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Trains News Wire EXCLUSIVE: Extensive narrow gauge collection up for sale
Will the Georgetown Loop, the most accessible narrow gauge line in the country, now cease operation?
Oh to have an unlimited budget. I hope this collection can stay together, if not I hope all the pieces find good homes. There is nothing in the world like listening to a Shay working in the woods.
Shades of the Trolleyville USA collection?
I predict the collection will be disposed of piecemeal, which is probably the appropriate fate for the eclectic collection of NG stuff. Get those items into their historic context and area.
It’s a damn shame that they have to part with their collection.
When they ran the Georgetown Loop is was very run well both from the tourist’s point and the rail fans observations.
Their Royal Gorge train through is well run. If you come to Colorado don’t miss it.
Jim from Colorado
The Loop is being run by different by different operators since 2004. If accessibility is measured by distance from an interstate, Monticello, IL should take the top spot for that category. The entire museum can be seen while driving past on highway 72 from both directions, no matter how tall the corn gets.
The current Georgetown Loop is operating another West Side Lumber Shay, number 9. It is from the Midwest Central Railroad in Iowa. Midwest Central has the Georgetown Loop’s 2-6-2 number 12. I don’t think the railroads have exchanged titles to the locomotives and I don’t know their future plans.
The current operator of the Georgetown Loop has their own equipment and the sale will have no effect on their operation. However, maybe they could pick up some of the equipment and return it “home”.
Hey offer some stuff to cumbres and Toltec or Durango and silverton.
I hope the equipment finds its “way home”. It is an eclectic collection, with no historical basis. Many thanks to the Ashbys for preserving it.
There is a group of people thinking of reviving the line in Central City. This could be good timing for them.