Mr. Webster,
I respectfully disagree with your response. As you say "you guys - GLRR Inc. employees", could have done all this work in the span of time that is being discussed. Yes, we did have THREE steam locomotives and many more cars to keep up than Railstar currently operates, BUT that does not change the FACT THAT PREVENATIVE MAINENANCE IS REQUIRED FOR THIS TYPE OF EQUIPMENT TO CONTINUE RUNNING AT SAFE AND RELIABLE LEVELS. Example of recent years: The Cumbres & Toltec; preventative maintenance was deferred for a while (due to reasons of money and other things that are not necessary to discuss here), and look what happened to that line. Their equipment began to fail repeatedly out on the line, stranding passengers, costing revenue and overtime, not to mention great amounts in major repairs that could have been avoided if taken care of before. That said, I am not saying ANYTHING bad about the C&TS, they do an incredible job at maintaining their equipment, as well as operating it. They run a great operation there; please don't get me wrong.
My main point here is this:
As anyone here on this board could tell you, the process of disassembling, repairing, reassembling, and REPEATEDLY TESTING your repairs on a steam locomotive takes a lot longer than a short 2 months to complete. Observe the prime examples of the D&S and C&TS. When they do winter maintenance on their locomotives, IT TAKES THE MAJORITY OF THE OFFSEASON TO COMPLETE THE WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If when the winter maintenance is begun next month it is found that #12 needs to be dismantled in some substantial way, it will be difficult to take it apart, fix it, put it back together, road test it, before the season starts. And this doesn't include the troubles to be had with #9 when she arrives - a whole new beast to learn and tame.
I am concerned that because Railstar's #12 operated "129 out of 131 operating days" (from Railstar's report to CHS). That is a lot of days to run a steam locomotive ANYWHERE, especially successive operating days. I can't speak for the employees or management of Railstar nor CHS. I am not bashing the operators, just stating some concerns that were expressed by Railstar themselves in their annual report to CHS, dated December 31, 2005. According to Railstar, it is stated that "Due to this situation, the winter budget had to be trimmed so tight that we [Railstar] believe it will impact the ability to complete the necessary maintenance so that the equipment is ready by the start of the season."
Steam locomotives and associated equipment require more than 2 months of time to inspect, repair, and test, Mr. Webster. THAT is my point.
As a final note, I fully intend to go see and ride behind #9 this season. I am very excited to see that beautiful historic engine finally run under its own power on home rails!
Respectfully,
Shane Schabow
