I think the bank in Mount Union--at least one of them--was a branch of the Penn Central National Bank.

I kid you not. The bank name still exists. Wouldn't THAT be a hoot on an ATM in the waiting room?

In Orby it's the Community State Bank of Orbisonia. I think there's another non-Penn Central branch there as well, in their relatively newer "supermarket".

Old habit's die hard. Isn't the family that owns the railroad a scrap dealer or used to be? Every scrap dealer (except one, and they make the check out to cash) I know of still deal with lots of CASH. (I deal with more than one or two)

At the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum in Alna, Maine, we were for a very long time reluctant to take credit cards, both because they violated our "olde time" image and because of the bank's percentage. However, once we started stocking some books that sold for $40-50-60, we felt that we had to. We are extremely happy that we did, because (as others have pointed out) offering credit card sales is a major boost to "impulse sales."

I'm sure that EBT would find that the increased sales would be of major benefit to their bottom line.

I would agree, except that the gift shop of the EBT had long been a throwback to the "bad old days" of tourist traps and excursion railroads of the 1960s. About the most expensive item for a while had been the Rainey & Kyper hardback on the EBT (I got mine at the gift shop years ago for $65; now at Amazon.com starting at $125) and then maybe the belt buckle they had for a while; the rest tended to be cheap stuff such as yardsticks, pencils, candy, and t-shirts. They continued to sell the old Semaphore 7" 33.3 record long after most of us gave up our record players.

I truly would have loved to be able to spend more on quality merchandise at the station. As it was, usually the Rockhill Trolley Museum had a more interesting and diverse line of secondhand books and magazines to attract my dollars--and I'm not even a traction fan, per se!

Note--this info is several years old by now. If the FEBT has brought in a merchandising wizard that has restocked with a wonderful variety of things for me to buy, I certainly haven't heard about it.

Here's a brainstorming idea: Buy the property/properties behind the station. Build a more modern "visitor's center" with handicapped-accessible restrooms, and a better food stand, and an interactive display to explain what they're boarding, and the credit card/ATM machines. Preserve the "time capsule" and photo angles of old, but give Modern Mr./Mrs. Minivan/SUV Driver and their 2.3 kids the modern conveniences they expect--WiFi if needed. But let them cross the street into a time warp with train orders, cranked phones, punched paper tickets (no bar codes, please), Railway Express Agency baggage, and the like.

The first time I was in the station (Feb. '76), they were selling old paper forms from the railroad at prices that even a poor college student like me could afford! I'm sure they burned through all of that long ago, but I'll bet there's still some of that stuff out there in various collections. Of course, now it would be totally against preservation protocol to allow original railroad documents to leave the property like that. It's been a couple of years since I've been there, but yeah, it's not exactly the gift shop/book store at Strasburg (EBT leans heavily on the kiddie trinkets). I'm sure that they sell the stuff that gets purchased most and has the biggest return. And yes, I've spent less there than I might otherwise have because they don't take plastic.

The EBT is a treasure in itself. The only problem you have in front of you is Joe himself. He likes advertise that he is ready to sell but in the end you get the run around and the price every days seems to go up and up and up until any business person and investors state they can't afford to take the risk and the debt load to make it happen.

The real problem you have is Joe does not want to give out any Income Statements, Profit and Loss, Cash Flow on the EBT even under non-disclosure agreements so for any investment company its very hard to go raise money without getting some of these important items. Most folks who run small businesses realize that any bank will want these items to make sure they will get there money back if they lend you X dollars.

Still to this day Joe is very much stuck on quoting there is 3 to 4 million dollars worth of scrap on the ground and in the stalls. Since the scrap business is very much a cash business it does not surprise me to see that the EBT only takes cash.

Yes I'm speaking from experience and can claim that our firm is one of those folks who tried for a year but in the end Joe would not make the deal unless you had cash money and I mean a whole lot of it. The most frustrating part was Joe would not even meet with with our firm unless we had all of the money in had. This in itself leaves a non-real world perspective that I wonder if Joe understands or if he is looking for cash on the table and you get the railroad. I can say it came to the tune of half 100 million for everything. So even if you had investors with deep pockets you would be better off buying a short-line railroad then buying the EBT.

Beside what you see at Rock Hill and Orbisonia there is 20,000 + acres of land, coal, timber and sorry the gas/oil has been sold out to another company. I feel the only way this is going to be saved is if Stanely does quits and well Joe passes on. I think Joe understands what he has and wants top dollar for anyone who is willing to buy it. Until that time comes good luck to anyone who tries as Joe is very well know in the railroad industry as a hard person to deal with. Just ask anyone who calls the scrap yard for rail to buy and there is a famous speak in the industry called the "Walmart" speech that people have been given about trying to get quotes and wanted the same price the next day. Also make sure you have cash in hand other wise your counted out as not being able to buy.

No Visa/MC and no ATM? Yikes - he's losing a lot of business. Tourists expect you to take Visa/MC. Chances are that would have caught me off-guard and I would have left. Might have searched the town for an ATM, or just ridden Rockhill instead.

Does Rockhill Trolley have an ATM? They could make out if they did, EBT would send people there.

Visa/MC charges a merchant fee, typically 2-5%, and the amount is partly a function of your creditworthiness and your relationship with banks. If an outfit doesn't have Visa/MC, there might be something going on that's "none of our business". Or they may just disagree in principle with sharing that fraction of their gross -- after all, lots of people who could pay cash will now charge. A merchant can't deter them by surcharging for Visa/MC, though they can discount for cash.

I hear that the Kovalchicks have some somewhat eccentric views on business modeling and GAAP... okay, might explain a negative view of credit cards.

Hmm, Private owners who are eccentric. Imagine that :)

According to their website, Rockhill does accept Visa/MC.

I bought a copy of the magazine at Union Station. (I had to asked a salesperson to help me find it!)

I think the article accurately describes the present situation. This was a great placement for the story and hopefully will attract some attention across a broader audience.

Wesley

I know for a fact that this very issue derailed a serious purchase inquiry which I was assisting. The businessmen I was helping walked away from the figurative table muttering many malicious musings about Joe K's sanity and/or business sense; basically it was a "non-starter" because of Joe's intransigence--and I would say the one gentleman is almost as equally obstinate and anti-government as Joe K. is alleged to be!

As it turns out, I just tripped over a couple e-mails related to this topic, from back in those discussions. What's below is a well-reasoned approach from someone with lots of experience in matters like this, and someone who knows the EBT better than I do, and is a consolidation from a couple e-mails: