CHEYENNE — Concerns about the nearly $5 million 15th Street Railcar Experience are growing among members of Cheyenne’s City Council, with critics saying it is unrealistic and a poor use of public funds. Others say it is more attainable if approached in phases and will be a net positive for the development of downtown.
The project was one of the governing body’s top priorities in 2024. It entails bringing two rail cars and a caboose to display on West 15th Street and converting the area to a pedestrian tourism attraction. Additionally, it involves the relocation of the Ol’ Sadie steam engine from Lions Park to 15th Street, near the Cheyenne Depot Museum.
“The city was created by an action of the Union Pacific Railroad. And I think when people come here, they think about our rail history, our western history, those types of things,” said Cheyenne Mayor Patrick Collins. “And, you know, I think it’d be a nice touch to be able to deliver on some of those historical promises.”
In January, Cheyenne City Engineer Tom Cobb estimated the total price of the project will be around $4.8 million. Between federal grant funds received from the Economic Development Administration, sixth-penny sales tax funds and money from the Cheyenne Depot Museum to support the project, city funds to be spent on this project are closer to $2.2 million.
However, some council members believe this money could be better used elsewhere.
Council member Michelle Aldrich said the city doesn’t have $2.2 million available to complete this first phase of the project. She said she would rather see the money go toward city staff wage increases or road maintenance.
15th Street Rail Car Experience
This is the interior of one of the rail cars to be included in the 15th Street Rail Car Experience, currently in storage near Swan Ranch.
“This $3 million price tag we’re being given doesn’t include any interior work (on the rail cars), and they’re not ADA accessible. And if you make them ADA accessible by cutting doorways into the sides of these train cars, you’ll destroy the historic integrity of them,” she said.
Press on or cut your losses?
The first phase of the project includes renovation and asbestos abatement of the rail cars, site preparation on 15th Street and transportation of the cars from the rail spur where they are being stored near Swan Ranch to downtown.
Collins said he believes this first phase of the plan is manageable and allows the opportunity to later continue work on the project, like doing interior work on the cars, and allowing businesses and restaurants to lease them out.
“I don’t know if, in fact, that will ever happen, but there’s potential for that,” he said. “As part of this design, we are bringing utilities to the cars … so they could be used for a coffee shop or whatever they might be used for … We want to put all that stuff in the ground beforehand, so that if, in fact, someday in the future, that were to happen. It’s not part of the plan now, but we’re trying to be proactive and looking to the future.”
15th Street Rail Car Experience
This is one of the rail cars to be included in the 15th Street Rail Car Experience currently in storage near Swan Ranch.
Council member Jeff White said he would continue to support this project because he doesn’t want to lose what the city has already invested into it over the past few years.
“I find the whole thing a bit problematic. I’m hoping that it will be successful,” he said. “The reason I am going to support it is because we already own the cars. What are we supposed to do with the cars? Are we just supposed to give them away at the cost of money that we paid for them? Then we suffer a huge loss that way.”
White said he also supports the project because it will result in a net increase of 55 parking spaces.
However, Aldrich said the city’s pocketbooks would be better off taking the loss on the investments already made and trying to sell or get rid of the rail cars. She said expenses continue to add up as the city pays rent to store the rail cars and will also have to pay to remediate the soil where they sit because of the asbestos.
15th Street Rail Car Experience
One of the rail cars to be included in the 15th Street Rail Car Experience currently in storage near Swan Ranch is Southern Pacific 7077, a business/passenger car that is 85 feet long and weighs 140,000 pounds.
“The problem becomes we can either lose the (money spent) and not get reimbursed and lose what we’ve invested now, or we can keep going down this track — no pun intended — and end up with bigger and bigger dollars invested for something that the public may or may not want at all,” Aldrich said.
For the first phase of the project, the city received $618,400 in federal grant money. However, those funds will not be given to the city until two of the cars have been relocated to 15th Street. Council member Pete Laybourn expressed concern that these grant funds could be pulled soon by the second Trump administration, adding that the city needs to be particularly careful with expenses now as a result of the expected decrease in property taxes following the recent legislative session.
15th Street Rail Car Experience
The interior of one of the rail cars to be included in the 15th Street Rail Car Experience is currently in storage near Swan Ranch. It is the Southern Pacific 7077 business/passenger car, which is 85 feet long and weighs 140,000 pounds.
As of January, the city had spent around $580,000 of its own money on asbestos abatement of the rail cars, site design and a master plan update. This does not include expenses like storage rent and the original 15th Street Master Plan that first began in 2021 and was never realized. A total of $168,400 in federal grant funding had also been used on asbestos abatement.
‘It came from a crook’
Laybourn said the initial plan was overly ambitious and has resulted in the current plan, which he also sees as bad business for the city.
“It’s just an amazingly clear example of when ambition and ideas start to spin,” he said. “They end up somewhere, and somewhere is that this entire idea was just really crazy, and it came from a crook.”
In September 2021, Cheyenne-based Wasatch Railroad Contractors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. While this was ongoing, the company and its CEO, John Rimmasch, continued to advocate to the Cheyenne City Council for the original plan, which included a skybridge from the Cheyenne Depot Museum to the Union Pacific Railroad roundhouse and outdoor recreation expansion.
Cheyenne Railroad Visitor Experience
This aerial view outlines the preliminary 2021 plans for the Cheyenne Railroad Visitor Experience.
At the time, Rimmasch was also on the Cheyenne Depot board of directors.
“The guy was just utterly fearless, was reckless with people’s lives and defrauded the federal government,” Laybourn said of Rimmasch.
Wasatch was a railroad equipment repair business. In April 2021, a tanker car formerly used to carry hazardous materials exploded inside Wasatch’s Shoshoni shop, killing two workers aged 28 and 21.
A federal investigation was launched when Wasatch failed to complete a contract for the National Park Service in New Jersey. In April 2022, Rimmasch was found guilty on five counts of wire fraud and one count of knowing endangerment for exposing employees to asbestos. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Collins said Rimmasch was an advocate of the project but was not leading the project.
“When we first started this project, those things had not happened yet. His legal problems and his financial problems occurred after this whole project started,” he said. “But this wasn’t John’s project. This is a city project.”
However, Aldrich and Laybourn both told the WTE that Rimmasch was the one who “sold” the city and Visit Cheyenne on the original plans, and they believe the current plans are residual of Rimmasch. He advocated for the project at a Cheyenne City Council meeting in October 2021, following his company’s filing for bankruptcy.
“This is just kind of a strange story of how things can go on and on and end up in a strange place,” Laybourn said. “… Really, we should have pulled the plug before now and understood what John Rimmasch had done.”
Laybourn told the WTE that council member Mark Moody is the only other council member who currently opposes the project. He could not be reached before publication to confirm this.
Aldrich said she plans to take the members of the governing body to Swan Ranch to see the rail cars next week. She hopes that by showing the cars still need a lot of interior work, it will change some minds, and the council will eventually support a resolution to abandon the project.