LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Michael Jackson's famed Neverland Valley Ranch in California will be foreclosed and sold on March 19 unless the pop star pays a balance of nearly $25 million, property records showed on Tuesday.

FoxNews.com celebrity columnist Roger Friedman reported on the Web site (http://www.foxnews.com) that Jackson has been formally apprised of the foreclosure and that legal documents have also been filed with the Santa Barbara County Recorder's office.

"You are in default of a deed of trust ...," Jackson was told in the five-page filing, according to a copy of the document published by FoxNews.com. "Unless you take action to protect your property it may be sold at a public sale."

According to the documents, if Jackson fails to pay the outstanding balance, estimated at $24.5 million, Neverland would be sold to the highest bidder at a public auction on the courthouse steps.

The county recorder's Web site shows that a Notice of Trustees Sale was filed against Neverland Valley Ranch on Monday but no further details were available and a spokeswoman for the office declined to comment.

Jackson's publicist, Raymone Bain, did not return calls seeking comment on the foreclosure notice.

The onetime "King of Pop" has owned the 2,800-acre (1,133-ha) ranch in the rolling foothills above the California coast since 1988, naming it after the whimsical island where children never grow up in J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan stories.

Jackson, 49, famously outfitted the property with a private zoo and amusement park and festooned it with statues of Peter Pan characters.

But the reclusive, Grammy-winning singer has spent little time at Neverland since his June, 2005 acquittal on charges that he sexually molested a young boy there after plying him with alcohol.

In 2006 state authorities ordered the property shuttered and fined Jackson for failing to pay his employees or maintain proper insurance, and the zoo animals have since reportedly been removed.

Jackson, who proclaimed himself "King of Pop" in the 1980s and scored one of the top-selling pop albums of all time in "Thriller," has since seen his fame as an entertainer eclipsed by the sometimes bizarre details of his personal life.

Believe it or not this isn't off topic from the forum... Part of the Neverland Ranch is:



and



Courtesy of:

http://www.mjackson.net/

Ohio guys, do you have one of those in your collection? I know of one available! It is probably gas powered though, I doubt it is a real steam engine.

Miner Greg

We have our eyes on three steam engines. One is standard gauge, one 42" gauge & one 36" gauge. Someday when the time is right we hope to save one somewhere until then we will stay focused saving mine equipment, mine locomotives, & historic industrial equipment.

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Pioneering the next INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (Preservation ! ). . . Saving equipment (1) mine site at a time.

Soooooo Greg.... how did you know about this particular attraction at Neverland Ranch...?






Hey Pete, if you grab that 36"er, you know where theres a line for it.

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This ain't longwall... this is long hole!

I think I,ve seen his steam engines listed on the surviving steam locomotives site.....
I'd like to get a small engine...any available?

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What do you mean by "overloaded" officer?

for a hefty price I'm sure.... What are they looking at getting for those pete?

btw, that engine in the photos looks like its 30"... ?

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This ain't longwall... this is long hole!

yeah, greg, you been there lately?

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-Thou shalt not little vein-

Do they let you blow the whistle and ring the bell?


Fleur

yeah, did Mikey let you blow the whistle?

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This ain't longwall... this is long hole!

Soooo, in order to save this post from being completely wasted by the irrational comments of the minds of men whom Shana claims "never had our hineys spanked" (which I would have to say would be mostly myself and JK ) i did a little searching on the net to find more on the locomotives at Neverland ranch.

The problem is that the more you look into any aspect of Neverland Ranch, the weirder it becomes.....

Check this story out I just unveiled. Was this big news back in 2005 that I totally missed because I had my head in a coal hole, or is this just some random made up media like we see so much of today??

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/30940

Theres a picture of the happy themed locomotive in a not so happy scene.....

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This ain't longwall... this is long hole!

ROTFL...
Gotta love The Onion.

Hey, I wanna blow the whistle...

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"Heyna!"

An even better private railroad is up the coast further in Santa Margarita.
http://pcrailroad.blogspot.com
They run a Vulcan!

And industrial locomotives!

They even have a Porter with pugs:
http://pcrailroad.blogspot.com/2007/11/112807.html

wonder if those vulcans were set up originally like that or if they were saddle tank locos...... yous guys should be proud...... i could have really had fun with this topic

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Yes, the Vulcan was originally a saddle tank locomotive:
http://pcrailroad.blogspot.com/2007/01/history-of-no-2.html
The Porter was a rear tank engine:
http://pcrailroad.blogspot.com/2007/01/history-of-no-3.html
The Harpur has not changed much since being built in 1968:
http://pcrailroad.blogspot.com/2007/01/history-of-no-1.html

nice mike thanks for posting that information. i like the mention of the cedar point railway. we rode it a few times this summer when we were there for a week on vacation. made a few trains late talking with the operator about the fact that we run pioneers steam engine! thats a cool place.

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