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Corrections to: LRY (Lake Railway) sues Lake County (Oregon) in Federal Court for "collusion"
Author: ?
Date: 02-18-2018 - 10:34
>Lake Railway formerly operated the line from Lakeview OR to a UP interchange at Perez near Klamath Falls. Last summer Lake County (OR), which owns the tracks, cancelled the lease with Lake Railway and contracted with a new operator named Goose Lake Railway.
Lake County (Oregon) only owns the track from Lakeview to Alturas, purchased from SP about 1987 after abandonment was granted to SP by the ICC. The line from Alturas to Perez has always been owned by SP and successor UP.
>Years ago this was an SP branch, and a remnant of the earlier N-C-O.
The narrow gauge NCO originally extended from Reno to Lakeview, plus they bought the Sierra Valley that extended a ways west of Portola. IIRC the WP bought the south end and used much of the grade for the Reno branch, and then maybe the main near Herlong? NCO ended up abandoning the middle between the WP connection and SP crossing at Wendel. Then SP bought the last of the financially failing NCO and standard gauged Wendel-Alturas-Lakeview as part of their Modoc line. The track from Texum (Klamath Falls) and Alturas was constructed new by SP under the construction name "Modoc Northern", not to be confused with the later lease operator that failed circa 2006.
From newspaper article: >"Among these is a claim Lake Railway is now unable to pay back a $500,000 facilities improvement loan from Portland-based lender FR LLC, for which the plaintiff is holding the county liable."
Court records show Frontier Rail or FR, LLC being added as a plaintiff. So is "Portland-based lender FR LLC" not a bank, but simply another division of "Frontier Rail"?
>More corruption from Lake County... First reason why Great Western quit the branch, was the corruption from these politicos that made "the people of Lake County" own their own railroad when SP wanted out. Instead, it's just a convinience to "a very few".
Presumably personal opinion rather than any real fact. Lake County had initially contracted another operator (Kyle?) who backed out at the last minute, so Great Western took the bid with just a few weeks to get ready. At the time, there were three operating lumber mills in Lakeview and the track was in good enough shape that the train ran a couple times a week, making a round trip in the same day with 12 hours. I believe Great Western simply did not renew their contract when it expired, likely due to deteriorating track conditions and traffic levels. The County ran it themselves for a few years after that. At one point Lakeview was down to only one mill and the County had seriously considered having to give up the railroad. The perlite plant resulted in generating enough new rail traffic to justify keeping the line running. The entire basis for Lake County owning the railroad and somehow keeping it going is very simple - it's for economic development. Without it, Lakeview could potentially lose the existing and any future large processing plants, their related jobs and economic contribution to the community without sufficient transportation infrastructure. The only question is how to subsidize the operations/maintenance if there isn't enough traffic and who eventually pays to upgrade the track. There are enough "politics" at work in the downtown business district, which is failing as most residents are forced to shop online or in Klamath Falls.
>UP was smart to keep the Perez to Klamath Falls section, being easy and flat, while Frontier Rail maintains the hard part of the Modoc on their own pocket
Since the "new" Modoc Northern failed (they did go all the way to Klamath Falls), the STB changed the rules about interchange access. UP could potentially be forced to allow a shortline access to BNSF if they operated closer to Klamath Falls than Perez. "Frontier Rail" is the wrong company, it was actually LRY, LLC dba Lake Railway and it isn't any surprise if a shortline leases a track from another railroad or rail authority that they would be required to maintain the track at their own expense as part of the lease agreement. Frontier Rail/LRY no longer "maintains" any part of the track as they discontinued operating Lakeview-Alturas (lake County) in September and Alturas-Perez (UP former Modoc line) in October.
>It's one helluva grade for LRY @ Canby.
Track charts show 2.2% - not unusual for western US rail lines as it is the typical maximum grade, though a few mainlines (first main built through Cajon, Raton?, Tennessee Pass) and many branches and shortlines had/have steeper. No different than when it was SP, UP, Modoc Northern, LRY and now Goose Lake. For the SP, the general traffic pattern was lumber and other northwest products heading down the hill. Primarily woodchips went upgrade in SP days towards western Oregon paper mills. With the Modoc severed as a through route, everything has to go up and down the hill, and the general traffic pattern for years has been loads outbound.
