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Railroad Newsline for Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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Rail News

AN ICON IN THE NORTH TEXAS MODEL RAILROAD COMMUNITY AND THE MODEL RAILROAD INDUSTRY AT LARGE HAS PASSED AWAY

DALLAS, TX -- Model railroaders and rail fans in the North Texas area have lost a dear friend. Mrs. Bobbye Hall, age 97, passed away on Saturday evening, January 27, 2007 at approximately 17:00 at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.

This remarkable woman operated Bobbye Hall's Hobby House in Dallas from 1946 until she finally retired in 2001 at the age of 92. A female pioneer in the model railroad industry, she made a name for herself by getting involved in the Japanese and Korean brass import scale model business and built the successful Hallmark Models, Inc. into a major player in that segment of the market.

Her book, "Tracks from Texas to Tokyo," co-written with Tim Blackwell, tells the story of her life in 19 chapters. Just two short weeks before her death, Mrs. Hall was at the annual Dallas Area Train Show in Plano, Texas on the 13th and 14th of January signing copies of her book.

Photo here: [www.bobbyehallbook.com]

I patronized her shop regularly from the time I moved to Dallas in 1988 until the day it closed in 2001. I was there when they celebrated the 50th anniversary of Bobbye Hall's Hobby House in 1996 complete with a live band. I own an HO scale boxcar which commemorates that event. I also remember buying tickets at Bobby Hall's for an Age of Steam Museum sponsored excursion trip from Dallas to Fort Worth and back behind UP 3985 back in 1995. She waited on me personally that day, as she did so many other times.

We were all sad to see the shop close in 2001, but most everyone agrees that to retire at age 92 is remarkable in itself. Mrs. Bobbye Hall will be missed by all of us who had the privilege of knowing her over the years. - Larry W. Grant, Dallas, TX

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KCSM CELEBRATES RICH HISTORY WITH ARTIFACTS EXHIBIT DEBUT

The Kansas City Southern de Mexico corporate affairs department, headed by vice president corporate affairs David Eaton, is leading an effort to inventory, restore and exhibit a number of railroad artifacts and photographs. Many of these items were previously in storage, and are being brought out for the first time for others to enjoy, learn from and celebrate the company's rich history.

The current exhibit, comprised of 45 artifacts and 24 photographs, was debuted at a special dinner in Monterrey on January 17 for Mexican dignitaries, the KCS board of directors and KCSM customers. Later this year, the exhibit will go on tour to other communities throughout the KCSM system. Upon completion of the tour, the exhibit will reside at KCSM offices in Monterrey.

The exhibit was designed by Jaime Valdez, KCSM AVP corporate communications, Jose Luis Monroy, KCSM chief of executive cars and Raquel Macias, KCSM coordinator corporate communications, in cooperation with Jacobo Parra, a well-known Mexican photographer. The corporate affairs team's efforts are also supported by the servicios generales, administracion y finanzas, IT and abastecimientos departments. Special thanks to Jose Zozaya, KCSM president and executive representative for his leadership in this project and to Willis Kilpatrick, KCS director heritage operations for his wealth of expertise and guidance. Panels were specially designed, so that the exhibit could grow as more pieces were brought out of storage and restored.

The following tribute can be read upon entering the exhibit:

A Reunion with History

The laying of the train tracks in Mexico was one of the priority projects during the porfiriato. In this railroad structure, the stations occupied a prominent place: they turned into meeting places, modifying the outline of the cities and originated new settlements.

This proposal evokes precisely those times when the railroad arrived in Mexico, when the trains came out of their modest refuges and started climbing mountains, crossing abysses and penetrating remote and unknown regions.

The compilation we are sharing does not constitute a photo collection and loose objects, but a search, an inventory of the ways in which the railroad incorporated itself into the subjective life of our country, sometimes as a true and fearsome iron novelty, as a conquistador of the human spirit, as a space of refined holiday pleasures, in contrast with today's railroad as an active participant in the country's industrial development, a real exhibit of progress.

Let's evoke, then, our historic loyalty to the track's parallel delirium and the fleeting reception in the stations, where the train stops to give testimony to its wandering destiny, bound to irrefutable laws of time.

