Re: IMHO The Bottom Line

One thing all you proponents of setting up a "museum" in the depot are unaware of is that the railroad conducts its business out of the depot. Ticket sales and the like. The depot is occupied folks. And it is occupied by functions that are traditional to the railroad. You know, sort of historic. The only space available is the waiting room area on the north end that measures approx 20 x 40 feet. The depot as a museum is out of the question. So give it up.

Now, where to put that pesky visitor/interpretive center. Well if one looks up from the depot you can already see a structure that was modernized last year into a very expensive two room rental unit above the Narrow Gauge Gift shop with New Orleans style balconeys overlooking the yards. There is some vacant or at least empty lot space just south of that building. Money is probably the issue as I have no clue of the ownership of said property. Maybe Roger knows.



Also, funding for the visitor/interpretive center has been brought up several times in this debate. A point of information, grants are being pursued to finance this project because of its function as an interpretive facility. These grants are funds from organizations that focus on these types of projects. In other words the group that has been working on this has been doing their homework and out beating the bushes for new and as yet untapped sources of money to move forward with securing the future of the railroad. Once an interpretive/visitor center is established, this demonstrates to foundations and the like that the Friends are actually living up to one of their mission goals which in turn attracts more funding and grant money. This is a very complicated process and there are fiends members now that have proven experience raising funds.

Just as with the much maligned Antonito CRF, and its "ugly" box look, it is not so much a "build it and they will come" as it is "build it and they will send you more money" because now the Friends have something tangible for the grant foundations to look at and say, by golly, they really mean business. The new building has already been a key factor in grants that were previously unavailable. Yes the CRF building style dosen't look very Rio Grande 50ish, but it was built away from the other structures Which frankly my dear don't look like Rio Grande either except for the copy cat depot. The most that can be said is that the Antonito end is funtional. The style of the CRF building is a long sordid story and all the bitchin' ain't gonna change it. Suffice to say that it is going to turn out some real fine cars. The Antonito work crews really like it. By the time a storage yard is put in and it is filled up with cars to rebuild you won't hardly be able to see the building. Rest assured, the Chama CRF will have much thought put into its design.

Phew, how did I get from there to here.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/24/2007 05:00PM by Mark Valerius.