The State of California has announced in the near future, it intends to close Railtown 1897 State Park. We can only hope an organization can step in in time to continue operate it,,,,:thumbs_down: 70 State Parks To Be Closed Under Plan - Sacramento News Story - KCRA Sacramento
I could say so much, but at the risk of turning this thread into a political one, I will refrain. It is a shame that such a place is to be closed but we live in a society that would rather spend money on entertainment than history.
I wonder what will become of all those beautiful, restored locos and cars! ~sigh~ Does that also include the Museum?
We in this less then great State of California see this type of thing all to often. First the politicians want to cut back on the Police and Fire departments, followed by cutting back the Schools and then numerous State Services including parks. Threatening to do so in order to raise taxes. When...get this... the problems start and stop with the politicians themselves. Go figure. We shall watch what happens. You don't close one of Sacramento's biggest money makers.
Great thinking, as usual. Close down things which might help bring in revenues. (Who needs tourism?) Hurt local businesses who depend on these attractions.... Yup. Close more employers. That'll make things better. Boxcab E50
As someone else said, let's see what happens. The pols threatened Railtown 1897 the last time they "needed money" then reversed themselves. :tb-sad:
One would think that if it was making enough money to sustain itself that it wouldn't be on such a list so one wonders the reason it was picked??? :tb-sad: :tb-sad: :tb-sad: :tb-sad:
Don't confuse the Railtown 1897 State Park, which is in Jamestown, with the California State Railroad Museum. The latter will remain open. While I am against any of the CA State Parks closing, and some of my local favorites are on the list, of the 70 which are targeted - about 25% of total parks, they only account for 6% of the park systems revenue.
From what Ive been told, the reason Railtown ended up on the cut list the first time was because of environmental cleanup work. This work involed the cleanup of 100 years of oil/grease deposits in the roundhouse inspection pits, and some contaminated soil in the pond next to the roundhouse. Being state property, the state was billed ~250k for this work. I think this was around the 2007/2008 time frame. So when the state needed to cut parks, Railtown's ten acres costing so much annually to maintain earned it a spot on the list, even though it was a one time expense. Its also not cheap running steam trains. Railtown has been pulling many excursions with a diesel switcher lately to save money, and has let a few mechanics go. But its still not enough to make a profit. The park requires state subsidies to operate, especially with $9 ticket prices. Even so, Railtown is probably on the cut list again just because it was on the first time. I doubt anyone went back and looked to see how little it cost the state last year.