These images, these objects, in many cases unknown and in many others almost forgotten, allow us to remember the important past the railroad had, and imagine the more important future that awaits it in the years to come, in the decades to come, let's reunite ourselves together with history.

Kansas City Southern de Mexico, S.A. de C.V.

- KCS News

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CN PLEASED WITH RATIFICATION OF NEW COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS BY CAW MEMBERS

MONTREAL, QC -- The Canadian National Railway Monday welcomed ratification of new collective labor agreements by members of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union. The CAW represents approximately 4,000 CN employees in Canada.

The four-year labor agreements, retroactive to Jan. 1, 2007, include wage and benefit improvements for CAW-represented employees in CN's shopcraft and clerical/intermodal functions, as well as for owner/operator truckers working for a trucking subsidiary that supports CN's intermodal group.

The collective agreements covering shopcraft and clerical/intermodal employees provide for annual wage increases of three per cent during the first three years of the deals and a four per cent wage increase in the final year of the contracts. These employees will also benefit from a post-retirement health care plan, and shopcraft employees will gain individual employment guarantees during the life of the contract.

Owner/operators will see an increase in mileage rates, among other improvements. - Mark Hallman, CN News Release

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TRAIN STOPPED BEFORE PASSING THROUGH BURNING TUNNEL

WASHINGTON AND MULTNOMAH COUNTIES, OR -- A train scheduled to pass through a tunnel on the border of Washington and Multnomah counties Monday morning was stopped in time to avoid getting trapped by fire and falling rocks, authorities said.

The fire was reported about 08:00 Monday by a passing motorist on Rock Creek Road.

A Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue crew equipped with air packs entered the tunnel and found that the wooden beams, which run up the sides and over top of the concrete tunnel, were burning.
Large rocks and parts of the beams fell down.

The fire seems contained to a 100-foot section of wooden beams approximately 500 feet inside the tunnel, said Karen Eubanks, spokeswoman for TVF&R. The blaze does not appear to be spreading.
The tunnel, which is about a mile long, is located primarily on the Washington County side but its east portal is in Multnomah County. It's owned by Portland Western/Willamette Pacific Railroad, which has taken responsibility for the fire.

Railroad officials decided they will use railroad equipment to extinguish the fire, possibly by using a remote-controlled rail car that can access the tunnel.

The fire is expected to take a long time to extinguish, due to the preservation chemicals covering the wooden beams.

Fire officials said drivers can expect to see smoke from the smoldering fire well into Tuesday.
Several years ago, a fire in the same tunnel took railroad officials several days to extinguish.
The rail line is used to transport consumer goods and forest products.

The cause of the fire hasn't been determined. - Antonia Giedwoyn, KGW-TV8, Portland, OR

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RAILROAD YARD FIRE UNDER INVESTIGATION

NAPLATE, IL -- A railroad yard fire in Naplate, Illinois is under investigation by the state fire marshal's office.

Naplate firefighters were dispatched at 07:20 Saturday to the CSX railroad yard, west of Boyce Memorial Road.

Naplate Fire Chief Jim Rick said upon arrival, firefighters found an office trailer burning, as well as five vehicles belonging to CSX employees.

Rick said the fire did not take long to extinguish, and the investigation was turned over to the fire marshal's office and La Salle County Sheriff's Office.

There were no injuries, and Rick said the owners of the vehicles were not in the yard at the time of the fire.

"The employees were working at the time," Rick said. "I think they were pulling a train out of town."

The trailer and vehicles were a total loss. Rick said he did not know how long the fire had been burning prior to firefighters' arrival. - Tammie Sloop, The Ottawa (IL) Times

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LIMITS ON RAIL CARGO COULD LIGHTEN TRUCKS

JOILET, IL -- There is a new twist in Will County's overweight truck plight.

A train derailment out West has caused BNSF, which operates Logistics Park intermodal in Elwood, Illinois, to clamp down on overweight cargo container loads.

Assistant county engineer Bruce Gould said the derailment was caused when the bottom dropped out of a cargo container full of grain.

As a result, the BNSF Railway Company, formerly the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway, issued an advisory earlier this week asking all shippers to make sure they abide by the company's cargo container weight limits. The limits are 40,000 pounds for a 20-foot container or 48,000 pounds for a 40-foot container.

