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Railroad Newsline for Saturday, 11/25/06
Author: Larry W. Grant
Date: 11-25-2006 - 05:20
Railroad Newsline for Saturday, November 25, 2006
Compiled by Larry W. Grant
In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006
RAIL NEWS
TRAIN DERAILMENT COULD AFFECT DM&E DISPUTE
COURTLAND, MN -- The president of the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad says a train derailment near New Ulm demonstrates why the company needs to secure a controversial federal loan.
Cleanup was to continue this morning after the Wednesday night crash in the town of Courtland that saw 30,000 gallons of ethanol spilled.
Kevin Schieffer says the two-point-three (b) billion dollar loan will allow the railroad to upgrade existing track and lay some new ones. That's created strong opposition in the city of Rochester and efforts by its political and business leaders to block the federal loan.
Schieffer says some of the tracks, quote, "desperately need to be replaced." - The Associated Press, KTTC-TV, Rochester, MN
WORK RESTORES CREEKS, MEADOWS DAMAGED BY OLD RAILROAD LINE
TRUCKEE, CA -- Cleaning Up After the Past
Although the Boca and Loyalton Railroad existed for only seventeen years, it served a booming logging economy in Sierra Valley. Fifteen spurs led to over a dozen small lumber mills built along the Little Truckee River and its tributaries. Even ranchers used the railroad line to transport their products.
The tracks were removed in 1917; but the road grade remained, as well as the diverted streambeds of Davies and Merrill Creeks. In the decades that followed, spring runoffs eroded topsoil and dried up meadows, damaging habitat and water tables.
"They put the railroad through Sardine Meadow because is was easier than to build it along the edge of the meadow, which is hillier," said Lisa Wallace, director of the Truckee River Watershed Council. "But they also had to dry up the meadow, redirect the streams to concentrate flows alongside the railroad grade."
When water rushes quickly, it gouges deep channels and pulls sediment into the channel instead of spreading this nourishing mud across the meadows. Plants starve, fisheries die and flood plains deteriorate into rocky gorges. Repairing these streams rehabilitates lands that have been cleared of lumber by helping new growth to flourish.
In 2001, Randy Westmoreland, of the U.S. Forest Service, began the long process to assess the Merrill/Davies Creek watershed. Thirteen sites were identified for restoration and permits from the Army Corp. of Engineers, Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board and the California State Fish and Game were obtained.
There are approximately 20 drainages from Sardine Valley to the Davies/Merrill Creek watershed.
Westmoreland estimates this project will take five years to complete, depending upon funding. "Many of the grants are site specific. No one likes to pay for the planning process," said Westmoreland, who was able to get Forest Service funds for it.
The planning and environmental assessments cost about $50-$60 thousand. Implementation cost about $55 thousand. Proposition 13 Water Quality funds covered about $80 thousand for the restoration of Sites 2 through 12. The U.S. Forest Service supplied $15-$20 thousand in matching funds. Nonpoint Source Pollution funds from the State funded restoration of Site 5 and 6.
With help from the TRWC, Westmoreland secured grants to start work on this immense area. "It seemed like a natural fit to partner with the TRWC" in procuring these grants, Westmoreland said.
The first project involved adding more culverts of a larger capacity to the Henness Pass Road bridges over the creeks.
Traditional thinking believed flooding was something to be controlled. A single, straight river channel would remove the runoff more quickly, thus protecting the area from flooding.
Since then, it's been learned that the natural process of flooding is desirable. Meadows need that yearly influx of water and sediment to renew the environment.
By overflowing a slower, meandering channel, water spreads across the land and stays longer, sinking into the water table and benefitting plant and animal life.
Westmoreland and his crews added eleven culverts to Site Five in 2005. Truckee River Day volunteers also dismantled a campground near this site and planted willows. Fifteen hundred feet of railroad grade were removed, and streams were redirected, using a technique called "plugging and ponding," where earthen plugs of natural materials were placed into actively eroding channels to return water flows into pre-existing natural channels in the meadow surface.
During last month's Truckee River Day, volunteers continued work in redirecting the creek to its original course, removing the railroad grade and digging up sage and other invasive plants. The result will be a restored riparian zone where the meadow functions properly to cleanse and store spring runoff in the ground. This helps maintain the many ways people use water in the entire Truckee River Basin.
Former adversaries, such as developers and environmentalists, have learned that environmental health is imperative to their respective interests.
While Truckee residents use well water, people further downstream depend on a clean abundant supply of surface water. Restoring these tributaries and their environements assures a high quality of water for everyone from Tahoe to Pyramid Lake.
The TRWC holds stakeholder open houses on the second Tuesday and Thursday of each month from 8 -9 am in their offices at 10418 Donner Pass Road: Learn more about the TRWC and their projects on their website at truckeeriverwc.org - The Reno Gazette-Journal
RAILROAD CALLS MEAL EXCURSIONS SUCCESSFUL
SANTA MARIA, CA -- Santa Maria Valley Railroad's first-ever Customer Appreciation Lunch Special and Dinner Train Excursion on Nov09 aboard the former California Zephyr private railcar Silver Lariat were a big success, according to its new owners.
