Hmph! There goes Bell "spinning" things again! It's amazing to me how many people will willingly swallow whatever spews out of the mouths of these people! We have just been told that the "restoration" of #9 was undone by the "rigors" of running the Loop!!! Further, that the $190,000 bid (by the way, NOT the largest!) was "unexpectedly high"!! (I can't imagine why considering that an expert evaluation estimated the resoration of this engine at $700,000 while the accepted bid was only $250,000 with the engine having to be practically re-built up in Silver Plume!!) We are now to believe that "they are going to take their time and get it right"? (We can only hope so!) 2008 will be when we see it again is about the only thing he said that I believe!!
Did anyone else notice how the emphasis was on the running of the #9 being what damaged it? What a sly little piece of prevarication! Funny, 40 days was all that the #9 managed and yet it was damaged by the rigors of the Loop??!!! (Yeah, right! Go ahead and belive that load of crap and yes, I mean CRAP!!)
Railstar is being set up for the fall on this little screw-up! Oh, I don't expect that it will mean much except that Bell, Behrens and the rest of those incompetents will manage to wriggle out of another mess that they started! Heck, all it will mean in the long run is that the State will have to shell out another million dollars or so to get this mess sorted out. The Loop will be back to what it had in 2005 with the #12 as their "steam engine" with this new Porter diesel as it's back-up (and sometimes companion).
No advance advertising, virtually no winter maintenance program, their "historic #9" down for the season, no mention of the #111.....oh yes, the Loop is SO much better off with Bell and the CHS running things! (Sheesh!...)