If you reread the newspaper article carefully - at no point does it claim that LRY/Lake Railway/Frontier Rail is suing Goose Lake Railway or the shippers - only that it has amended its existing federal lawsuit against Lake County (still apparently the only named defendant) "claiming termination of the company’s railway lease was done in collusion with shipping clients."
Lake County (Oregon) only owns the track from Lakeview to Alturas, purchased from SP about 1987 after abandonment was granted to SP by the ICC. The line from Alturas to Perez has always been owned by SP and successor UP.
>Years ago this was an SP branch, and a remnant of the earlier N-C-O.
The narrow gauge NCO originally extended from Reno to Lakeview, plus they bought the Sierra Valley that extended a ways west of Portola. IIRC the WP bought the south end and used much of the grade for the Reno branch, and then maybe the main near Herlong? NCO ended up abandoning the middle between the WP connection and SP crossing at Wendel. Then SP bought the last of the financially failing NCO and standard gauged Wendel-Alturas-Lakeview as part of their Modoc line. The track from Texum (Klamath Falls) and Alturas was constructed new by SP under the construction name "Modoc Northern", not to be confused with the later lease operator that failed circa 2006.
From newspaper article: >"Among these is a claim Lake Railway is now unable to pay back a $500,000 facilities improvement loan from Portland-based lender FR LLC, for which the plaintiff is holding the county liable."
Court records show Frontier Rail or FR, LLC being added as a plaintiff. So is "Portland-based lender FR LLC" not a bank, but simply another division of "Frontier Rail"?
>More corruption from Lake County... First reason why Great Western quit the branch, was the corruption from these politicos that made "the people of Lake County" own their own railroad when SP wanted out. Instead, it's just a convinience to "a very few".
Presumably personal opinion rather than any real fact. Lake County had initially contracted another operator (Kyle?) who backed out at the last minute, so Great Western took the bid with just a few weeks to get ready. At the time, there were three operating lumber mills in Lakeview and the track was in good enough shape that the train ran a couple times a week, making a round trip in the same day with 12 hours. I believe Great Western simply did not renew their contract when it expired, likely due to deteriorating track conditions and traffic levels. The County ran it themselves for a few years after that. At one point Lakeview was down to only one mill and the County had seriously considered having to give up the railroad. The perlite plant resulted in generating enough new rail traffic to justify keeping the line running. The entire basis for Lake County owning the railroad and somehow keeping it going is very simple - it's for economic development. Without it, Lakeview could potentially lose the existing and any future large processing plants, their related jobs and economic contribution to the community without sufficient transportation infrastructure. The only question is how to subsidize the operations/maintenance if there isn't enough traffic and who eventually pays to upgrade the track. There are enough "politics" at work in the downtown business district, which is failing as most residents are forced to shop online or in Klamath Falls.
>UP was smart to keep the Perez to Klamath Falls section, being easy and flat, while Frontier Rail maintains the hard part of the Modoc on their own pocket
Since the "new" Modoc Northern failed (they did go all the way to Klamath Falls), the STB changed the rules about interchange access. UP could potentially be forced to allow a shortline access to BNSF if they operated closer to Klamath Falls than Perez. "Frontier Rail" is the wrong company, it was actually LRY, LLC dba Lake Railway and it isn't any surprise if a shortline leases a track from another railroad or rail authority that they would be required to maintain the track at their own expense as part of the lease agreement. Frontier Rail/LRY no longer "maintains" any part of the track as they discontinued operating Lakeview-Alturas (lake County) in September and Alturas-Perez (UP former Modoc line) in October.
>It's one helluva grade for LRY @ Canby.
Track charts show 2.2% - not unusual for western US rail lines as it is the typical maximum grade, though a few mainlines (first main built through Cajon, Raton?, Tennessee Pass) and many branches and shortlines had/have steeper. No different than when it was SP, UP, Modoc Northern, LRY and now Goose Lake. For the SP, the general traffic pattern was lumber and other northwest products heading down the hill. Primarily woodchips went upgrade in SP days towards western Oregon paper mills. With the Modoc severed as a through route, everything has to go up and down the hill, and the general traffic pattern for years has been loads outbound.
If you reread the newspaper article carefully - at no point does it claim that LRY/Lake Railway/Frontier Rail is suing Goose Lake Railway or the shippers - only that it has amended its existing federal lawsuit against Lake County (still apparently the only named defendant) "claiming termination of the company’s railway lease was done in collusion with shipping clients."
