I had the privilege of riding one of the very last freights down from Cascade. At the time the line was under serious consideration for purchase by American Heritage Railways; Alan Harper's outfit that owns Durango & Silverton and Great Smokey Mountain RR. and probably had the best shot at making it work. Not sure why that fell through, but the shaky financial status of the proposed Valbois/Tamarack resort may have had something to do with it... that had been expected to nearly double the tourist traffic to Valley County. Even with the collapse of that project the area has seen a continual growth in tourism and the whole line would indeed make a beautiful tourist railroad. Probably the current owners lack the finances to fully develop it hence the generally low key of current operations.

In retrospect, it seems a shame the Nampa - Emmett segment was abandoned... if it were still in place they could conceivably run trains right out of the Boise depot, with shuttle service to the airport and from Cascade - McCall for recreationists, especially out-of-state skiers who might wish to avoid the hassles of renting a car and tackling the 90-mile drive over substandard mountain roads.