The whole thing is wrapped up in the public perception of railroading in its entirety. This includes your elected representtatives. The first thing that happens when you bring up trains(one thing,) or railroading(another thing,) they hear circus caliopes go off in their heads. Then they giggle. They go on to say that they remember taking the Waba***o Florida, and that their grandpa has the last Santa Fe in Kansas. There no longer is a connection between the public and the railroads. If they take a train it’s Amtrak or Metra. But that doesn’t seem to be a railroad to them. Just an operator of trains. Here in Knox the depot is gone and no one knows what the name of the railroad is. They think it’s the BN because of run-through power going by. Some people don’t think trains run anymore at all. Where’s the Super Chief? They think main lines are hiking paths in te summer and snowmobiling tracks in the winter. I can go on but that’s for another thread. We have to look at ourselves as well as quasi representatives of railroading and approach key people like business people.
Mitch