You Know, your posts do nothing but piss people off, mainly because of your uninformed rants and snide comments.
So that Ashbys act like they owned it.... For all intents and purposes they did. As has been pointed out, they owned all of the motive power and usable freight equipment. The CHS owned (when the Loop Started) 1 long Reefer, 1 box acr, 1 stock car and 1 caboose. The Ashbys brought 2 *steam operated* rod locomotives and 4 shays to the property, as well as tank cars (necessary for fuel storage), box cars, outfit cars, gondolas (later converted to rider cars), they brought the Tahoe and Plume cars from CC&N, the ex-Railroad Fair cars (historic in themselves) and when the former Magic Mountain/Heritage Square equipment went up on the block, bought it and then went so far as to arrange a swap with the CRRM of a C&S underframe for future use which later came in handy for the box car body procured from the GWR in Loveland.
So they acted like they owned it? They acquired all of the power and hand tools found in the Silver Plume Shop. They procured all of the spare freight car parts found out behind the engine house. They became more and more self sufficient as the years went bye in the most importand part of the Railroad, the day to day operations.
So they acted like they owned it? When the CHS couldn't get funding in 1974, the Ashbys went out and found ties to put under the rail that the CHS had donated. They provided the manpower when the Seabees quit their summer drills to finish off the right-of-way. When a bridge was needed to span Clear Creek, they found the pin-truss bridge at Yoxall, Colo. on the UP Boulder Branch. When another bridge was needed, a friend of the Ashbys found the turntable bridge supporting the roof a soon-to-be remodeled building in Denver. The Ashbys got it donated to the CHS, the Seabees installed it and the CHS later replaced it with the Steel Howe Truss Bridge (the original was wood). Bye the way, the turntable bridge fit so well that there was some well founded speculation that it was the original bridge from that location. removed after abandonment. (So much for the CHS preserving historical artifacts).
The Ashbys were one of the prime movers behind the Boettcher foundation Grant to rebuild the High Bridge. It wasn't just the CHS. The GTL RR was intimately and actively involved in the rebuilding process. The GTL used it, the CHS promised much, like the stone facing, etc., but delivered little.
I am not speaking of the future but examining the track record of the past.
Yes, the CHS had the valley preserved when I-70 was built, but that was over 40 years ago and the board members of the CHS then are not the board members now, nor are the on-site managers in Clear Creek County the same people. The first full year the on-site menager was transferred up from El Pueblo Museum, and he knew what he was doing. The first on site manager during the beginning of Operations was Ed Gerlits (see High Country Railroad Posts). He and people with his qualifications and love of Railroad have long been absent from the CHS ranks.
As for the future? Who knows. I will say one thing, though, it is currently Janyary 23. We are three weeks into year 1 of CHS/Railstar management. So far not a cobweb has been stirred on the Silver Plume Property. The Steam Locomotives that the CHS was so highly vaunting as being operated for this season are still in parts at Strasburg, Colo., at least two years away from completion on the mst roadworthy of them.
The only progress that I have seen at all is Jason Minyette's drop bottom bench cars.
So, judging by actual performance, the Ashbys did own the property. They were not "Puppet Masters" as your warped point of view seems to indicate. All who have posted here in favor of them seem to truly believe that they were the best stewards of the property. Me included, and I have not worked for them in over 25 years. Masters to what puppets? People who believe in them? Sorry, that's called loyalty, Loyalty to the company, the comeraderie that was fostered by the owners and the owners themselves. Loyalty is an attribute missing in most of the drivel that you post. I suggest that you look it up and take the definition to heart.
One last item. The Ashbys won the Freeman Hubbard Award for Historic Preservation for their tenure at the Loop. This award was given for the year 2004. It is no small achievement to be thus honored by your peers.
No, the CHS won't run the Loop, their equipment is museum stock and won't take the rigors of daily use. I once suggested to Chris Ahrens that the 346 be run up there on the Loop and his reaction was that it had to be followed by a bunch of guys with buckets to pick up all of the parts that would fall off of it. Daily use is for heavier and newer equipment, like the 40, 44 or the Shays. Let the museum do what it does best.
Remember, the Loop is a railroad, and a damn tough one on equipment at that, the operations there are a whole different animal than a museum.
But keep spouting your vitriol, it makes for good conversation fodder at worst and makes you a target at best.
Rick Steele
