Unh, that's Dis-easels - isn't it?

Being TOTALLY unfamiliar with the politics behind this fiasco, all I can say is that I'm VERY glad that I added a few hundred miles to my Durango / Chama vacation last summer to ride the Loop - which I had first seen pictured in my 1959 "Photo Supplement to the DSP&P". Oil-fired or no, a steamer is still a steamer, though I did miss the sweet tang of coal smoke and the challenge of a cinder in the eye ... My daughter and I thoroughly enjoyed both the ride and the very informative mine tour, but there is NO WAY WHATSOEVER that I would drive an extra 200 or 300 miles (round trip from Chama via Alamosa or Lake City) to ride behind a diseasel - high bridge or no high bridge - even if safety were NOT an issue. I wish them GOOD LUCK inticing the daisy-pickers off of I-70 with a 44-tonner and a couple of gons, 'cause they sure ain't gonna get a whole lot of folks flying over from Ireland and Australia (or Germany & Japan)!
- Rhyus O'Locough