It'll take trips like this to show NS exec's that there's a need for a Representative mainline steam engine from their company.
David, what part of 21st Century Steam Program do you not understand? NS Execs have ALREADY seen the need for a little steam on the railroad to honor the history and heritage they represent.
In other words if they don't want the hassle of working around Amtrak they sure don't want to fool with trying to juggle freight trains around a steam engine with a speed limit of 40 MPH.
It's apples and oranges, David.
A 40 mph steam train operates on any given division on the railroad for one day. The railroad is dealing with a small ownership organization that is very flexible and can accommodate changes to the schedule very quickly. The minor delays that a steam train may cause to freight traffic is easily fixed and everything is back on schedule within a day or two.
Amtrak would be on the railroad every day, or at least several times per week, every week. In Amtrak the railroad is dealing with a firmly entrenched, slow to react, unresponsive and inefficient bureaucracy that cannot accommodate much of anything out of the ordinary. It is an entirely different world from a one-off steam train and I can fully understand why NS would not want Amtrak in Roanoke.