BNSF spokesman Steve Forsberg said the company didn't decrease the pound limits for cargo containers. It is simply asking shippers to abide by the current limits.

Company officials found through spot checking after the derailment that many weights listed on cargo containers were inaccurate. The discrepancies ranged from 20 pounds to 27,000 pounds over weights listed on the containers, Forsberg said.

When a cargo container is overloaded with any material, not just grain, it can cause the containers to rupture spilling the load onto the railroad tracks, Forsberg explained.

"It's a safety issue," he said.

The company is going to require all shippers to include a certified scale ticket with all loads from now on, Forsberg added.

"That ought to take care of the potential for problems," he said.

If weight limits are abided by, this will reduce the weight of trucks carrying cargo containers full of grain from 88,000 pounds to about 80,000 pounds, the county's Gould said. That will help reduce damage to county roads, though the trucks will still be overweight for the county's 73,280-pound weight limit. The weight limit on state roads and the portion of Arsenal Road leading to the intermodal is 80,000 pounds.

The committee, which will ultimately report back to the county board, is looking for ways to deal with a skyrocketing number of overweight trucks carrying grain from area granaries to the Elwood intermodal.

The increase was unexpected because a lot of the region's grain had been shipped by barge in the past, county officials have said. Now area granaries are taking advantage of discounted rail-shipping rates.

The county wants to keep agribusiness healthy, while making sure taxpayers don't have to foot the bill for damaged roads, officials have said. The committee will meet again on Feb. 8. - Cindy Wojdyla Cain, The Herald News

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GLAD TO GET RAILROADED

Photo here: [www.columbian.com]

Caption reads: The Chelatchie Prairie Railroad steam locomotive chugs over the East Fork of the Lewis River near Yacolt on Sunday. (Mike Salsbury/The Columbian)

YACOLT, WA -- They've seen the train before, but children always come out to see it again, said Doug Auburg.

Kids love trains, said Auburg, conductor of the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad.

Plenty of adults, such as Frederick Smith, love trains as well. His black T-shirt said it all: "Still play with trains."

"It's just nice to have historical trains like this and ride them," he said while waiting to board the restored 1929 ALCO 2-8-2T steam locomotive.

The Vancouver resident was surprised that there wasn't a television news crew around. The train would make for great television footage, especially on such a sunny day, he said.

While there wasn't a television camera in sight on Sunday there were plenty of camcorders and digital cameras. Most passengers had one or the other and a few had both.

Auburg didn't have either, but he didn't really need one. He's ridden the train numerous times and knows its route quite well.

The Vancouver resident stood at the front of the train's open passenger car and worked with the crew to make sure the 90-minute trip went smoothly.

The Chelatchie Prairie Railroad was established in 1981 and is an all-volunteer, nonprofit group. It acquired the steam train from a man in the Olympic Peninsula area a few years ago and spent three years restoring it, Auburg said. This was the first ride for the public on the steam train.

The conductor eagerly pointed things out along the nearly 8-mile route. He made sure passengers saw a partially frozen beaver pond. The beaver lodge was nearby, he said.

The trains departs from Yacolt and travels south toward Basket Flats, near Lucia Falls Park.

Patches of snow from the recent storm were scattered along the route, as were train lovers, cameras in hand. The rail fans know they can get better pictures of the train from the ground, Auburg said.

Several fans parked cars near the train's route and waited for it to crawl by. The fastest the train goes is 10 mph, Auburg said.

One man snapped pictures from several spots. He'd take some pictures, jump in his car, drive ahead to another spot and shoot some more.

Along the way, passengers spotted horses, a few llamas and an abandoned chicken house.

Steam billowed from the train's smoke stack and its steam whistle roared as the train made its way along the tracks. One of the things some passengers may have glimpsed was an abandoned red SP&S caboose near the tracks. It has nothing to do with the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad, but it's hard to miss, Auburg said.

The leisurely pace of the train and the jerky ride didn't seem to bother anyone. The small children onboard didn't even seem to mind passing through the 300-foot-long rock tunnel.

Photo here: [www.columbian.com]

Caption reads: Steam fills a 300-foot-long rock tunnel and rises above the heads of passengers on the Chelatchie Prairie Railroad. The train went on three excursions on Sunday. (Mike Salsbury/The Columbian)

Everyone was smiling when the train finally came to a stop in Yacolt. Many people dawdled; they seemed disappointed that the ride was over and reluctantly got off.

