Some people wonder why myself and others complain when Disney went for diesel locomotives for their new park, against the ideology that its founder based on the railroads at the parks. But here lies a good comparison...lowering standards.
If a railroad's reputation is STEAM, then indeed...you're going to see a HUGE ridership drop the next year. While here on the East Coast where 1 out of 100 people in New York City have ever seen a steam locomotive (except with Disney and such) and are easily tricked by the Chance amusement fakes dressed up as "steam", Coloradans (and Californians) KNOW steam. They're well familiar with it. They're GOING to know the difference! While we can all share horror stories about the stupidity sometimes of the general public (even with an 18" gauge park railroad in Silicon Valley!), give them at least that today, I'd say they're going to care if there's a difference...especially since it looks like it.
While there's many fine railroads out there running all-diesels (Napa Valley Wine Train, Santa Cruz Big Trees & Pacific, Adirondack Scenic Railroad, etc.), they've always been that way in their current incarnation and the public knows it. But the keywords here are LOWERING STANDARDS. When you have a 99% steam railroad for 30 years, and then even longer beforehand, people are going to know...and the figures will show. And yes, false advertising will really get people. The locomotive on their brochure looks more like the #161 out in Golden than the #9. Today is January 6th; you can't get a basket-case, neglected-park-display locomotive restored in 4 months unless it's 24-hour work with a crew that could fill up the MGM Grand!
Given CHS' deep pockets, I'm surprised they didn't slip a big check out to a boiler company somewhere to secretly build one of those all-welded modernin pressure vessels off-site...bring it in, plop it atop the running gear of the #9, and get the plumbing work done in time. That's the only way that locomotive could even possibly be running in May, and given what CHS has said about how important boilers are (and it would destroy "hisotry", a philosophy by many historical (museum), non-tourist-operating RR groups), they probably didn't even see the need! I'm sure that locomotive is as loose as the door handle at the abandoned station down the road, and so out of square that it's almost in circle. Though I'd say that given the Uhrichs' capabilities...4 months for the running gear work sounds half-reasonable...but then again, I haven't seen the locomotive.
The WW&F guys up in Maine are working to get a new boiler to replace the reinforced lap-seam boiler on THEIR #9 (Maine is one of the states that outlawed this). If the locomotive was in the hands of a competent organization other than the now-called Colorado Hysterical Society, this would probably be the best way for the locomotive to operate again; though of course it would be best suited for museum displays. Keep in mind even the larger Consolidations I hear even had to be double-headed as THEY struggled up that grade. Only in the advent of the Ashbys bringing in the Shays were long trains able to be hauled by a lone locomotive. A new boiler might steam better, and perhaps more weight on the drivers or such could give a greater tractive effort...but the rest of the locomotive isn't going to mutate into a larger and more powerful (and newer) locomotive. It's 120 years old, and that is NOT to be forgotten! If those CHS guys were that old they'd be rotting in a wooden box under a pile of dirt! This locomotive isn't suited for the long trains for the high volumes of passengers on the Georgetown Loop; but today, rather a museum train such as the another Loop; the loop of track around the CRRM. It's either replicas, Central American or Cuban exports, or Shays. Well, what'ya know, the latter took care of the Loop's steam roster for 30 years just fine...and they caused the whole problem themselves!! Symapthy for these locomotive-seekers? I don't think so.
