> it could expose RYPN to litigation

There's your answer in a phrase. When railroad preservationists are afraid to publish their opinions publicly about which artifacts should be saved, it exposes the primary reason why most of them never will.

Everyone is scared to death of the "L" word. The Hagerstown Roundhouse is a prime example of the curse. CSX was willing to donate the facility to the preservationists. What they wanted in exchange was for the City of Hagerstown and/or the State of Maryland to indemnify them from future possible litigation.

Hagerstown wouldn't, Maryland wouldn't, and CSX did the only sensible thing left. Now there is no future lawsuits against CSX, and no Western Maryland roundhouse.

My $0.02

The Cumbres & Toltec situation seems to be stabilizing, but they have been something of a poster child for the challenges facing railroad preservation.

They are a large property, (requiring large amounts of money to maintain) far enough from other tourist “draws” to make reliance on train ride revenue irrational, especially for capital projects.

They are owned by two states, Colorado and New Mexico. The states, especially Colorado have not always been willing to meet their financial commitments to support the railroad. These commitments are renewed annually, with the result is a line frequently too short of funds for winter maintenance work.. The line has had the support of a very active support group, the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec, who have tried to support the shop in lean times, and even took over the operating contract for several years (via a separately chartered organization). To some extent, the railroad (as a government owned entity) is charted to aid economic development in the area (especially in the eyes of Colorado) and there are expectations related to that charter that don’t always match with rational business decisions.

This crisis of long term funding has occurred at a time the railroad has been challenged by a series of other issues, some local, some national, including: The new FRA boiler rules, requiring significant work and investment in their locomotives, and leading to a locomotive shortage several years ago (that crisis is now past), Needed long term maintenance on a the track and roadbed of a relatively long mountain railroad. A National Forest Service mandated shut down due to fire danger brought on by an extended drought in the Rockies, a problem contract operator (now long gone), and the National Insurance crisis.

Thanks to the Friends of the Cumbres and Toltec who provided life support as needed I think the C&T has now turned the corner,

Many of these issues are affecting other properties. I suspect that we will see others suffer through similar crisis. The FRA rules are requiring significant investments in steam locos all across the country. The long term effect will be positive, but in the mean time there are a lot of locos no longer able to operate. The insurance crisis is real, and doesn’t seem to be getting any better. Many museums probably have some sort of long term maintenance time bomb hiding over the horizon. It may not be 80 miles of track, instead it may be a 100 year old steel bridge, or a tunnel, or a large collection of wooden cars which are slowly deteriorating “out back”.

Forgive my nay-saying, but there's a HUGE difference between indemnifying someone against litigation for slander/libel and imdemnifying them against, say, potentially nightmarish environmental clean-up costs or injury from tripp ing over a rail.

CSX, unfortunately, had a point. Can you imagine CSX being included in an ADA lawsuit because, heavens to mergatroid, the Western Maryland didn't build the facility free of wheelchair obstructions? Tragically, we have evidence that such a lawsuit can be brought and would be dragged through the courts, sanity or common sense be damned.

So, out of curiosity, has anyone ever brought a defamation suit against the National Trust for Historic Preservation? Or, as I suspect is really the case, has the NTHP been shrewd enough to side-step that possibility by choosing only "politicaly correct" nominees with no private entity behind them to be defamed (see "New Orleans houses"--too broad a brush)?

As for my earlier remark about the Cumbres & Toltec, my comment was based solely on the fact that the line has dozens of miles of narrow-gauge track twisting between two states in a remote area, and as much as I support both the states and the Friends of the C&TS in their efforts, I have trouble believing that the line can be properly maintained with the typical state "shoestring" budgets and volunteers. I'd love to be proven wrong and be shown photos of the super-secret R.J. Corman narrow-gauge tie-replacing train kept in reserve and out-of-sight somewhere, but having seen deteriorating track conditions on other non-profit rail preservation lines only a fraction of the length of the C&TS, I have to wonder.