"Thank you, sir, that was great," a woman said to Auburg as she got off the train.

If you go

What: The Chelatchie Prairie Railroad in Yacolt.

Cost: Adults $15, seniors (60 and older) $14, youths (5-12) $10, children (2-4) $8, children (younger than 2) free.

Information: 360-686-3559. Look at a train schedule, make reservations and get directions to the railroad at [www.bycx.com].

- Jose Paul Carona, The Columbian

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NIGHT NOISES ARE BAD NEWS FOR INSOMNIAC

TEHACHAPI, CA -- Before we moved into Mountain Aire Estates we were warned that some railroad engineers like to play grand opera with their locomotive horns at the Dennison Road crossing down the street.

Happily, railroad noise hasn't been a problem for us. One reason is that our little manufactured house is remarkably soundproof. An even bigger reason, I believe, is the fact that we have always lived near trains. Their sounds strike us as more reassuring than disturbing.

If you want to talk about noise pollution, let me tell you about our clocks. We have two that chime. In our big house in Golden Hills their bonging was swallowed up by spacious rooms. Now they are both within a few feet of our bedroom. During the day the clock noises blend into the background hum of a community going about its business and we hardly hear them. At night the chiming normally doesn't interfere with our sleep. But when I have eaten one too many enchiladas and wake up before midnight it's a different story. Then the clocks sound like an acid rock concert and I know I have just been skunked out of a night's sleep.

The smaller clock on the dining room wall speaks with a civilized tone and only on the hour. But the huge grandfather clock near the front door goes off every fifteen minutes. In the wee hours it seems like it could wake the dead. Loudness is only part of the problem. I try to keep the two clocks synchronized so both of them announce the time within a few seconds of each other. When I'm lying awake all my senses are alert to make sure they bong together on the next hour. It's what they call waiting for the other shoe to drop.

You're asking why I don't turn off the bongers at night which I admit is easy to do. Although it's none of your business I'll tell you why. I have the uneasy feeling that the absence of bongs would be worse than the bongs. I'm pretty sure it would only magnify the other night sounds that keep me awake, such as my wife's measured breathing that tells me she is in blissful slumber. Of course that shouldn't make a mature person angry but why is she sleeping and I'm not?

In between are the strangulating sounds from the foot of the bed where our asthmatic dog Isabella snorts and wheezes. She sounds bad enough to scare the pants off a paramedic. I can't tune out that alarming racket because I have the irrational fear she might need respiration at any moment.

Even the docile refrigerator becomes an enemy during what Scott Fitzgerald once described as "a long dark night of the soul." In the daytime we never hear a sound from the refrigerator. But when it dumps a tray in the icemaker at three in the morning it's like an avalanche in the Himalayas. Then seconds later the water spigot opens to refill the tray. I've been to Niagara Falls and it sounds the same.

I know you feel my pain and I shouldn't bother you any further. But I have one question. Is it okay to give allergy pills to a Chihuahua? - Bill Mead, The Tehachapi News

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MEMORIES: LITTLE TRAINS ALONG THE RIVER GONE 50 YEARS NOW

HUNTINGTON, WV -- In 1956, when the accompanying photo was taken, Tri-Staters could board mainline passenger trains here for Cincinnati, Chicago, Detroit, Louisville, Washington, Richmond, New York and, by connections, points all across the United States and Canada.

By taking a short drive to Kenova, they could go by rail to Portsmouth, Williamson, Bluefield, Roanoke and Norfolk, too.

Or, by reporting to the B&O station at 2nd Avenue and 11th Street -- today's Boston Beanery Restaurant & Tavern -- you could ride a tiny little train to Point Pleasant, Ravenswood, Parkersburg and a dozen other towns alongside the Ohio River between here and Wheeling.

Few people will notice, but after Wednesday B&O trains 72 and 73 will have been gone for 50 years. Even much of the track they traversed in and out of the city can't be found today, a victim of the urban renewal of the '60s.

But on their last day, Thursday, Jan. 31, 1957, they got a lot of attention. Northbound No. 72 carried 20 passengers out of Huntington, more than it welcomed aboard in many a year. But they were all -- to the last person -- deadheads, railroad employees and their spouses, taking one final nostalgic ride.

