Buckeye railroad may become bike path
Property owner doesn’t want to renew lease contract
By MARK SZAKONYI
Advocate Reporter
HEATH – The future of Buckeye Central Scenic Railroad looks gloomy after the head of the foundation that leases the property said he will not support renewing the contract.
The group has come under fire from the community for allowing its old train cars to become eyesores and shelters for vagrants.
Full story here
Anyone here familiar with this railroad?
Rather sad to read.
Must be frustrating for the railroad’s volunteers; especially since routine maintenance of railway rolling stock, tracks, switches, roadbed, bridges, station, etc., can become incredibly expensive.
I thought that there were federal government grants available for scenic/tourist railroads that attempt to preserve their history.
Not being snooty, but the questions I would ask the groups leadership would be:
Did they aggresively adverstise the railroad on the web and/or printed media?
Were any members business professionals with strong ties to the community? It is always a very smart move to seek out the “movers and shakers” of the town(s) your club, museum, or tour line operates in.
Anyone perform research on their own or with business professionals to see if there were grant monies the railroad qualified for? A lot of paperwork involved but many grants range from the thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Seems like the involved process is worth it.
Does or did the railroad ask for public support and/or volunteers to help on targeted “clean up” days? Here in Florida community cleanups are common. In a number of cases if the cleaning involves clearing up areas where vagrants hangout at…volunteers in the affected neighborhood come out in droves!
Hindsight is always 20/20 and this is not to negatively judge the group. However, if this scenic railroad has been repeatedly warned about violations, even if they were minor, I wonder what has been done in the past two years.