Courant: CHS seeks to boost Loop revenue, ridership

Over at the Clear Creek Courant's website, there is a new (8/8/2007) article on the loop. Here's a link to the article:
Clear Creek Courant: CHS seeks to boost Loop revenue, ridership

Key points of the article are:

(1) CHS has 3-year business plan to increase revenues and ridership.

(2) The CHS's plan says that the CHS needs another $5.3 *million* in order “to achieve a reliable core of equipment and to address years of deferred maintenance".

(3) Delivery of #1203 has been delayed until September.

(4) #111 should be ready at the beginning of next season.

(5) #1203 is 16,000 lbs --8 tons-- heavier than any other locomotive to have operated on the reconstructed loop.

(6) Because of #1203's weight, engineering firms are inspecting all the Loop's bridges.

Now, my commentary:

Anyone care to speculate how the "years of deferred maintenance" occurred? That doesn't seem possible to me, given that the current operator has only been on site for 3 years.

Also, I'm surprised that the structural analyses were not done sooner, preferrably *prior* to the purchase of #1203. Had #1203 been finished on time -- no offense intended to the SV guys -- and been shipped to Silver Plume on time, the CHS would have had a locomotive ready to go yet not know whether or not it was truly safe to operate her over the Loop's bridges. I wonder what came first: the CHS contracting for structural analyses *OR* Skip's publicly posting on here about his concern about #1203 being too heavy for the Loop's bridges?

Finally, somebody needs to update the Georgetown Colorado website to link to the current article.

--
Chris Webster
[www.speakeasy.org]