Southbound No. 73 even carried an extra coach to accommodate the well-wishers, and in one grand class act, Wheeling Division Superintendent J.J. Sell ordered the train, once engineer H.D. Bee pulled it into Kenova, to return immediately as an "extra" to Parkersburg so its passengers would have a way home.

The next day, B&O bragged that its passenger service systemwide was now 100 percent dieselized. - Bob Withers, The Huntington Herald-Dispatch

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CPR EXPECTED TO REPORT PROFIT, AS GLOBAL TRADE FUELS INDUSTRY

The Big Six's share prices have surged over the past three years amid tightening rail capacity. While there are bound to be some bumps ahead, the party's not over yet for investors, analysts say.

"Despite potentially slowed earnings momentum, results should remain sound through any economic slowdown, demonstrating the extent to which the North American freight railroad sector has decoupled from the underlying North American economy," Scotia Capital Inc. analyst James David said in a research note.

So far, the earnings reports for 2006 have been impressive: Profit at Montreal-based Canadian National Railway Co. rose 34 per cent to $2.09-billion last year; Fort Worth, Texas-based Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. climbed 24 per cent to $1.89-billion (U.S.); Jacksonville, Florida-based CSX Corp. increased 15 per cent to $1.31-billion; Norfolk Southern Corp. of Norfolk, Virginia, enjoyed a 16-per-cent advance to $1.48-billion; and Union Pacific Corp. of Omaha, Nebraska, registered a 56-per-cent jump to $1.61-billion.

Observers say the continent's railways are getting better at meeting scheduled deliveries, and have lured business away from truckers, especially over the past three years.

Capacity is tight on the train tracks, meaning that freight rates aren't expected to plummet any time soon. If anything, with fuel surcharges declining with the drop in oil prices, that may give railways room to raise general freight rates.

"We believe it will be easier for the industry to increase base prices if the price of fuel is falling," BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc. analyst Randy Cousins said in a research report.

However, transportation consultant Greg Gormick cautioned in an interview that the topic of jacking up freight rates remains a sensitive one with railway customers. Rail carriers would be wise to temper plans for higher rates, lest they incur the wrath of shippers, he said.

For now, industry experts say the railways are cash cows amid bustling demand for rail services.
Fuel prices are still too high to trigger a major shift back to truckers, they say. Many shippers prefer to send their heavy or bulky goods by rail for long-haul trips, but tend to give short-haul jobs to truckers.

"Railways have become much more cost effective and productive than they were in the past," said Cliff Mackay, president of the Railway Association of Canada.

Mr. Mackay joined the railway group last May, after serving for eight years as president of the Air Transport Association of Canada. He said railways have improved their performance by keeping locomotives running and reducing so-called "dwell times" -- time spent getting trains ready in rail yards.

"In the airline business, the key thing is to turn around the plane and keep it in the sky. In the railway industry, when the train is moving, it's making you money. When it's sitting, it's not," he said in an interview from Ottawa. "We're getting a lot more value out of our assets."

The Asian trade bonanza has fueled growth in North America's railway sector. Consumer products, notably from China, are pouring in while commodities such as grain, coal and fertilizer are exported abroad. "Basically, it's global trade. The consumer goods arrive in containers, and they go to the Canadian Tires, Wal-Marts and Home Depots," Mr. Mackay said. - Brent Jang, The Toronto Globe and Mail

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IT'S ALL TREW: HIGGINS WAS STAGE STATION

At most settlements in the Llano Estacado, buffalo hide hunters were the first Anglos to camp or pause for a spell at the site. From 1873 to 1878, hunters hunted illegally in the eastern Texas/Oklahoma panhandles, which was supposedly Indian Territory.

In 1874, one of the area's first settlements was established as a resting place for hunters and travelers going south from Fort Supply. The stop was called The Commission Creek Stage Station and known locally as Polly's Hotel.

After Fort Elliott was established in 1875, creating a new military road to Fort Supply, the future of the Stage Station seemed assured. Further promises for the future arrived as a mail route began passing through the settlement, which was sold and renamed The Latham House.

