The large trestle south of Birds Landing Road requires major repairs. If someone would like to donate some big bucks to repair it, no doubt the museum would be delighted.

A fair sized trestle about 1/2 mile south (railroad west) of Molena is totally burned out.

Track north of the museum now is excepted class and passenger trains are not allowed. When the wildflower trains ran, this track was first class track with a 15 mph speed limit. The Board of Directors decided to spend only enough money to make emergency repairs but not enough to rebuild this track. When the track superintendent told the Board that he could not guarantee that the train would not derail, the Board decided to stop passenger trains.

A layer of very heavy clay is just below the surface of the ground. It creates the vernal ponds and spectacular wildflowers in this area. However the clay just below the surface means poor drainage for the track. Almost all the ties north of the Lambie Road crossing are very badly rotted and need to be replaced.

The story spread by museum train enthusiasts that the wildflower trains made money for the museum is NOT true. A rigorous accounting will show that the wildflower trains barely broke even because many costs, like track repair and coach restoration, were not charged to the trains. The money came out of other budgets.