Subject:
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Re: TSRR #500 and the Texas State Railroad Project
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.trains, lugnet.general
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Date:
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Fri, 6 Jul 2007 17:22:12 GMT
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Viewed:
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662 times
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In lugnet.trains, Anthony Sava wrote:
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I didn’t start this looking for a cause...
In looking for a design, I stumbled upon the Texas State Railroad, an amazing
state park that I never knew existed. They own 5 and operate 4 steam
locomotives on regular (daily in the summer) excursion-seeing trips between
Palestine and Rusk Texas, where one steam locomotive departs each city moving
towards each other, and passing each other half-way through. It is the only
place in the USA where you can still see two steam locomotives pass each
other.
Unfortunately, they’re under a budget crisis, and may soon be closed down and
turned into static displays. They were set to close down on December 31st of
2006, but were given a reprieve till August 2007.
Please take the time to visit their website and sign their petition. It’s a
token gesture, sure, but who knows, it might just convince enough people in
the right places to restore the park’s proper funding.
http://www.texasstaterailroad.com/
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Well I have an update, if anyone is interested. It looks as if the TSRR has
been saved, but not in the most favorable way. Instead of giving it the money
it needs, the Texas Government decided to give operational control to a
specifically created board made up of people from Rusk and Palestine, Texas.
This board will be in charge of deciding what private group will run the TSRR,
and they’ve chosen the group that runs the Durango and Silverton Narrow Gauge in
Colorado and the Smokey Mountain Railroad in North Carolina.
I’m happy in that these locomotives are saved and will not be turned into a
static display (steam engines need to be run regularly or they break down), but
I am saddened to know that they will be forced to turn a profit and thus be
turned into a super tourist- trap. On top of that the TSRR is no longer under
the operational control of Texas Parks and Wildlife, which I think means they
will no longer be considered an official Texas State Park.
--Tony
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | TSRR #500 and the Texas State Railroad Project
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| I didn't start this looking for a cause... After playing around with my two steam locomotives on the few TexLUG displays I've attended, I decided I needed a steam locomotive that was a bit more layout friendly. My American 4-4-0 (6-wide) doesn't (...) (18 years ago, 5-Jan-07, to lugnet.trains, lugnet.general, FTX) !!
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