All bets on the future evaporated when in 1887, the Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad laid track four miles north of the Stage Station, naming the new settlement Higgins in honor of a wealthy railroad stockholder. In 1888, The Latham House closed and was moved to the new town site of Higgins. Immediately, the Commission Creek Stage Station became a ghost town.

Like all early and some later settlements in the Panhandle, railroads and highways made or condemned the sites without regard to the people and investments involved. During the Big Ranch Era, when "checker-board" settlement was devised, the state gave the railroads 32 million acres of land to encourage building new trackage in the Panhandle. Most of this acreage was bare, unsettled, unsurveyed prairie.

The land making up today's Lipscomb County was divided and given to three railroad companies with all odd-numbered sections going to the railroads and even numbered sections kept by the state to sell to provide money for the State Education Fund. As the land sold and the population grew, Lipscomb residents banded together and were able to retain their county seat of Lipscomb. Higgins lost its bid for county seat to Canadian, which organized in 1887 and named new county Hemphill in honor of Judge John Hemphill.

For every small settlement bypassed and condemned to die by the railroads, another settlement was usually created. This was because the tracks always needed repair and section repair crews needed to live near their respective section. Telegraph signals of the time would not travel far without re-amplification, so settlements were needed every few miles of track for many purposes. Most of these settlements were built at a convenient sidetrack.

These sidetrack locations became especially attractive to local ranchers who needed loading facilities for their livestock. Higgins eventually acquired large livestock loading facilities along with a livestock sale barn, all of which contributed to its reputation as an important shipping point in the eastern Panhandle. By 1888, the town had two saloons, three hotels and other businesses to serve the cowboys who brought the livestock to town.

The progression from The Commission Creek Stage Station in 1874 to the modern-day town of Higgins is an extremely interesting saga of Panhandle of Texas history. - Delbert Trew, The Amarillo Globe-News

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LOCOMOTIVE MAY BE HEADED HOME TO OHIO

ROANOKE, VA -- The beleaguered Virginia Museum of Transportation has agreed to sell one of its largest steam locomotives to an Ohio railroad for $125,000, museum executive director Bev Fitzpatrick said this week.

The Nickel Plate 763, one of a triumvirate of huge steam locomotives at the museum that also includes the Norfolk and Western-made 1218 and 611, would go to the Ohio Central Railroad System of Coshocton, Ohio, and be restored to operation if the deal goes through, several sources said.

A few hurdles remain. Because the locomotive, like much of the museum's rolling stock, is actually owned by the city, Roanoke City Council must first authorize the sale. Fitzpatrick, a city council member, said he would abstain from voting. A call to Mayor Nelson Harris' office was not returned.

The 60-plus-year-old locomotive must also be moved to Ohio, likely requiring the cooperation of Norfolk Southern Railway, Fitzpatrick said.

Still, the museum board has approved the deal, and Ohio Central has made a down payment of $25,000. "We can certainly use the money," Fitzpatrick said.

The Ohio Central Railroad System is a network of short line railroads in Ohio and Pennsylvania. In addition to hauling freight, it owns 10 steam locomotives and operates for-profit passenger train excursions, according to one of its Web sites, [www.ocsteam.com]. Railroad officials declined to comment on the proposed purchase last week, saying details are still being worked out.

"We're not prepared to say anything at this moment," said John Corns of the railroad's property and lease department.

Meanwhile, the Roanoke transportation museum has struggled for years. Almost half its annual revenues were lost when the state funding for nonstate museums was cut in 2001, and its staff and hours of operation were subsequently slashed. Some of those funds have been restored, but last summer a freak storm tore off part of the museum's new roof, leading Fitzpatrick to say the museum was in crisis.

Selling museum assets to solve cash-flow problems or address building concerns is generally frowned upon in the museum world.

"They're holding the collection itself in the public trust, for the benefit of the public," explained Jason Hall, director of government and media relations for the American Association of Museums. The association's code of ethics states that money from such sales shall "in no event ... be used for anything other than acquisition or direct care of collections."
Not everyone agrees.

"In the museum world, there are very, very different views on this," noted Kay Strickland, a past director of the transportation museum. Unlike paintings and other kinds of museum artifacts, she said, rolling stock such as the 763 requires constant maintenance. "I don't think this is the worst thing that could happen. There comes a time when you have to be practical and do what you can to survive."

