Some West rambles

I find a lot of the above discussion troubling. The C&TS is once again in deep financial trouble. For any of the discussion here to make any sense we need to get some "priorities" in order.
First off, the C&TS needs to be a reasonably self-supporting tourist railroad for any kind of "museum" operation to exist. Public "pork barrel" money does not go to supporting museums, it goes to providing job opportunities, directly and indirectly. Things like "museum" and "historic preservation" are cosmetic issues that provide intellectual cover for jobs money (read buying votes).
The C&TS used to be "reasonably self-supporting" back in the days of Kyle. The issue then was only "capital" money. Capital funding is a lot easier to do politically that annual operating subsidies....mainly because you don't have to do it every year...maybe. The current regime needs to thoroughly understand what has changed over the past six years or so. If the railroad persistently can't cover its operating costs, we're in deep granola.
The color of the coaches is small potatoes in terms of marketing. It is just a small part of providing the customer with a more postive experience. There are lots of other dimensions to that discussion, all of which are highly judgemental....so the debate could be endless, except for the folks actually making decisions. If safety is the issue, it is still small potatoes....there are lots of ways to protect grade crossings. The point is simply that whatever is causing ridership to not meet expectations goes way beyond the color of the coaches. Let's not spend too much time debating the trivial.
I have no idea what is wrong on the marketing side, just that it is a whole lot bigger issue than the color of the coaches.
Selling the railroad to a private operator is unlikely to be any panacea.....simply because any potential for profit is pretty risky at this point, and is unlikely to justify the unfront investment that a private operator would be required to invest. Sure, you could give it a try, but at what cost if it doesn't work. At this point I would be inclined to be risk adverse....the risk is high of loosing the farm.
Finding a better operator than RGRPC might make sense, but again there needs to be some real expectation of profit.....which seems unlikely given the current situation.
I remain enthralled by the concept of some kind of public-private partnership. Clearly private enterprise is more likely to provide the kind of marketing that the C&TS needs. But even with good marketing it is unlikely the railroad will ever be sufficiently profitable to be a Silverton kind of operation financially. In my mind some form of public or at least non-profit ownership provides a basis for seeking continued public and private funding...funding that would hardly make sense if it went to some kind of profit making concern.
It's late, I'm tired, time to quit. Maybe some of the above makes sense, maybe not.
Perhaps the most hopefully aspect of the whole discussion is a lot of folks really care about the C&TS.
JBW