This doesn’t make sense. If I have this correct, you are attacking the CHS for not preserving Colorado History by working a trade of the #9 for the #111. If this is NOT your objection to this proposed deal then please take the rest of this post with a gain of salt.
Since the #9 will remain in Colorado and be preserved by the town of Breckenridge how is this not preserving Colorado history?
You say that the #111 has "absolutely no historical connection to Colorado". While I may agree with you on that and at the same time say the #40 and the Westside Shays also have no historical connection to Colorado, there are people here that disagree. They say "History does not stop being created" and those engines "ran on the Loop in Colorado for 30 years so they DO have a historical connection to Colorado". While I don’t agree with these guys, I DO see their point. And if this is true, then the #111 is also historical to Colorado because of its connection to the failed Sundown & Southern.
However, even if we don’t think the #111 is historical to Colorado, it would be used to help save and preserve something that is. The Georgetown Loop.
If you have a problem with the CHS spending money on the #111, then I guess you would also have problem with them spending money on the shays of the GTL Inc. Then again, if spending the money on the #111 is a problem, think of it as spending money on the Georgetown Loop, not the #111. This engine will be able to carry many more, paying passengers on the Loop and help to make the Loop a paying prospect, which will help to keep the land developers away from the park a little longer.......I hope.
You asked Mr. Bell, "how are converted D&RGW drop bottom gondolas and the #111 from Central America “historically appropriate” to the Georgetown Loop?" While I can not speak for Mr. Bell, I can think of an answer. D&RGW gondolas and the #111 are narrow gauge, American built, steam powered equipment just like the stuff that ran on the Loop 100 years ago and identical (almost) to the equipment that worked to rebuild the Loop 35 years ago.
There seems to be no pleasing some people. If the CHS uses #9 to run the Loop, they are upset because they are "burning –up" a historical locomotive, even if the boiler is barely 3 years older then the ones on the 463 or the 497, two engines that everyone thinks should run again. However, if the CHS makes a deal to preserve the #9 in a Colorado town, then that is a problem because the engines on the Loop didn’t run there 75 years ago. I guess this mean that it is true. You can’t please everyone, all the time.
In my opinion, the CHS did make some very large mistakes with this whole situation. Most of them involved not being able to deal with Mark and Lindsey on some level a year ago. With these “real” issue to talk about (which we have over and over and over again) I almost have to laugh at people who focus on things like this or a poor picture of the CHS president.
Are we really that desperate to get dirt on the CHS?
