jd johnson wrote, "Isn't this the same railroad that has 30 plus miles of auto rack or flat cars stored there?"


No, the San Luis & Rio Grande RR, headquartered in Alamosa, owns the track from Walsenburg to South Fork and Alamosa to Antonito, CO.

It would seem to me that if the EBT is still considered not abandon this railroad would likely be safe. Should this case be lost I think EBT could be in jeopardy of losing many parts of their ROW. In the mid sixties EBT was forced to run the M-1 to Saltillo to prove their ROW was still being used as a railroad. The land was wanted for a school.

If I were this group I think I would investigate bringing in a small locomotive and freight car, giving notice to the city to restore the ROW, and running some sort of train.

John Bohon

I think most of the cars stored on the SLVRG tracks are obsolete and destined for scrapping. Meanwhile, the RR enjoys the revenue generated from storing them. At least that's what I heard when I was there 10/6.

Bill

Didn't a NARCOA group use that stretch recently?

My understanding of the situations involved with such abandonments--and a lot of this has been unintentionally aided and abetted by a Mr. James Riffin--is that "abandonment" can mean just about any damned thing the local officials and railroad want it to badly enough.

There was a legend about in central Pennsylvania that, in a partial attempt to counter another encroachment attempt besides the aforementioned M-1 trip to Saltillo on the EBT, some early-generation FEBT "renegades" attempted to hack their way through the saplings and operate section cars over other parts of the EBT in an attempt to claim operation and fend off other encroachment attempts. As I've been told from numerous sources, the EBT was never officially abandoned, but some adjacent property owners have tried for years to contest the EBT's status and reclaim their former property.

The blunt truth is, the status of a "questionable" property such as Creede's or the EBT's non-functional ROWs is subject to the whims of sympathetic judges. To any reasonable outsider, we're dealing with VERY murky shades of gray here at best, and to be honest, just because we like railroads doesn't mean we're always going to win, either in the courts of law or of public opinion.

HOD Bill wrote, "SLVRG tracks."

Let's try to get the railroads right - SL&RG, not SLVRG.

Again, let's be careful here. The town of Creede is not petitioning for adverse abandonment of the entire 22 mile "Creede Branch", (which runs from the town of South Fork to Creede), only the last mile where the RR ROW enters town. I say ROW, because, unlike the rest of the line, some of this is not intact, thanks to parking lots and such-like. That little detail is important, and is likely the reason the RR was pushing for the board to deny one of the town's requested filing requirement exemptions.

And to answer a question asked earlier by Robin Warren, yes, the Rocky Mountain Division of NARCOA has run on the line on numerous occasions, including earlier this year, in conjunction with work sessions. I've no idea how much of the line they've operated on, but I believe it's a significant portion.

Scott

This is America and what the group does is none of my business, but they seemed to be getting off-target a bit when they started acquiring equipment with no historical bearing to the territory, such as the FEC 4-6-2 that probably won't run again without an expensive new boiler.

I figured they would start off small, with enough track repairs for public motorcar rides, then with improvements, run a little train of covered flatcars and a caboose behind their 44-tonner, which is of D&RGW heritage. It's been several years now since the project began, with little involvement of the public, which I feel is important to get such a venture off the ground. Groups that start small and build seem to do better than those that make grand announcements and don't deliver, having bitten off more than they can chew.