Some pointed out that the locomotive, which spent most of its working life hauling freight between New York and Illinois, has no real connection to Virginia in the first place. It was acquired by N&W in its merger with Nickel Plate in the early 1960s, when the engine was already out of service. Shortly afterward, N&W gave it to the city. For years, it sat in Wasena Park.

The 763 shows its age. There are holes in its boiler. Its valves are frozen. It was caught in the flood of 1985, and much of the locomotive and tender are bitten by rust.

"They want to restore the thing to operating condition," said Tom Cox, transportation museum board president, of Ohio Central's offer. "There's something to be said for that. We can always use the money for good things."

Rail fan chat sites have been abuzz with the news, with the reaction largely positive. "Wow! That's awesome!" reads one message posted in a railroad discussion group site at [www.trainorders.com].

"It looks like it's coming back to Ohio, where it belongs," said Matt Fruchey, assistant national director for the Nickel Plate Road Historical and Technical Society. "Ohio Central has several working steam locomotives. They're equipped to be able to handle some of these things."
Reaction from local rail buffs was mixed.

"You hate to see something like that go. But at the same time, it's not a great loss to the area," said Louis Newton, author of a multivolume history of N&W. Newton, too, noted the locomotive's ties to the region are slight. Also, "It needs quite a bit of work."

"Quite frankly, I think it's a good move for the museum," said David Helmer, president of the History Museum of Western Virginia and an organizer of the O. Winston Link Museum. "It looks like hell. It's going back to its home. It makes a lot of sense."

Ken Miller, past president of the Roanoke chapter of the National Railway Historical Society, said he would have preferred a trade in which the museum got an N&W locomotive in return: "It is a major steam locomotive. ... I feel like any time you get rid of a major piece, you need to return something to the collection that is of equal or more historical value."

It was not immediately clear what the money would be used for. Museum officials declined to discuss the museum's financial situation in detail. The museum's 2004-05 tax return listed $238,000 in liabilities, which Fitzpatrick called "a fair assessment" of the museum's current debt load.

Some of the sale money could go toward transporting four dilapidated N&W steam locomotives from the Virginia Scrap Iron and Metal Co. on Jefferson Street, Fitzpatrick said. The engines have been donated to the museum, but have deteriorated greatly and can likely no longer roll. - Kevin Kittredge, The Roanoke Times

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TRANSIT NEWS

'CAN'T DO' ATTITUDE

Kansas City has only barely begun down the path toward light rail, and already it’s highly amusing to watch all the various government, civic and business groups stutter and stammer. It’s nice to see that Kansas City’s can’t-do attitude is alive and well.

Oh sure, build an arena on the backs of taxpayers, no problem. Never mind the fact that it will sit empty. The developers got theirs. Tax increment financing funds for upscale Briarcliff? Sure. Who do we make the check out to?

But the common man votes for something that will benefit him, and suddenly there are 1,001 reasons why it can’t be done. The metropolitan area’s reputation as a third-rate city is indeed well-ensured for the foreseeable future. - Letter to the Editor, Ken Harbeck, Overland Park, KS, The Kansas City Star

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VOTERS HAVE SPOKEN

When does a majority vote in favor of an issue not count anymore? Presumably, when The Kansas City Star says so.

The Star and others think that their own notions as to the soundness of the voter-approved light-rail plan should prevail over the wisdom of 74,000 voters.

A Star editorial of Jan. 21 strongly implied that the voters were less than intelligent for approving a light-rail plan that had so-called “problems.” It called on local officials to extensively revise the plan and resubmit it to voters based on the testimony of one out-of-town, city-paid lobbyist and a post-election string of bogus legal arguments proffered by the city’s assistant attorney designed to scare the public.

Silly me, I thought I’d climbed all my light-rail mountains.

The campaign is over. Opponents are playing with legal and political dynamite by refusing to accept the result that 74,000 people did not just vote for a “concept.” They voted for a specific light-rail transit plan.

And even if this transit plan has some minor flaws, they can be resolved with honest effort, cooperation and in a spirit of optimism without offending 74,000 voters and the democratic process. - Letter to the Editor, Clay Chastain, Bedford, VA, The Kansas City Star

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TRANSIT MONGREL MIGHT BE LITTLE BUS-TRAIN THAT COULD

OAKLAND, CA -- Pick your transit: Rubber or steel wheels. In the Bay Area and elsewhere, it seems necessary to declare your allegiance to either bus transit or rail transit.

