Reply to "1309 Update."

I'd love to see 1309 done. Here's why. There is a beautiful 4-8-4, Norfolk and Western 611, that is now, as in an old song, "all dressed up and no place to go". If done, this 1309, a big 2-6-6-2, will have its own rails and if done as well as Kevin wanted it, able to run three to four times a week.

I have been rethinking many of my ideas about an excursion rr. After I saw how dull the passenger cars looked in pullman green, even though it is the old WMRR color, and then saw how the public, not just the railfans, liked the circus paint on the 501, I think the WMSRR needs to kick back on the Western Maryland themes, and become the true Western Maryland Scenic. A bright and happy paint on the passenger cars will sell more tickets. If the WMSRR wanted to make money appealing to  railfans, it will never show a profit. A bright and happy paint scheme looks good in the advertising, too.

I think with the right management, with a live snorting articulated, and dedicated to attracting folks who have never seen a steam locomotive before, and a better approach to color schemes, and being a true scenic railroad, they could run in the black.

After years of trips in the passenger cars, hanging around folks looking at 734 and admiring the awesome power of steam, and talking to many, many folks, it really isn't about railfanning, it's about an adventure, and being near Pittsburgh, Washington, Baltimore, plenty of people will come here. The steam loco has always been a draw, most folks I've talked to, had never seen a live steam engine!

There was a debate about what 1309 among railfans what she should wear on her tender..Chesapeake and Ohio, or Western Maryland. I think WMSR should become it's own railroad, and here is what I think should be on the flanks of 1309's tender!

In the appropriate colors to match the all black tender and locomotive!

And I agree with this:

Mike Wilson

Ed