Having operated and maintained railroads for most of my career with similar and even steeper grades with both freight and passenger trains including haz mat I do not see any extreme safety issues. Extended range dynamics, something I have never had, would be a nice feature but a pressure maintaining feature on the air brakes would probably be more usefull with less maintaince. If you have neither retainers will do the job with little delay to a short train like we are talking about. From a mechanical and operating stand point I see no big problems running tourist trains over Saluda.

We are all aware that this is a numbers game and if enough people are willing to pay enough money for tickets the operating costs are not an issue. The question few, if any, of us have the answer to is are there enough revenue dollars available to make the operation a success? On the positive side access to the interstate highway is close by and there are thousands of tourists in the area looking for something to do for a couple of hours. Of course getting people off the highway often takes something on the order of an armed road block. Perhaps the biggest issue to overcome is the very successful operation a couple of ridges over called the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad. You would be competing for many of the same dollars and they have many years operation and far better name recognition than any new operator would. Indeed it may be that the only way an operation on Salude would be sucessful would be if the line were operated by GSMR.

All of the above is just speculation so long as NS still owns the railroad. I have heard nothing indicating the railroad was willing to part with this line. Unlike some other railroads the NS does not abandon or sell lines that they may have a use for in the future. I have to conclude NS sees some potential for operation in the future and suspect they will be reluctant to turn it over to another operator. Perhaps the new administration at NS will see things differently but we will have to wait and see.

John Bohon

My comments were based on it being a reciprocating(rod) steam operation with no dismals involved. Based on that qualifier I stand by my comments.
And most importantly as long as NS has title to the property it AIN'T gonna happen!!
Ross Rowland

One of the purposes for this forum is that of education. Education in the areas of operation, museum management, steam repair, curation, and business. Yet, whenever an issue comes up such as this one people base there statements on what they would like to see rather than what is in fact the reality of whatever may be the situation/issue at hand.
Does C&TS operate over a 4% grade? Sure, have they been shut down by the FRA in the past because they were unable to maintain there track and rolling stock because of lack of funds? Yes, would they be operating now if not for the long time continued funding from the states of CO and NM? No.
I would hate to see Salude go away, having walked most all of it I can attest to the fact that it is spectacular.....But, there is not a market for it to live long term. The rail is in good shape(still inspected by hirail however often) and could be used for several years(5 or so) without a huge expenditure but then there would be a need for real investment on a yearly basis to keep it up. During this period of "easy operating" there would be a good bit of ridership both from the railfan and public at large demographic groups. But then, about the time that dies of would come the need for right of way and rolling stock reinvestment with no source of sufficiant income.
In England there is a very impressive railpreservation movement over there...tourist lines that operate as part of or in conjunction with the national transportation system. Why, because there is more of a united front. That is people largely work together for the greater good of the industry, share tools, parts and information. Versus that of the operating mentality of groups here such as IRM with the entire McCabe collection whom are unwilling to part with any of many duplicate machines or even lend out patterns for the casting of dies to groups with a real need all because of a "this is my toy box" view on things. Then we have groups such as the 210whatever who have the idea that they know what they are doing simply because they have an engine and maybe read a book or watched the "running a steam locomotive" video. They have installed or allowed the installation of a burner system that may work fine on stationary boilers but spells death for a firebox of that size in a boiler with such varied load demand. I sent a very polite email to that group and basically got a f@$k off response. What I had stated was not opinion but fact in the world of thermal dynamics.....like it or not.
My point in all of this is when posts are made to this board....even if the content is not popular, one should step back and rather than make a reactionary response, maybe think about or even ask why it made.

Lay off IRM.

OK, maybe its the heat, maybe its the humidity, but once again, folks seem to be forgetting the RyPN Interchange Guidelines.

You can read them chapter and verse at the link above, but they boil down largely to "no flaming." We interpret direct attacks on the mangement practices of specific organizations as flames, so, this thread too is locked. Feel free to restart under another heading, sticking to constructive criticism and/or best practices.

Folks, this gets old. These have always been the rules. Please observe them.