David Brightbill, longtime Conductor at the EBT, asked me to post this message for him on RyPN to address some of the questions raised and dispell some of the concerns in the recent EBT thread. He would have done so himself, but he is having a little technical difficulty logging into the Interchange:

"Fact is, yes, the railroad is for sale, yes, there may be an interested party, and Mr. K. will decide if we operate or not in 2008. At this time it is business as usual, and we ARE accepting groups for next year."

If you'd like to email David yourself he can be reached at ebtrr@innernet.net.

Thanks for the update. I assume that the party interested in buying the Railroad will keep it open as a tourist attraction, and not sell everything off?

...which is pretty much the way things have been ever since the Kovalchicks purchased the line.

GME

Of course we are all hoping for a silver lining if something happens. Last time driving around south and west of there, seeing rusty rails in the trees gets one thinking. Might be worth a trip from the Midwest to help clear brush and cut trees, even if only a speeder ride is in the offing. Baby steps first, after a sale (if and when).

Bob Kutella

As if any other kind of buyer would stand a chance with the current ownership?

But let's point something out: ". . . there may be an interested party . . ." [emphasis added, of course]

If you were selling a business, you would never divulge a planned closure; said closure would reduce the value of your business by perhaps 50%. The only good a closing announcement does is drive up your closing business for one last hurrah, in the case of a "nostalgia" business like the EBT or an old diner.

So........ yeah. Absolutely not one iota of change since, say, 1965, except for fewer operating steamers at the moment. So I'm cynical; who here didn't know that?