Grand Canyon Railway - steam is back!

[nkp_174]

BTW (the following statement is in no way official, but is what I pieced together from various rumors relayed by those who live in williams and work for the railroad): "environmental concerns" was really only a half-truth. Actually, it was almost "no-truth". Bad economy and market research had as much to do with them not running steam. The bad economy meant ridership was down. They realized most of their riders were California and international tourists who didn't care what the train was pulled by, or even how what a steam engine is. So, they took the opportunity to cut costs by eliminating the steam program, and used the "environmental" label as a marketing hook for those who are into that sort of thing.

Kevin,

Your insights are correct. It was simply a decision not to deal with the steam any longer. Steam didn't help the bottom line, so it wasn't worth the effort/cost. What I haven't heard about, is the fate of their wheel lathe and other tremendous resources. There are (or were), to my knowledge, three places in the nation that can turn a mainline locomotive's drivers: Strasburg, Grand Canyon, and Chattanooga.

As an odd footnote, GCRy initially sold two 2-8-0s to an operation in Washington. IIRC, they arrived in Washington only to be resold to the Rio Grande Scenic/San Luis operation in Colorado.