Court Hammond put on a good show for about 50 Wallowa County citizens, businesspeople and local government officials Wednesday evening. Here are excerpts, in no particular order:

• No. 19 is the centerpiece of what would work for WURR. Despite what others have said, he called it “the Blue Goose steam engine.” No. 19 should arrive in Elgin in May after completion of its FRA annual inspection. There are some boiler issues, but they are minor.

• Steam trips would be from Elgin and from Joseph (the two ends of the line) because a trip along the whole line would be too long and boring for most riders.

• Because the Yreka Western has had no revenue freight in about four years, the railroad is up for sale with no one currently interested. If it doesn’t sell, salvage “appears to be the direction it is going”

• He’s modeling the operation after the Durango & Silverton.

• There’s some confusion about names and entities. As owner, the Wallowa Union Railroad Authority owns the Wallowa Union Railroad. As operator, Hammond’s Sierra Nevada & Pacific Railroad will operate the common-carrier service, while passenger service will fall to the nonprofit Wallowa Union Scenic Railway. Then there’s the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Railroad & Mining Museum, which still exists.

• He wants to have dinner-train service using a 1050s streamliner headed with E-units. He has his eye on two available trainsets, but one has a buyer already.

• He wants to partner with the local communities to build depots at Joseph, Enterprise, Wallowa and Lostine and water tanks every 15 or 20 miles along the 67-mile route.

• In addition to the usual markets, he plans to target speeder clubs and private-car owners, who could store their cars on the route and run behind regular trains.

Nobody asked and he didn’t say anything about financing.