Poor management of funds, patrons, scheduling, mechanical, and staff/volunteers have plagued the Nevada Northern for quite some time now. I know that the claim is that the 93 project was started some eight months ago, but that is not entirely true. The project started immediately after its removal from service in August, I believe, of 2007. At the time, a plan was drawn up by the current shop staff. The plan was brought before the Board. It was essentially shot down. It was said that it would cost too much money and take too much time. In hindsite, our plan was folled almost to the "T", only problem is, it cost several hundred thousand dollars more than originally planned. The Nevada Northern at that time had the capabilities to do almost everything required to rebuild the 93 in house. In house repairs typically save lots of money. Around this same time the majority of the shop staff was either fired or quit. Five out of the total seven people working in the shop were gone within a month, rendering the shop almost non-functional. The CMO was fired a few months later, leaving the shop with no machinist. A contract machinist was hired at around $60/hr. The previous machinists were making in the $10-12 range.

Didn't mean to ramble too long. The locomotive was not thoroughly tested, in my opinion. I feel for the patrons that are trying to support the Nevada Northern through this tought time. I hope that someday, we will be able to reclaim the title of one of the best winter shoots in the country. I worked for the Nevada Northern for nearly three years. It took almost that entire time to get to where we were at the end. For those of you who participated in the '06-07 shoots you know what I am talking about. Good luck to all. Thanks for letting me vent.

-Brophy

Chris, thanks for putting some specifics on the table. When the shop's plan was "shot down" by the board was there any discussion of alternatives? And what lead to the departure of five out of the seven shop people? What were the issues that led to that kind of blowup?

I used to be responsible for a program that involved the repair and overhaul of diesel electric units. I was not the mechanical guy, but rather finance and marketing. I can remember a lot of interesting discussions about the trade-offs between scope of work, cost, and reliability, and stuff like that. I ended learning a lot from the mechanical guys, and vice versa. Lots of give and take.

John West

Mr West,

I had posted previously what led to the downfall and the departure of the five of us. The post was removed saying it was a "personal attack". I think the first line of my post sums it up pretty well. Obviously I cannot get into the specifics for fear of them removing it again. Thank you for your interest, and yes there has to be ALOT of give and take. Management must work closely with the mechanical crews.

Chris

I was a former employee of the Nevada Northern. I worked under misdirected guidance for 16 months. I was promised at LEAST 3 raises in that time and saw NONE. I went to work with Mr. David Griner in the shops of NNRY leaving an 11 year career with the State of Nevada. I was lied to and miss led. All that was wanted was good steam help cheap. I took a 25% pay cut all for the benefit of NNRY. I as well as 4 other shop staff were promised change and NEVER saw a thing different. There is a lot more I would like to chat about but this post will be removed for honesty. Please feel free to email me at exnnry@engineer.com for more info. Don't get me wrong, NNRY is a wonderful place. Please do not let it get beat into the ground. Its well on that path now.

Churm, I for one appreciate your willingness to post here. But I hope you will be willing to deal with some questions about what you said. My experence has been that there are usually two sides to these kinds of issues, and hopefully everyone can benefit from some candid debate, whether you agree with the other points of view or not.

What were the kinds of changes promised and what didn't happen? Or perhaps put another way, what is the basic problem you see at the NN. If you would rather not post here, please feel free to backchannel me at "jbwest@att.net".

John West

Gentlemen,

This subject has been beaten to death. I appreciate the passions of the people involved, but in my opinion any further discussion can only serve to hurt the railroad and the cause of preservation that we all care about. Therefore this topic is now locked.