boomer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thoughts on recent topics:
>
> NWP:
>
> Bryan Whipple was an SP man, so his experience
> showed basically he could rebuild the NWP north
> end, yes? No; Whipple thought that State Support
> through predecessors of TIGER grants could be
> obtains, as kids these days say: EPIC FAIL. Crazy

Mr. Whipple has stated that the drop in carloads was his downfall all the other speculations are just that. SP ran with 70 to 90 carloads per trip in their final days. Eureka Southern 35 or fewer carloads.
>
> The Northwestern Pacific was a tired operation, at
> least on the north end. Truckers knew what they
> were getting into even back in the day, a feast
> frenzy with Taxpayer dollar-maintained HWY 101.
> The logging industry is currently not the same,
> but hey, it's Eureka... The Eureka Southern even
> went out to operate the old Annie and Mary in
> Arcata, again, good intentions.
>
> Island Mountain was a disaster because it's very
> unstable soil, you don't need to be a geologist
> for this, but SP did a cheapo fix by hiring their
> favorite rail budget contractor: Morrison Knudsen,
> who even performed horrible locomotive
> rebuilds...

Morrison Knudsen's rebuild of the north end had nothing to do with washouts 15 years later. . Crazy. What does MK's locomotive rebuilds have to do with tracks washing out after huge winter storms. Crazy.
>
> If they can get someone like Herzog or Balfour
> Beatty into rebuilding the north end, then I could
> possibly think that Palo Alto based NWPCo could
> make a profit. Crazy.

.

Read Alf Doten's comments he sums it up perfectly. Trains will never run north of Redwood Valley unless it's fully funded by the state. RIP

North Coast Railroad Authority are
> overpaid Government Workers that haven't been able
> to repair the line north or out of the SMART
> limits not involving John Williams.

NCRA has a director, a Secretary, and a part time attorney. It's not funded so how would you expect them to accomplish much without money.




> Balfour Beatty's rebuild of the south end was a cheapo fix were the NWPco still has issues not corrected by BB's work .