Reader#108 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 09, 2022 4:57 pm
I know what we all did. I know what Dwight and the forebearers all did. Was it always perfect? Nope. Nothing is. But I k ow that there is not a single one of us that wants it to go away. We want an owner to grow it and nurture it, not light it on fire and drive it into the ground.
Amen. You won’t find a single former employee who wants to see this place go under. That’s what upsets us. Like my grandfather and father took me to Conway Scenic as a kid to walk the yard and teach me things, I want the same for my children and grandchildren and for everyone else who wants to have those same experiences. It was those experiences as a kid that lit the passion of railroading in me as a child. Conway Scenic was always a great place to spark the flame of passion in railroading. Those kids grow up and eventually do the same for their kids and that’s how heritage railroads stay true to their heritage. It’s the people and the experiences that caused us to grow attached and love the place as if it was our own.
Swirk shared a similar story about his father when he and his family were vacationing up there. Swirks dad camped out in the car of the parking lot so that they could ride the first train of the day because he wanted to make his son (Swirk) happy and experience something. And it’s under his current management that you probably wouldn’t be able to do that today.
It’s difficult to watch this place fall the way it is. To be kicked out as a former employee just for stepping on the grass to teach my family about 7470 as she’s being fired up, all those memories as a child with my grandfather walking me around teaching me and spending those long summer nights there just looking with my dad…to be kicked out like that feels like being kicked out of your own home. So yes, it’s a huge shock for us and extremely uncomfortable. We don’t want to see the end of this place, all we wanted was a shot to do what those before did for us.