Thank you Steamer69 and also to Steamer.
Steam is good news. It's good that the present management sees the value of steam and are going to the expense of making it happen. Unfortunately, they don't have a track record of doing things right down there so we will have to wait and see what happens.
Maybe this is just an experiment and if ticket sales don't increase they'll stop running steam. Who knows?
In order for them to make the transition from their present state of mediocre to either good or great, they are going to have to realize that they will need to work on improvements that by themselves don't do much but in combination add greatly to the whole.
Picture if you will Edaville in 1990 as a model railroad layout. Now, take away your four main steam engines, almost all of your static displays, tear down the Cranberry jct station, remove the engine house, remove the bypass track, remove the water tower, remove the turntable, remove from service the track around the reservoir and replace the 5.42mile loop with a 1.75 mile loop. Remove all of the yard trackage, the siding going into the station, the siding near the yard limits at you head past the former coal pile. Leave in a spur of almost 2 miles but don't use it.
Now all of a sudden your railroad is much less interesting. Everything that they tore down had added to the character of the railroad.
In 2004 they had the full loop and were operating steam. I can't understand what kind of fool would have torn those tracks up. Even if you don't want to use them, leave them there, you don't need permission to repair existing trackage.
Pulling up the iron was so short sighted that I have a hard time picturing what kind of blithering idiot would have done such a thing.
The roller coaster is the right size for kids. But, it also shows one of the problems with management down there. They think small. They seem to have little imagination. They have proved themselves masters of tearing down the work of others but show no talent for improvement. They seem to lack vision.
The reinstatement of operating steam is a good sign. I still say that they will somehow screw it up, but it could be a step in the right direction if they manage to somehow be able to operate steam on a regular basis.
Their long term goals should be to acquire at least one of the four original steam engines and to re-establish the loop around the reservoir.
Unfortunately, in order to get where they need to be, they have to undo most of the senseless destruction that they have reeked upon the place since 2004 and 2005.
As I have said before, they don't need to worry about vandalism, they themselves have done more damage than any vandal could hope to accomplish.
So, lets hope that things work out well with the steam and if that works out, maybe they will realize that they should re-establish a route around the reservoir.
