Stan Patterson Wrote:
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> The WIM was always a tough piece of railroad to
> justify having. When we only had two real
> customers in the beginning. Bennett’s and
> Mcgregor Fert In Moscow. It was easy to justify
> keeping the WIM. Also for few years we didn’t
> pay watco anything for lease of the WIM. We held
> the WIM for another reason in the early years. It
> anchored us in a small way with WASDOT. Not
> saying it was a huge deal but was nice anytime
> putting the P&L up for bid came up they didn’t
> seem to want to deal with fact it was going to be
> a hastle because we would still be around on the
> WIM. But besides like six months when regulas
> transloaded at Bennett’s while the STMA fixed
> their bridge early in like 07. The WIM has never
> paid for itself. With storage cars it was a break
> even proposition. Sometime around 2010 we signed
> a long term lease with watco. It cost us $500 a
> month to watco and we had to pay property taxes.
> That came in around $500 a month. Weed spraying
> of 23 miles at $300 a mile annually. We had to
> fix the bridges out there. The section spent a
> good day a week in winter picking crossing
> especially in Palouse. The freight paid $575 a
> car from the mill. The mill lies 78 miles from
> Marshall. So at $7.40 cents a mile we made on
> center beams the WIM didn’t generate much $.
> Bennetts had in my mind always received
> preferential treatment as out only year around
> shipper. But for years they have staid steady at
> six cars a week. Plus a few more from Potlatch
> have not helped really at all in making the WIM a
> break even operation.

Isn’t there a process one has to go through before service is abruptly ceased...?