Re: Start a petition

here are a few reasons why I think their actions af futile;
1)Joseph Bell said in teh most recent edition of the Clear Creek's local newspaper that there were questions they didnt have the answers to yet, one of them being whether the C&S 9 is powerful enough to pull a revenue train. He followed up by saying they thought it might. If you were goign to restore an engine for a very specific purpose, wouldn't it stand to reason that you would run the numbers on its abilities before you restored it to full time operational status? Why do a full rebuild on an engine that doent have the power you need, when you could simply do a museum quality restoation and preserve her in her entirety?
2) This comment was followed up by Lee Behrens, Director of the Silver Plume Georgetown Historic Mining and Railroad Park , saying the following in addition to Bells statement that they didnt have all the answers " We've only been in this business for 6 weeks".....this is not the kind of things that are goign to inspire confidence in others,no?
Add to this that yours truly has been in steam passenger operations business for the last 17 years and the current opperators have been at it for over 30....I think you most people can see where in the real abilities to asses this situation lay.
3) They assume that all of us soon to be out of work enginehouse crew will sign on with a new operator. We wont. they are still telling people we will. Futility in its simplest form, or denial if you prefer.
4) they seem to think that both the 9 and 60 can be made operational in less than a years time, the most recent statement seems to indicate that they want it done in 9 months. I hate to break it to you, but engines in that poor condition need substancially more time than 9 months to get running again.
They dont seem to know this fact and are merrily going ahead blind on that issue too.
5) the fact that in the RFI they stated that not only would the operator be financially responsible for the entire operation , but would have to also pay out a operation fee as well as shares in teh revenue and now that they are offering pieces of the pie to every tom dick and harry municipality around in an effort to side with them, anyone with any sence at all can see that it will not make any money for the operator unless they cut a lot of corners andin this business that can lead to very dangerous safety issues from defered maintainence.
6) They were damn lucky that their utter lack of knowlege on teh proper handeling and shipment of asbestos didnt blow up in their face, although I really hope it does. If they are unaware of this bit of regulation, what else of importanec are they not aware of that has the potential to doom the future operations on the loop?
In closeing I want to make a few thigns clear. I dont hate the CHS em mass. I hate Bell & Beherens and anyone directly responsible for this situation within the CHS. If I were a member of the CHS, I would be damn embarassed by all this right now.
While I can say that the CHS does have many wonderful programs and such, they are bookworms, not railroaders. Well I stand corrected, thay have been railroaders for 6 weeks now. They may know the history of every tie plate and switch stand in teh state, that does not mean that they know how to run a business such as this. They have very un realistic views on the mechanical aspects of such an undertakeing, they are acting on several assumptions that are not grounded in fact, they are also making promices before they are sure they can keep them, and, to quote one of my contacts in teh business they, " are wearing rose coloured glasses so thick, they need a seeing eye dog."
They have not shown any real ability to properly exicute this undertaking. They lack the knowlege and more to the point, they lack the humility to admit that they are flying blind. Therefore, I feel as do many others in teh business outside of GLRinc that their effort to get someone to "do it their way" are futile.