Central City Railroad meeting - What happened?

[Kurt Maechner]

Since hearing about a meeting in Central City where a group called the Central City Railroad and Mining Museum presented its vision to restore C&S 71 and her attached baggage car to operation, I have been eager to hear what actually happened there.  I posted the question on Central City's Facebook page post about the meeting, but never received a response.  Then I located an article by Jaclyn Schrock in The Weekly Register-Call.

In the article, posted October 31st, 2019, Schrock details the proceedings of the meeting.  It comes off overly optimistic in my opinion, though I wish them well.  While I certainly have no first hand knowledge of how to construct a tourist railroad, even I know that the existence of "an abundance of grant opportunities to restore trains" can hardly be accurate.

Despite my skepticism, I would love to be wrong!  If this venture could be accomplished with honesty and respect for the historical equipment (unlike what seemed to have occurred during the late '80s-one individual of which is directly involved with this new incarnation), then it would be a delight to see.

Enjoy,
Kurt

[South Park]

  At what point is the area over-saturated with steam/tourist railroads,
exceeding the tourism interest and dollars-support to keep it as a going
concern AND to support proper maintenance of the historic equipment ?

  I do not have an answer to this question.  Someone on the ground, THERE,
in the business, is the one to ask.  But it does seem like the first question
to answer before anything moves forward on this.

[Kurt Maechner]

Excellent point.  When you have a first-class, strongly developed tourist railroad and mining history mecca like the Georgetown Loop, I don't see how anything so close would ever have a chance of tapping into the tourism market.  There's a reason that the Ashbys and friends eventually closed their Central City line to focus on the Georgetown Loop in 1981-and that was even before the high bridge was constructed and before the grant from the Boettchers that made the bridge a possibility.

[South Park]

  Pretty hard to beat the I-70 access and the actual loop itself for solid
business-draw assets.  Having Georgetown and Idaho Springs so close
is just a bonus for pulling in the touristas.

  Central City in on the way to nowhere, lacks any spectacular trackage
potential, and would thusly require some alternate drawing point to pull in
paying ridership.  As anyone with business sense knows, and particularly those
who know THIS business, starry-eyed railfans make up a micro-percentage
of actual ridership, so counting on large crowds going out of their way to
spend real cash dollars because the choo-choo is genuine South Park stuff
is going to result in failure.

  Which leads to, what other drawing points might an operator out of Central
City have to make such an operation a "must do" for the average minivan full
of cul-de-sac dwellers from the flatlands ?  Stuff like all the facilities still extant
at Como, as an example.  And this leads to the inevitable next point, why not
just invest in an operation with better potential, LIKE Como ?

  It seems to me, the Central City idea has serious business flaws.  Might they
be overcome ?  Such solutions seem above my pay grade.  But then again, I am
just a dumb hammer-swinger and business owner, 1500 miles away.  Maybe
someone with actual eyes on the prize can see something I can't ?

[ComoDepot]

How many locomotives will they need, I sort of assume 3, one operating, one on stand by and one being maintained/repaired.

I saw there passenger numbers and they seemed very optimistic.