Bad news: the reported paperwork snafu with the Georgetown Loop RR's #12 has been confirmed via the Denver Post article below.

Good news: Apparently just a bit of pencil-pushing and bureaucracy involved, shouldn't delay opening around Memorial Day. Post even calls the missing state permit "obscure":

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36%257E53%257E2811095,00.html?search=filter

Apparently no registration required at the Denver Post website. And since I never worked on the Georgetown Loop RR, rode it, chased it, or gave it money, I'll defer all commentary. (Put down the locks, Erik and Randy!)

I was out there last year for the last weekend. The old operators were a great bunch of guys/gals. I wish them well. And, for the store, hotel and restaurant owners I met, I wish the new operators well...

Is Georgetown Loop not operating under FRA, and is this why state boiler law applies?

Oh, and by the way, isn't she (#12) cute! Talk about photogenic. But, is she strong enough for the hills?

The Loop is not (and wasn't ever) under FRA; however, the former operators pretty much kept the locomotives up to their standards anyhow.

As for the 12's power, it can haul trains on the Loop; they'll just be noticeably shorter in length.

I did work at the Loop for several years as master mechanic - the line operates entirely on ROW owned by the Colorado Historical Society and crosses no public highways or waterways and is considered insular, much like a theme park train with a Crown 4-4-0.

The railroad itself is a much more punishing, intensive line than a theme park, however. The economics were such that the capacity of an 8 car train with about 32 seats per car was about the same as the capacity of the parking lot. It therefore was important to have locomotives that could haul cars enough to seat that number of passengers. They also had to be reliable enough to survive doing it up those hills 6 times a day every day.

Keeping a steam locomotive operating while it was tearing itself apart fully loaded on those grades required a high standard of maintenence, and at least three locomotives - one getting repairs, one on the train, and one ready to go on the train. They ideally should be more modern, heavily built, and superheated than the light, fragile, historic 1800's 2-8-0's. The Shays worked very well, the heavy Baldwin ouside frame 2-8-0's also. Not much larger would fit around the cut curve.

I have never laid hands on Railstar 12 - nor do I know what number, weight and capacity cars Railstar may be providing so I certainly can't comment on suitability of whatever train they will be operating in service. 12 may be able to haul 4 or 5 lighter cars capable of carrying the same passenger load or not - time will tell.

The State accepted Hartford inspection on GLRR steam. Of course, all the boilers were pedigreed back to Baldwin or Lima. I assume Hartford would inspect a Mammoth boiler if it were provably built legally to ASME code. Whether or not that paper train exists or can be developed is another question I will not try to answer from a position of ignorance of particulars.

Might hint that there are some nice American built 3 foot gage 2-8-0's for sale through a steam society in Spain now from a tropical island nation. There are also certified code boilermakers available to make new boilers for them with unquestionable pedigrees. Nudge nudge.......

Dave

Something to keep in mind about the 12 is that in addition to the lower rated(from the factory) tractive effort the loco is only operating at 120 psi down from 190. I can't say what that engine will be able to haul, but I can say that with a current tractive effort of 9,996 down from 15,827 original and versus that of the 40 @ 20,600, the 12 @ 25,380 and the 14 @ 25,380 I can't help but to wonder as to why this loco was chosen. After all, why pull a train that does not have the capacity to provide the passenger seating necessary to make enough money to pay the bills? Keeping in mind that the cars they will have (initially anyway, don't know about future plans) are significantly heavier than those of the previous operator.
Now for the disclaimer, I have no agenda, I wish the railroad and the operator my very best (CHS is another story). It's just troublesome to me that it does in fact look like there have already been some bad decisions made before the first wheel has turned under it's own power.