Does anyone know if this is legit? A couple of issues have me a little purplexed about this. First they are only raising $10,000. Second, no current pictures of the former WP Train Station as it is now. Third, I cannot tell if they want to rebuild the station or rehab it, it is rather confusing from the doco.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-black-rock-station
You can watch the video.
I did. I just became more confused. I question if they may be partaking in some recreational pharmaceuticals.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
"Black Rock City" is the name given by Burning Man organizers to the dry lakebed which serves as the home of their annual festival. It does not appear in the 1929 or 1959 Western Pacific timetables, not even for the Zephyrette.
The blueprint they show lists the station's builder as the "Black Rock Transportation Company", not WP. The animation in the video and many of the photos on their website appears to be from Trainz.
The nearest real town to the Burning Man site, Gerlach, does appear in timetables and was a stop even for WP's premier trains. The old station still appears on Google Earth and street view shows some vehicles parked outside in 2009, making it appear to be in use at that time.
Gerlach was also the junction with a US Gypsum railroad, one street view image shows their blue and white GE 70 tonner sitting on the other side of the yard. The Empire operation it served closed in 2011, and while it has since been sold and reopened I am not sure what became of its railroad.
I'm not sure what their real angle is, but I won't be donating to it.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
SD70Dude
Thankyou for the detailed answer, it looked rather like a hippie thing to me too. I will steer clear as well.
Did you have to read any further than 'Molly McButter' Stevens to figure some of this out? Cycling through eight periods of time like some deflicted Tardis? Cheap Blair Witch Project video effects?
I took it to be a Hare Raiser for the pandemic generation. They could have some fun at a Burning Man by installing some cheap multimedia effects in a 'station building' to get folks indulging in too much recreational chemurgy to sample the eight-era experience...
This has all the hallmarks of one of those eBay auctions: $10,000 for a 'Rolex' where the item turns out to be a photocopy of a picture of an empty Rolex box.
I like to show my work. Old habit from school that stuck with me I guess.
They might as well have claimed that the station poofed in there from an alternate universe or timeline where the so-called "Black Rock City" actually had a station.
I agree that liberal doses of one's favourite recreational pharmaceuticals would be necessary to experience any of the effects they claimed, not to mention seeing a station there in the first place.......
It wasn't a complete waste of time, I learned about the US Gypsum railroad from Gerlach to Empire and the regular crew who ran it:
https://nevadamagazine.com/issue/may-june-2018/6573/
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.