Sorry if this is repeat news. I don’t recall seeing anything in News or Forums.
Yeah. Very sad because I lived in Omaha for three years and never knew the dinner train existed until the story broke that it was leaving.
The obsession with the shiny toys and ignoring the track finally bit 'em. Nobody to blame but themselves.
Running passengers on excepted track is a no-no.
We rode the excursion train there about 10 years ago. I couldn’t believe how bad the tracks were then. It was fall, and we were going so slow, that combines harvesting parallel in the bean fields were walking away from us. And it was a jarring, bumpy ride at that. I went back to the last car with one of my sons. Looking down, you could see that almost every tie seemed to be broken in half.
From the article:
“The excursion line was recently purchased from the Nebraska Railroad Museum by Mike Williams of Railroad Materials Salvage Inc. of Richmond, Mo. Eveland said Williams hasn’t kept promises to maintain the line.”
Surprise, surprise, the salvage company didn’t keep up the tracks. I wonder why… (end sarcasm).
By the time the salvage company stepped in, the damage had already been done.
(And the museum has hardly been above board in its dealings with the state and the feds)
MC, I don’t doubt that. I would think, however, that once a salvage company stepped in, despite any “promises,” it was just a matter of time before the operation was closed.
I believe the musuem operation, if you can call it that, continues. The new owner says he wants to use part of the line for car storage. That’s why he’s said he will rehab the tracks.
Jeff