the court about re-establishing some kind of diesel powered operation, with occasional use of steam, on Veta Pass, possibly on a traffic rights basis, before I'd consider restoring La Veta. The tracks & equipment are (for now at least) already there, there would be some residual demand from the previous operation. Just in general you'd have a much better chance of actually making a go of it, at least as a non-profit.
Hank
ps Don't get me wrong, I've played with dreams like this since the 1970's and if I somehow got the $$ needed I'd go for it, somewhere, just for the hell of it, but I'd know I was flushing the money down the toilet and that, even if I somehow got my little stretch of Paradise making enough of a profit to cover operations & maintain the whole thing, I'd never see a dime of return on it. Hmm, maybe the D&RGW Ry grade from Crevasse to Cisco? That would be different!
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/2020 11:09AM by hank.
