The meeting tonight was not very helpful to those of ask who have been asking the tough questions, but the fact is that both Railstar and the CHS were receptive to the questions being asked and the meeting turned out to be more of an open forum. Mr. Rod Woltcoff said that "We are ultimately responsible for what happens here and we have a duty to the community."

Basically we were told that the #12 would be the primary steam power for the Loop. No other steam engine was mentioned as being operable for the 2005 season, besides the #9, which the CHS stated would be operable by July 1st. Railstar has already stated that they don't intend to put the #9 in daily use and would be used as a special run train.

The CHS/Railstar have published a schedule that took the previous operators 30 years to fine-tune and was only accomplished by the use of THREE steam locomotives (and three deisels) pulling NINE cars 5 times a day. The use of ONE steam locomotive that can optimistically pull SIX cars translates into either the predominant use of the 2 deisels owned by the CHS and/OR the reduction in ridership.

The CHS and Railstar both stated, when questioned, that their intent was to run a primarily steam operation. Maybe next time we will ask what kind of steam.

On the issue of the cars, the CHS has bought 7 total. Railstar stated that they were not going to be getting the climate-controlled and enclosed cars for the 2005 season. The contractor that he was using to do the cars was busy with another project.

According to the CHS the #111 was no longer seeking a listing on the national register. The #111 restoration is apparently no longer being funded with State Historical Funds, but is still intended to be used on the Loop in 2007. The CHS did say that the premise of having the #111 listed on the National Register, even though it has never run in the US, was based on it being built by a US company, Baldwin Locomotive, and therefore historically significant to the country. It was pointed out that the CHS had a baldwin Locomotive (#40) running on the Loop for years. The CHS stated that the National Register reps wanted to gather more information about other existing Baldwin Locomotives in order to rank them.

It was also stated that the CHS and Railstar intended to spend $80,000 in advertising. When asked, the CHS said that the previous operators spent $80,000 - $100,000 a year in advertising. The new operator's website "has served him well" but the audience made a plea for a better webite. Mark Graybill pointed out that it doesn't take much time to add just a few paragraphs about the history of the Loop (and why not a link to the town's websites?). He stated that it would be a much better site by the end of March.

When asked, Railstar stated that they were working on getting a reservations system built and that they had over 100 bookings for groups in 2005.

We all know that the success of the Georgetown Loop depends on these folks. There's nothing wrong with asking the hard questions, even if it means the CHS attorney refers to you as a pain in the butt (this time it was Jim Poston). These details are integral to the success of our county's coffers and more importantly to our county's major historic feature.

When asked, Lee Behrens said that he didn't think the question of the effect of the CDOT expansion plan would have on the railroad had been posed, but that moving one or two of the historic buildings had been mentioned.