Starting a small railyard?

joshua

joshua

Active member
Where I live everyone is always complaining about how the parks always suck at our two local mountains. So I'm just wondering, how much do you guys think it costs to start up/run a small ski area? Nothing huge, just one or two jib filled runs with one rope tow or carpet lift. Running a small ski area like this would be a dream job for me, but I'm not sure if it's a very realistic idea. Does anyone know how much insurance costs for something like this?
 
The first step would be tallying everything that would be necessary. Costs come next. Basically you'd need many, many different thing to work in your favor. You'd need land, obviously. Leasing land is an option, but it can lead to disputes (see: Kingvale Terrain Project). So owning would be ideal. Runs/slopes would have to be cleared. Even if you're just using one run, brush cutting and summer grooming would be necessary. If you're on the East Coast, you're lookking at snowmaking. Which means you're looking at water rights, fees, etc. in addition to infrastructure (guns, pumps, etc.). A home-style system would be an option, but not really suitable for a commercial operation. Night lighting would, I assume, be necessary. Which means you'd need electrical work to be done. Cheap tow ropes, once easy to find, are now a little harder to come by due to the demise of small ski areas. You'd almost be better off with a t-bar. Check out http://www.resortboneyard.com/ and take a look there. Cats for grooming. Some form of shelter (i.e. lodge). Insurance. Not to mention the features themselves. Unfortunately, in my opinion, such an endeavor would not be sustainable unless you had a huge market from which to draw and an excellent marketing team.
 
Probably more difficult than it sounds, but you for sure have to get ur legal shit going, if some little kid gets hurt and mommy and daddy sue you...you're toast
 
Or even Snowflex. It's expensive. But if you're near a major skiing market that either doesn't have consistent snowfall or has a large freeskiing base from which to draw, you could certainly have some success.

Because you have lower maintenance costs; no grooming; no snowmaking; a longer season; etc. and you could charge more.
 
If you live in a big city, you could probably get the City involved. Close to where I live, well in the next city about 2 hours away the City itself put in a bunch of features on a hill at its own expense. It's legit, but no way of getting up just hiking.

 
Thunder Bay, Ontario. Our city used to seriously have like five lift-serviced ski hills within a half hour drive of the city, but there are just two of the not so good ones left now.
 
I don't think that would work in my town, one of the best hills shut down b/c the owner of another hill sued them because they got government funding to prepare for a big ski jumping comp. (Or something like that.)
 
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