Now, thanks to some imaginative Japanese transit planners, we have the mode of transit to bring the warring parties together: The rail bus.

With retractable steel wheels, much like those freight railroad track inspection SUVs, this dual mode vehicle is being tested this month by transit company JR Hokkaido in the town of Fuji (near the mountain of the same name), if the Web press accounts are accurate.

With little funnel-like ramps to guide the thing onto the rails, the little buses are, in theory, able to make that mechanical and socioeconomic transition without derailing or getting mired in civil rights lawsuits.

According to some further reckless Web research, I was able to glean that this idea, like so many in the field of mass transit, is far from new, according to a University of Washington Web page:

"During the pre-World War II era, Germany, Japan and Australia attempted to develop such a system, but they could (not use it for regular service). The major reasons were that they took too much time to change from one mode to another, and that it was too costly to develop the system."

Isn't that always the rub? Rail costs too much to build, buses cost too much to operate. Here's a mode that combines both of those features.

But seriously, one of the big drawbacks of rail is that it can't feasiblely serve our sprawling communities without some kind of feeder bus system. People would rather drive than be fed via bus, so you don't get so many cars off the road.

With a hybrid bus-train, you can serve the subdivisions via streets and then seamlessly scoot down rail lines past the traffic that buses tend to get caught behind. Some would argue that busways and bus lanes accomplish this too, but hey, you're still riding a BUS, aren't you?

This could be the way to convince suburbanites to ride a bus, of sorts. Just tell them it's a train that takes them all the way home.

Bruce, always quick at the keyboard, had this to say about that:

"One of the options that was presented in the early stages of planning for the Berkeley/East Oakland Bus Rapid Transit was the bus-train - essentially a bus with a retractable pin that would work like a slot car if you needed a narrow right-of-way or to connect vehicles together into a train, but could operate as a bus on the streets. Such a system would be cheaper to build and maintain than a conventional rail system, and would be more flexible in its operation.
Imagine how much better BART would be if it ran bus-trains, and instead of all the cars going from San Francisco to Richmond, some of them would separate in Oakland, Berkeley, Albany and El Cerrito and take you within walking distance of your home."

But that idyllic vision was countered with some statistical limitations by South Bay Resident:
"I think that one of the fundamental problems with BART is lack of capacity through the Transbay Tube. BART can only run 30 trains per hour each way through the tube, which limits the frequency of the entire system. Building hybrid road/rail buses would only make the problem worse because of long station dwell times. If you're using lots of individual vehicles then buses do the job better because it is easier to load/unload them in parallel, which is very difficult with trains.

"My suggestion for encouraging transit use between the inner East Bay and San Francisco is to improve AC Transit's service, perhaps including better access to the carpool/bus lanes on the Oakland side of the bay. Also adding bus ramps to the SF side of the Bay Bridge would be helpful. The capacity is there.

"The exclusive bus lane in the Lincoln tunnel (in NYC) carries as many people during the peak commute hour as BART. As for improving BART, I think that the best thing you could do there is add an extra set (or two) of doors per car, which would reduce station dwell times and make improved signaling useful."

I'm glad we were able to clear that up. - Erik N. Nelson, The Oakland Tribune

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LIRR PUBLIC HEARINGS SET FOR FEBRUARY 08

SYOSSET, LONG ISLAND, NY -- State lawmakers have scheduled a public hearing on the Long Island Rail Road's gap problem, to be held at Syosset High School on Feb. 8. The hearing, scheduled for 10:00, will be in the school's auditorium, at 70 South Woods Road in Syosset.

At the hearing, state leaders will grill officials from the LIRR and its parent agency, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, on the railroad's dangerously wide platform gaps, which have caused hundreds of passenger injuries and contributed to the death of a Minnesota teenager last August.

According to LIRR measurements, gaps between trains and platforms stretch as wide as 15 inches at some stations.

Since August, the railroad has been narrowing gaps by shifting tracks, moving platforms and tacking wooden boards to platform edges. It currently plans to narrow gaps at about 100 of its 262 platforms at passenger stations. - Jennifer Maloney, Newsday

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