Several days ago one of my friends emailed me that the TSRR got $400,000 from the state to fund operations through August 2007, with the possibility of more to follow. As of a few minutes ago, neither the friends website nor the official TPWD site have any mention of this. Can anybody please confirm, deny, or provide further information for me ?? Thank you very kindly, in advance.

TSRR - too short to be humor?

Yes, the State came up with the funding to keep TSRR running till August 2007. In a related development, the communities of Rusk & Palestine have formed a public entity out of elements of the TSRR Preservation Task Force with which to accept the assets of TSRR at such point as the State divests itself of the railroad.

I understand the entity is structured so as to accept public funding from a wide array of local, state and possibly Federal sources.

The Flimsies section of RYPN also has some good newspaper articles regarding the TSRR and it's future. Plans are still to try to find a private operator; but the State is aware that much of the maintenance that has been deferred up to now would have to be done before an operator would attempt to operate it at a profit.

One of my sons and I attended the Texas Railfan weekend back in November. As part of the event, we visited the model layout that an individual had in his backyard. He is in constant contact with the mayor of Palestine, and was told by the mayor that Austin has been bombarded by letters about the TSRR. The head of the TSRR park also gave a very good presentation on the current state of the Texas parks system and the TSRR; followed by a very through and interesting shop tour.

-James Hefner
Hebrews 10:20a

Surviving World Steam Project

Thank you both very much for filling in the blanks for me.

As of a few hours ago,regardless of what's been said the railroad is still planning a December shutdown. No money has yet been given to the TSRR for operation next year.stay tuned........