Hooterville Cannon Ball

The Cannonball ran on wood. So Floyd and Charlie cut up wood to keep the cannonball running. Remember, the C&FW railway forgot they even owned the Cannonball so it didn't make a profit for years and they just didn't know. Floyd and Charlie were payed with free meals and I'm sure sure were given free wood to run the Cannonball on. I guess they somehow still got a salivary to live off of from The C&FW even though the railway didn't even know they existed.

Shortlines have made a resurgence in the past couple decades. The problem in the 1960's was that the railroads had extremely heavy legacy (pension) costs among other things. A lot of track had deteriorated and the money was not there to maintain it. Add in that during the 1950's Eisenhower pushed for and got the federal highway system which made over the road trucking profitable. Small operators free of prohibitive overhead which included buying locomotives and cars at near fire sale prices meant the newcomers could turn a profit. I know where I come from that working for that shortliner is one of the best paying jobs for the area. It is entirely possible the line the Cannonball was on had users decline to the point where it was never going to be profitable again. There did not seem to be much other than agriculture there. As far as restoring the Cannonball goes that seems unlikely in terms of having it run the line again. Steam-powered anything carries prohibitive costs in terms of insurance as there is tremendous risk that the boilers have deteriorated to the point where leaks could happen readily therefore injuring people. If the Hooterville-Pixley line was running today it would be with a diesel locomotive. You talk of running restorations and I have heard of that but I have heard of restorations being shut down because rider revenue fell far short of costs which includes the ultra-high insurance.

The restoration lines that seem to work out are the ones in an area heavy with tourism