[PRCo] New Railway Properties

[Fred Schneider]

Just a Question....

I have a slide show that I've put on for East Penn and for the  
Tractioneers in Washington of the newer Light Rail, Heavy Rail, ART  
and Heritage Lines.

I started by asking how many had visited 10 of the new properties?   
20?  30?  40?  50?

Hey guys ... Are you aware that there are more than 50 urban railway  
properties in the United States and Canada today if we use the  
following definition:

"Not a museum but includes subway, light rail, ART, heritage, and is  
supported in some way by the municipality for the good of the  
municipality and operates on municipal land."

I started by not ruling out heritage lines because I didn't know when  
they would turn into stealth light rail lines.   Examples:   McKinney  
Avenue in Dallas is older than DART but today DART pays the operating  
losses of the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority and McKinney hires  
paid help to run cars during hours when they cannot get volunteers.    
Memphis opened a line to the east which may well turn into an LRT  
line to the airport.   The fans opened a museum line in Charlotte  
which is being rebuilt into a light rail line to the South Carolina  
border.    Stretching it the most for inclusion is probably the  
single Birney in Fort Collins or the ex Cleveland Railway wood car in  
Nelson BC but I've watched locals getting on to ride to the park.

It's difficult to drag some of these chaps into the 21st century and  
get them looking forward but there's a lot of new stuff out there.