Looking to acquire a scenic railroad about to go under...

[SH Underwood]

Does anyone know of any scenic branch or short lines that are about to be abandoned or rails taken up? I'm looking around the country for routes that can be put back into service, hauling tourists. The buyer's cirteria:
-- Needs to be SCENIC
-- Needs to be near a large city or near a destination tourist attraction (such as Disney, etc.)
-- Needs to have usable track and structures (bridges, etc. usable or at least rebuildable)
-- Needs to be available FOR SALE

Can anyone out there help? Know of anything?

Stan Underwood
e-mail:
[email protected]
or -
[email protected]

[Christian S.]

Stan:

I personally believe that if a tourist railroad was scenic, near a big city/touristy area, and had structures/track that were in fairly good condition, then it wouldn't be out of business! All these ingredients usually add up to a successful tourist railroad (aka: Strasburg RR; Durango & Silverton RR; Branson Scenic Rwy, etc.).

There are plenty of more smaller-city tourist railroads that have gone out of business [e.g. Carrollton, Oneida & Minerva, Stewartstown RR, etc.], but none that I know are for sale. Not sure if you can buy these. A mass web search may come in handy.

Just my 2¢. Hope you get what you're looking for!

*********************************************
Chris (Moderator)

[CSX Conductor]

I can't recall the reason for it closing again, but Edaville Railroad in Carver, Ma (Cape Cod) went belly up this past year. Perhaps lack of interest, or maybe developing the land.

[jayrmli]

Edaville is still operational. I was there last weekend for the Cranberry Festival.

The property was supposed to be auctioned off last winter to pay debts, and the minimum acceptable bid was I believe $1 million. No bids came close, so Edaville lives on!

Jay