More than 30 railroad freight customers were served lunch prepared aboard the Silver Lariat and had a rare chance to tour the railroad's main line from Santa Maria and Guadalupe.
Representatives from Union Pacific Railroad and the Santa Maria Valley Railroad maintenance of way crew also attended the event.
Later that night, 47 customers boarded the Silver Lariat for a night of gourmet dining as the railroad operated a rare night train, which sold out within weeks even though it wasn't advertised, a company spokesman said.
The Santa Maria Valley Railroad has preliminary plans for a dinner train in spring 2007 and is looking to form alliances or partnerships to continue the dinner trains on a regular basis.
Long-term plans include wine trains, murder mystery dinner trains and holiday dinner trains, the spokesman said.
The Vista-dome Silver Lariat was built in 1948 for use on the famed California Zephyr passenger train. Current owners Al Bishop and Burt Hermey purchased the Silver Lariat from Amtrak in 1985 and restored the car to its full 1948 splendor.
It is one of the top private cars to charter and is frequently chartered by top executives from Union Pacific Railroad, the spokesman said. - The Santa Maria Times
PLACENTIA LOOKS AT WAYST TO OVERCOME COSTLY RAILROAD-TRACK PROGRAM
PLACENTIA, CA -- Increasing city service fees, putting off some road and storm drain improvements and keeping some City Hall staff positions unfilled are possible ways to help Placentia, California shore up a $2.7 million deficit.
City Administrator Bob Dominguez said the city could eliminate in two to three years the deficit caused by spending on the city's OnTrac project to sink railroad tracks underground.
The project caused the city to dig deep into its coffers and take out millions in loans.
Some steps Dominguez said Tuesday night that could be taken this fiscal year, which ends in June, were:
•Deferring about $50,000 budgeted for capital-equipment purchases like computers and network components.
Shaving as much as $1.4 million from intended city-fleet replacements.
•Freezing some vacant city staff positions, such as perhaps two police officers and jobs in the public works and finance departments, saving about $200,000.
For the 2007-08 fiscal year, he suggested other possible options:
•Eliminating a $500,000 contingency fund.
Reducing $280,000 total in department budgets.
Also, Dominguez expects the city to get at least $1.2 million from KB Homes because of an agreement with the developer based on the number of new Old Town townhomes it sells. Some of that revenue could go toward the deficit. - Sushma Subramanian, The Orange County Register
TREE TRIMMING DONE BY AIR
BRANSON, MO -- Some in the Tri-Lakes Area got the chance last week to see a unique way to trim trees.
The Missouri Department of Energy used an air-trimming helicopter near power lines along Missouri 76 to not only cut tree limbs, but to also cut costs and time for local businesses.
Photo here:
[www.bransondailynews.com]
“Three miles of line a day (are trimmed),” said pilot Vic Johnson, of Oregon, who was contracted to do the job. “We started three miles north and are trimming to (Table Rock) dam.”
The blades, which hang below the helicopter, are powered by a small gasoline engine located just above the top blade. It holds two and a half gallons and needs to be refueled approximately every hour.
Ground Crew Leader Bruce Dyches, of South Carolina, trails the chopper by land. His main job is to repair the trimmer if needed throughout the process.
“Trimming the trees by air cuts the cost by half; the fuel is limited because of weight limitations on the helicopter,” Dyches said.
The cost of operating the air trimmer is $1,000 per hour. It is used by power, gas, telephone and railroad companies across the country each year.
This job is contracted by a local Trans Line company and work was to be completed on Friday. - Lisa Queen, The Branson Daily News
UNION PACIFIC LIABLE FOR PEDESTRIAN'S INJURIES?
TRUCKEE, CA -- Here is a case recently decided by the Third District Court of Appeal out of Sacramento — our district. It involves a pedestrian hit by a passing Union Pacific train. You decide whether U.P. is responsible.
U.P. Bridge
At 20:30 in the evening, Steven Christoff was walking along Roseville Road. Because the sidewalk narrowed as the road crossed Arcade Creek, Christoff decided to use the nearby Union Pacific railroad bridge to cross the creek.
The railroad bridge had a metal grid area on the side of the bridge which had a 1-foot-9-inch wide walkway. The walkway was for employees to work on the railroad, not for pedestrians. In fact, Christoff had to step over metal struts that held up the attached walkway.
There was no signage prohibiting pedestrians, but the “walkway” was clearly not meant for Roseville Road pedestrians.
There was testimony that standard chain–link fences are not effective against trespassing, and tamper–proof fencing would cost about $1 million per mile and would endanger people in the event of deraiment. There was little explanation of why U.P. did not have a “no trespassing” sign other than the obvious danger presented.
50 mph
While Christoff was on the railroad bridge, a freight train approached from the opposite direction at a speed of approximately 50 mph. Under the speed limit. The engineer sounded the horn. Christoff saw the train’s lights and heard the horn, but did not take any evasive action.
