To make sure its 30-ton property wasn't going anywhere, the Arkansas lessor used a three-inch thick brass chain to tie one of the train's wheels to the tracks.

GlobeSt.com couldn't reach the Arkansas railroad company or Steven Torrico, president/general manager, Mount Dora Scenic Railway Co., at publication deadline to learn the status of the dispute.

But local train buffs and vendors who have worked with Torrico in the past tell GlobeSt.com the rent situation is being straightened out with a renegotiated lease and the Cannonball will be whistling down the tracks again shortly.

"It isn't like a retailer or an office tenant stealing away in the middle of the night after not paying rent," a local commercial real estate leasing agent tells GlobeSt.com. "But it is a leasing contract, nevertheless, and the property owner just wanted to secure his premises."

Torrico, a former locomotive engineer with the Florida Central Railroad for 12 years, also operates a 1928 vintage, 50-passenger sightseeing train called the Dora Doodlebug. That train is not part of the Cannonball rent incident.

Torrico has been operating the Cannonball since December 1998. The train has been averaging 30,000 passengers per year. In August of this year, the Cannonball and the Dora Doodlebug aggregately chalked up 100,000 paid passengers.