One railroad most of "us" seldom pay attention to is the Verde Canyon RR in central Arizona. It's a scenic ride, and little more. They don't really actively "preserve" rail equipment, and basically everything they have is a "tool" and not an "artifact," including the two ex-Alaska FP7s. Hardcore fans would be shocked at the manner in which several of their cars were "tubed" into "first class cars" with sofas and lounge seating. (To be fair, the railroad does acknowledge its history, and has a small museum of rail artifacts displayed in a freight car there.)
Well, some changes are occurring.
The reports are that a new CMO is in place at the railroad, who has actively reached out to some other operations.
The first sign of this is that at least one long-stored passenger car, lastly used as a "haunted rail car" prop during Halloween events, is being reactivated to passenger service to meet an apparent upturn in traffic.
To replace that car, a long-ago-wrecked ex-Southern car is being installed at Clarkdale this morning, having been acquired from the Grand Canyon Railroad's large stash of "spare" equipment, along with a former Atlantic Coast Line baggage-dorm, which also will be refitted for active passenger service.
A fellow NRHS member spotted the latter baggage-dorm car being trucked to Clarkdale the other day. I'm told the VCRR has spare trucks, and the GCRY sold the two cars sans trucks.
| Attachments: |
|
IMG_5007.jpeg [ 134.85 KiB | Viewed 3085 times ] |