An article about Durango and Silverton seeking exemption from the Colorado’s regulatory" hammer." Maybe this is a portent of future scenarios of clean air issues surrounding historic steam. I hope not.
At the end of the article one guy says they should be subject to the same regulations as everyone else. I do not think everyone else is operating HISTORIC engines built with 19TH CENTURY technology! How many people would come there to ride this train behind a GREEN GOAT.[?][2c] As always ENJOY
“I don’t care if they have been there over 100 years. I just bought this house and I think they should be closed down! I’m going to jump right into my mega-SUV and go voice my opinion!”
Railroads have long sought to reduce smoke - even if it wasn’t to reduce air pollution, but rather because smoke indicates money (unburned fuel) going out the stack. That the operator of the line is making every effort to reduce the offending emissions as much as possible says a lot. But to shut down what amounts to an historic landmark (and economic force for the area) is rather like cutting off the nose to spite the face.
[#ditto]
Typical greeny maneouvre… sob. Gives the whole pu***o get things cleaner and nicer a black eye.
Complaining about the railroad while they’re stinking the neighbourhood out with their barbecues, no doubt. Everyone has this type with zero I.Q. near them - I know, I have some as neighbours.
It would seem that the Railroad locomotives would be covered under some kind of “Grandfathered” legal arrangement, just as good as a specific exemption.
Aren’t the narrow gauge lines partially owned by the states of New Mexico, and Colorado?
Since mining in the area is not the economic engine it was, and the potatoe and onion business is seasonal; it would seem that the tourist business is the main economic engine driving the economy of the southern 1/3 of the State of Colorado, not to mention a magnet that would pull tourists into the northern New Mexico and 4 Corners region.
Makes you wonder about some individuals, those ZERO I.Q.'s that germanium mentioned.
Sam
Potato has an “e” in it?
I want them to shut down all the ski resorts just because the snow is not white enough!!! Some people just need to be slapped.
We had this in Wisconsin – the Wisconsin and Southern brought a steam engine into Madison – for one Saturday – and the local paper had the letter-to-the-editors complaining about the steam whistle, the smoke, etc, etc.
Coal combustion is a problem – not just the smoke but also the sulfer. I remember as a kid we would drive from the burbs into Chicago to see the grandparents, and we would get to certain point on the Kennedy Expressway where we would get this smell – I thought it smelled like burning foam rubber. Grandpa heated his apartment building with coal as did everyone else, but he changed to gas at one point, and now I drive into Chicago and don’t smell anything.
Bringing back coal combustion with something like the ACE 3000 would have concerns, but for historical/tourist/recreation on a small scale, people need to lighten up. Don’t know about the barbecue’s, but those small gasoline engines cutting the lawn are a major smog concern, and in enough time, they will go after the barbecues too. I mean if when my neighbor decides to cook out that the whole block reeks of kerosine lighter fluid means that barbacues are a contributer to VOCs.
Well, there’s “i’s”…[;)]
In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the Department of Motor Vehicles issue "Historical Vehicle license plates which exempt these older vehicles from the current inspection (mechanical and emission) requirements. Maybe these locomotives need to add license plate holders to their tenders.
Here in Manitowoc, WI a large coal powered car ferry (circa 1950) runs across Lake Michigan from May-October carrying tourists to Ludington MI. It used to ferry railroad cars across the lake but got too expensive to operate. After the railroad discontinued it everything was idle for several years until a company was formed to run the boat for tourists. They had to get a pollution exemption to operate, but since most of the time they’re out on the lake no one is really bothered by the smoke.