Remember that a railroad owned by a local government is usually also by default in the economic development business. Note that the article describes the amount of economic impact that Modoc would have.

I do think it is interesting that Modoc is a non-profit. California allows a closed non-profit (new voting members must be accepted by existing members) versus an open non-profit where anyone paying dues gets a vote. Anyone want to bet that the members and the managers of Modoc are one and the same?

The FRA allows a certain amount of engineer training to be done on simulators, but I have often wondered if Modoc had an arrangement with some shortline to get them the actual seat time. The other option is that those hiring Modoc graduate engineers still have to qualify them on their line, so the prospective employee has just paid for their own classroom training - saving the employer both training costs and the trainee's wages.

Modoc started out in Alturas - left in the middle of the night after graduating the first class. Some interesting accusations were made. Google to find the newspaper accounts. Modoc has also proposed going to the Camas Prairie, and to the Wallowa-Union (twice). I think they need a "real" railroad to justify the expense and certificate for their engineers, but they aren't willing to fully pay for the trackage rights. There is also the issue of increased liability exposure for whomever is hosting them. Modoc is adjacent to the UP but does not have a connection, so everything (including their green goat) will have to be trucked to either the final destination or to live rail.

I think the claim that Moodoc will be recertifying engineers and conductors at their site is misleading. The classroom and basic skills can be done at Modoc, but this can often be done cheaper by providing an instructor at the railroad, and they still have to qualify on the actual territory they are working.