Cosmo wrote:daylight4449 wrote:You are right Otto, words do have meanings. And I do believe that at this point, as depressing as it is, the Yankee is better off in the scrap heap... We have finite resources, and far more worthy projects than a streamliner that has been royally been mismanaged and hasn't been touched. Eventually the Yankee could get thrown out, someone in the state will propose that it's sold for junk, you know the drill. How much of RMNE's stuff stands to end up in a junk yard because of the conditions and lack of available funding? Or Danbury's, or CT Eastern's? The Yankee could have been running by now if the whole project was properly managed. And now what? Work's only getting done when the Clark Family decides to foot the bill. But with all of the know facts and all the known problems, who would willingly invest in it? If you really want to save it, get it away from the State, and get a group together with a decent business plan and investors behind them. Otherwise, she's done.
Dylan, ... to quote The Big Lebowski :
"WHAT in God's Holy Name are you BLATHERING about?"
Maybe I should offer a clearer thesis... We only have so much money, and so many people willing to
provide that money. It's a common problem for any 501c(3). Now, what about people to work on the Yankee? Where are they? Last I checked the Clark's finished the weatherization on the Yankee. That costs them money, resources, etc. So, who's sending donations at the Yankee right now? I'm sure as hell not... And why would I? There's no clear business plan, the leadership is apparently absent from the public eye, and what sort of work (beyond the passive collection of dust) is being done to show that the funds are being properly used to further the "plan"?
And what manager on any railroad would in their right mind even consider letting that thing onto their property? You've got a highly specialized consist with little to no flexibility in what it can be used for, with few potential fail-safes. It doesn't matter what you throw under the hood at this point (unless the 201A has suddenly reassembled itself), if something breaks, it's not like there's a separate engine in the consist that can continue to move the train. Instead, you'd be holding up the traffic that makes money. Then the host has to waste their time sending an engine and crew to drag the whole set back to the destination. Soon, someone in the state will make the call to either get rid of the whole set, or junk it because of the amount of time and money that the state has put in. And will they get any return on that investment? I doubt it. Maybe it would make a good subject to be stuffed and mounted, but you'll never see that thing run... Same deal with plenty of other failed projects. It comes down to the need for proper management and willing volunteers, but who would bother with the thing? I've made plenty of stupid moves in recent years. The EB Depot, Seven Railroads NRHS, my involvement with PPAL... All crashed and burned in less that spectacular fashion. And you know what that's taught me? Unless you have a good plan, good contingencies and a well-rounded core group, you can't pull anything off. And there are some things that should just be done away with to save the time and resources for other more practical projects that are more flexible than an old streamliner that's been gutted and got screwed up when someone tried to put it back together.