Re: Tracks in Silverton Streets

Dan is basically right--what good are restored cars if they can't be used? And, with access to the engine house, we could store Casey Jones inside in Silverton instead of making the trip to Durango for winter storage.
As for taxation, in Colorado, the state does the evaluation of all the public utilities and notifies each county as to the valuation of the railroad, phone company, etc. within the county. For railroads, the total real value was divided by the total mainline and branch line miles of track for a particular railroad and then each county applied its mill levy to that amount. The number of miles in San Juan County is about 17, and about 28 in La Plata County. So, the added value of a spur, switch, fence post, is divided by route miles and on a large state-wide system, many rural counties garnered more property tax revenue than did the city/county of Denver that had relatively few miles of track in the combined city and county. In the case of the proposed new Silverton trackage, title from the D&SNG connection to our facility may reside in the historical society and thus be tax exempt. It would make sense to do it that way.