Re: CHS agendas

Apparently many on this board would just like to keep their heads in the proverbial sand and just allow the CHS to operate anyway they please. Thanks in part to this board we have been able to form a network of concerned railfans and let others know what is going on in a timely and efficient manner. Unfortunately for us all the CHS has become an organization that deals in political favors and influence to the detriment of the organizations historical purpose. If they had a clear management plan for what they are doing with the Georgetown Loop railroad perhaps this might define what exactly they are trying to “historically recreate”. Part of their reason for removing the GLRR as I recall was they weren’t using historically accurate equipment. So now we find the CHS almost duplicating the same type of equipment that they just months ago complained about with the prior operator. It just looks like of bunch of incompetent bureaucrats who got the hair brained idea that they somehow could do a better job of operating a tourist railroad. In fact, I would say that Georgiana Contigluglia alluded to this agenda when she wrote Governor Bill Owens last fall and stated regarding the new management contract with Railstar (the agreement) “provides the society with opportunities to operate in a business environment that is more favorable to the state than our previous contract with the GLR, Inc.” Generating revenue for the state to support the swollen CHS bureaucracy is part of the agenda. Eliminating a successful business (GLRR) that aligned itself politically opposite the prevailing party in Denver is why you won’t find anyone who gives a hoot what is going on until the wheels fall off. As has been stated, time will tell what the bottom line will be for the state, Georgetown and the future of the Loop.
My post mostly was intended to alert people to the circumstances of the pending trade of the C&S # 9 to Breckenridge and to find out what is going on at the meeting on 2/22 in Breckenridge. Many of us while we questioned the operational wisdom in using the #9 in daily service on the Loop were glad to see this engine get some needed attention that the CHS has neglected all these years. The issue is not what equipment is selected to operate on the Loop but how the CHS has not been forthcoming in their public communications of their activities. I don’t need to hire an attorney to monitor them; I expect that they would have sufficient internal controls and state oversight to perform this task. Citizens do need to ask questions and be involved in the process, otherwise we have no one to blame but ourselves for allowing an outcome that negates the great success that the Georgetown Loop RR created for over 30 years.