http://www.bsrw.org/BSRW_Press_Release_8-23-11.pdf

Byesville Scenic Railway, Inc.
100 Tolliver Trail
P.O. Box 254
Byesville, Ohio 43723
www.bsrw.org

PRESS RELEASE
8-23-11
BYESVILLE SCENIC RAILWAY, INC.
P.O. BOX 254
BYESVILLE, OHIO 43723
bsrw.org

“Byesville Scenic Railway to temporarily suspend its passenger service”

Byesville Scenic Railway’s President, Tim Brown, reports the Byesville Scenic Railway
has temporary suspended it passenger service as of 8-21-11.

This action comes as a result of the railroad track owner, Byesville Scenic Trails, LLC;
Mr. Jerry Jacobson, of Sugarcreek, Ohio providing a written notice without warning
or reason to the Byesville Scenic Railway to terminate their railroad track lease
agreement.

Brown, stated “Our Board was shocked and has no explanation for Mr. Jacobson’s
actions”

The Byesville Scenic Railway will be working with the former owner of the railroad
track, the Cambridge-Guernsey County Community Improvement Corporation and
Byesville Scenic Trails, LLC to hopefully quickly resolve the situation and resume
passenger service.

The Byesville Scenic Railway will continue to operate its coal mining and railroad
museum, static train equipment displays and our new “Coal Miner’s Journey”
performances.

The Byesville Scenic Railway will be open as published in our brochures and on the
web site www.BSRW.org and additional information may be obtained by contacting
the Cambridge/Guernsey County Visitors & Convention Bureau by calling 1-800-933-
5480 or visit www.VisitGuernseyCounty.com

Persons who have pre-purchased tickets for train rides or for our October 8
th wine train may contact us for a full refund.

The Byesville Scenic Railway wishes to apologize for any inconvenience to our
visitors and tourism partners. Brown states, “This suspension of passenger service
could impact the entire county and the region’s tourism industry and especially
Dickens Victorian Village. The Board of Directors and our volunteers have acted
swiftly to re-craft the experience for visitors and residents alike so that the tourism
industry does not feel the affects of Mr. Jacobson’s actions.

It would certainly appear there's more to this story, but I have no info on the matter.

Byesville's website says:

"On August 23rd, 2011 The Byesville Scenic Railway made its final payment for its signature train "The Black Diamond", consisting of center-cab diesel #386 and open-window passenger coaches 4323 & 4362. Our train was purchased from Jerry Jacobson of the Ohio Central Railroad in 2006 for permanent and exclusive use in passenger service in Byesville."

Two days after their track lease was terminated by JJJ? Curious.

Walt L.

That makes no sense to me...then again what do I know?

It appears that they have been paying on the diesel and two passenger cars since 2006. And you would have them forego the final payment? I do not know what the circumstances are with the cancellation of the track lease, but I would imagine we will eventually find out the reason.

I too feel there is more to this story that meets the eye. I can't see with all that he did on the OC and in helping out the BSRR, Jerry just up an pulling the plug on something like this without extremely good reasoning.

Could it possibly due to something related to the G&W buyout of the OC and its subsidiaries, including the Columbus and Ohio River Railroad which operates the line into Byesville? Speculation, of course.

The BSRR was making good progress on the opening of the line into Cumberland, OH.

Maybe Jerry plans to use the line himself for his collection, though not certain what would change since he already leased 1293 to Byesville several times. Only JJ can clear up this little mystery and I'm sure over time it will clear up. My comment falls under the usual category of uniformed useless speculation.....

This is very curious on the lease. I wouldn't think that JJJ was going to use the line. But then G&W like the previous writer said owns the track to Byesville. When you look at their web site you will see that Byesville has done a lot of work toward Cumberland. I can't believe that Jerry pull the plug unless there was a good reason.

Went on their website today, out of curiosity:

"We are pleased to announce we have resumed operations!"

This was scrolling across the top of the screen - so they worked something out?

sounds like they may have gotten their point across.

It is strange he would do that, someone who is so interested in restoring steam, going out and buying 763 to restore, etc etc pull a stunt like that.

It reminds me of the effect of MTH trains making the HO Erie Triplex which I applaud and then they slap the Virginian paint scheme on it. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?!?!? (fantasy paint job the excuse, -dont wanna tool up to make the real VGN triplex?- )

I own the model Westside VGN Triplex now. Real deal model, fixing-working on it, crawls like a dream.

This all fits with what I know of JJJ. He makes rash decisions usually based on greed or grossly unfounded paranoia....more likely the first though. He generally does not like to see others succeed in something he is involved with unless he is getting the most possible out of it, even if this means he has to force a change to an original contract.
Without anyone getting hurt feelings over that statement I ask, does that not fit the events? Operation forced to cease for no reason, a bit of time goes by and operations resume. Translation: He decides he needs to be making more money off of their hard work and forces there hand by means utilizing a provision in the lease to shut them down.

Sounds about right.

John

I think before bashing starts (or rather, continues) it should be noted that, according to the BSRR website, the Cambridge-Guernsey Community Improvement Corp. (CIC) owns the ROW from Byesville south to Derwent, not Jerry Jacobson. This is the portion of ROW that they Scenic Line runs on (and continues to work on south to Cumberland).

It was purchased by CIC in 2000, in order to continue service to a manufacturer in Derwent, after flooding in 1998 destroyed most of the line south of Byesville. I would assume that OC and now G&W had operating rights to provide service, but no outright ownership.

I think the only link to Jerry is that the equipment was purchased from him (or leased?).

This temporary shut down may have had something to do with CIC and not Jerry at all.

Speculation of course, but it's better than outright bashing someone, when there are little details to go on and or back up statements.

Just sayin....

Yet the article above, taken directly from Byesville's web page, in their press release, it clearly mentions Jerry Jacobsen and his lease...

Anything new on this situation? I'm hoping i don't start any "war" discussions. I have my reservations about JJJ, but this is not a bashing forum. I'm asking whoever replies to this to keep it professional, please.

Oddly, the Railroad Museum of Pa. is sponsoring a bus trip through Western Pennsylvania and Ohio, which includes as one of its stops the Byesville Scenic Railroad and its coal mining museum:

http://www.rrmuseumpa.org/membership/ra ... e-2015.pdf

So at least something is still functioning there. Or their tour planners didn't get various memos.