caldreamerCall me a skeptic, but lets put it this way. I have a much better chance of getting the check from Publishers Clearing House without doing anything than the Raton Pass EVER being reactivate.
Don't believe Raton Pass has been deactivated. It only hosts Amtrak but it is still active. Tennessee Pass is another pass.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Call me a skeptic, but lets put it this way. I have a much better chance of getting the check from Publishers Clearing House without doing anything than the Raton Pass EVER being reactivate.
I will say just the one thing: Odds of developing property in the Minturn yard area: 104%.
Anything actively connected with running trains: I don't think they really care.
The past is a great place to visit, but living there often proves fatal. I don't think reactivation of TP HAS to happen, so I doubt that it will happen.
The sentimentality of the "lost causes", Saluda, Tennessee Pass, Milwaukee Transcon, the traditional diner cars on passenger trains, Brakemen, Firemen, steam...etc etc... nice that we remember those things, but it does get tedious after a while.
Yes, I know it's currently tied up in the courts. But between the NIMBY opposition (which is sad, but - let's face it - kind of predictable), the rather light potential usefulness of the railroad even if it's reactivated (correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't traffic been falling OFF the Moffat Line for two decades now? I'm not sure what - if any - redundancies Colorado, Midland & Pacific hopes to profit off of with reactivation [other than a kind of nebulous idea of running passenger service to Vail, which is, in of itself, somewhat dubious considering that most of your passengers would presumably originate in Denver, and then have to take a circuitous routing down to Pueblo, before traveling NW over the pass]), Colorado Pacific's ardent (might we even say vindictive at this point? They're like a spurned lover for UP's castoffs) resistance to the sale, and the substantial rehabilitation costs, there definitely seem like a number of roadblocks here.
Believe me: I WANT to see railroading return to Tennessee Pass - to me and a lot of other people, it and Saluda represent America's two most magnificent lost railroads (special shoutout to the Milwaukee's Pacific Extension and Homestake Pass, though), and it would be lovely to see traffic return. I just worry that this particular dream is a bridge too far considering the obstacles between us and wheels rolling.
What kind of odds do you give it of actually happening?
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