As a rule, unless you're involved (as a customer, a client, or a shareholder) with the business side of a business, such macabre speculation in a public forum is considered bad form. In extreme cases, half-informed or misinformed speculation along those lines have turned into libel suits. Imagine, for example, that a power plant or refinery wants to set up along a short line or contract with the likes of SMS Services (the Baldwin collectors in NJ). Their business types read all the trash talk about how "they're about to go under" (not that they are, by a long shot, but just sayin') on a forum like this, and all of a sudden they reconsider and head for CSX or Conrail Shared Assets. So much for keeping the Baldwins fed and shiny.......

In theory, however, such speculation could be warranted in the cause of preservation. Say, for example, that you're hoping to acquire a specific piece of rolling stock from the American Orient Express trainset for eventual permanent preservation, or preserve a specific branch line now being operated as a short line. Then, saying "Hey, nothing's been moving over the Pawdunk & Potomac for two years now, ever since that plant gave up the ghost. Is the county going to rail-bank it, or do we start a tourist railroad on it? And what about that old Baldwin they were using? Anyone have dibs on that?" or "Is AOE going to come back or not? We want that diner for our train...." ......... That's not unreasonable.

But the original post, as worded, leaves plenty of opportunity for plain ol' "trash-talking" of the sort that's common all over the place on the web. We should avoid that here.

Belfast and Moosehead Lake, in Maine.

I was under the impression that CIRY only discontinued its operations over about 6 route miles in and around Chicago, not its Peoria-area operations.

Steve