I experienced the route of the Modoc Line for the 1st time this past March, while enroute to Winterail via Reno. I could see the remains of what was a spectacular piece of railroad,from a railfan point of view. But these same attractions to the railfan were an operational nightmare for Espee. The line was poorly located and built on the cheap, with many sharp grades and curves, as well as many sags that would cause slack run - in / run - out. ( Much of the line was converted from narrow gauge. ) The cost to rebuild the line to current mainline standards would quite likely be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, money that EwePee's directors would be very reluctant to spend. Why not route the coal through Feather River Cyn & the Highline??? I will assume EwePee has trackage rights over the line now that BNSF owns it, and the grade North out of Keddie can be handled easily with today's high horsepower diesels and DPU operation.