Hold on folks. Before you continue ranting about why the two groups don't build a connecting line between them take a look on Google Maps. Its 47 miles from Independence to Laws. That is an awfully long distance for any group to build new track. On the Niles Canyon Railway when we were in full track building mode we averaged 1 ½ miles of new track per year. That was a crew of roughly 10 guys only working on Saturdays and on some Sundays. That is because we had real jobs during the week and passenger operations took over the railroad on Sundays. We also spent a lot of time salvaging rail for use building our railroad. For example, we were donated the rail at the Oakland Navy Supply Depot but it was up to us to salvage it. That is unbolting, unspiking, putting all the OTM in 55 gallon drums, bundling ties, then loading all that stuff on trucks and moving it to the canyon. For the guys out at Laws or Independence just getting the material for their demo tracks is a major accomplishment. Even if the track was still in place it would take a lot of effort to just maintain that many miles of track. I am far removed from them being in Oregon but I imagine that their groups don’t have a lot of volunteers available to do that work.
Even if they were able to connect the two towns and assuming running at 20 mph (over that speed the dust kicked up is unpleasant in open cars), that's roughly 2 ½ hours one way. So that’s over 5 hours round trip. With servicing probably more like 6. One of the things that the ATR&RM has discussed is the optimal length for a tourist or museum train ride. The consensus is that a one hour trip is about perfect for the general public. Much longer than that then you need additional attractions (like wine or dinner trains). I may have a jaded view of Owens Valley but I don’t know if I would want to ride a non-air conditioned train in a desert environment for 6 hours. An hour around Laws or Independence is more do-able.