Christoff said when he heard the train whistle, he waved, because when he used to live near railroad tracks the train conductors would beep the whistle and he would wave. The court noted that he had time to wave but not enough time to hold onto the railing.
As the train passed it either struck him or threw him to the ground and he was badly injured. But he lived to tell the story — and hire a lawyer.
Duty to warn
Christoff claimed that U.P. did not warn him of the dangers of walking on the narrow passageway next to the tracks on the bridge. The Court of Appeal noted that “any reasonable person would know that standing within a few feet of a high speed freight train is dangerous.” As the court said, a busy railroad track is itself a warning to anyone “possessed of ordinary intelligence” that it is not safe to walk on or near the tracks, and indicates the possibility of being struck by a passing train. Hard to argue with that.
Ruling
The Sacramento Court of Appeal agreed with the trial court: “defendant railroad was not negligent; did not have a duty to warn of open and obvious dangers on its property; it acted with reasonable care to prevent injury to trespassers and its conduct was not a legal cause of plaintiff’s injuries.” That is, U.P.’s failure to warn of the obvious danger did not cause Christoff’s injuries.
His stupidity did. - Jim Porter, The Truckee Sierra Sun (Jim Porter is an attorney with Porter· Simon, with offices in Truckee, South Lake Tahoe and Reno. He is a mediator and was the governor's appointee to the Bipartisan McPherson Commission and the California Fair Political Practices Commission.)
TOY TRAINS HELP USHER IN THE HOLIDAY SEASON
TOPPENISH, WA -- Tiny tots as well as older engine aficionados can hop aboard a real working caboose and travel to see Santa Claus at the ongoing annual Toy Train Christmas celebration.
The event runs from 10:00 - 16:00 every Saturday through Dec16 at the Northern Pacific Railway Museum, 10 Asotin Ave.
Visitors are invited to tour the museum, which has been decorated with festive Christmas trees. At least 10 trees will be ringed at the bottom by working toy train sets from local collections -- and once they're all going, it'll be music to the ears of railroad fans.
"Every one has its own sound," says Jerry Boekholder, president of the Yakima Valley Rail & Steam Museum Association, which puts on the fundraising event and supports the museum.
The event also includes a five-minute caboose ride to see Santa and have your picture taken with the man in red, arts and crafts activities, free hot chocolate and cookies and a raffle each Saturday for a toy train.
Raffle tickets are also available, at an additional cost, to win a decorated tree that's adorned with $250 worth of candy. The tree, sponsored by the Toppenish Chamber of Commerce, will be raffled off Dec16.
Admission to Toy Train Christmas is $6 for adults, $4 for ages 12 and under. Pictures with Santa cost $4 and $6, depending on the size. Proceeds benefit the nonprofit museum. - The Yakima Herald-Republic
LITTLE TRAINS THAT CAN, AND STILL DO
MESA, AZ -- The black locomotive jumps from its tunnel like a ghost from the past. It’s an O-gauge model, a replica of the 19th-century Acheson Topeka & Santa Fe Line, puffing gray curls down the straightaway.
But before you can fuss over the authentic sound, the visual detail or the surreal charm, it vanishes into another tunnel. And part of you wonders if you’ll see it again.
Model trains of all varieties will steam toward Mesa this weekend as the Desert Division of the Train Collectors Association holds its annual Turkey Meet at the Mesa Convention Center. Once a high-profile hobby, model training has sustained itself under the radar for more than a generation. So who collects model trains these days? Is it a dwindling crop of elder hobbyists who remember the iron horse? Or have they built bridges across to the younger generation?
“In a way, my grandfather got me started,” Gordon Wilson says. “He would take me to the railroad station and we’d sit and watch the Lackawanna trains go by.” The 66-year-old Fountain Hills resident says he caught the bug in the early ’40s but model trains go back much further than that.
“Model trains started in Germany, where the tradition of running a train around the Christmas tree began in the 19th century.” In America, they seized upon a youthful fascination with progress. “When I was growing up, that smoke and whistle were the cat’s meow,” he chuckles. Joshua Lionel Callen began manufacturing Lionel trains around 1900 and — like real-life railroads — they were wildly popular through the middle of the 20th century.
“Their allure is very complex, to be honest,” Wilson says. “Although, in the ’40s, I didn’t think beyond, ‘Gee, these are fun.’ ” Lionel sales reached $33 million in 1953, but the industry began to falter in the ’60s as young fancies turned toward rockets and slot cars.
“Model trains went into a tailspin,” say Chris Allen. “At the beginning of the computer age, (the industry) almost died.”
A Mesa resident and the incoming president of the local division of the Train Collectors, Allen says the hobby is “at a crossroads.” At 55, he considers himself among the younger group of avid collectors. But that is changing. “ ‘Thomas the Train’ (the PBS children’s series) and the movie ‘The Polar Express’ have really rekindled interest in trains.” So, too, has the booming number of retirees with discretionary incomes.
“It has become a hobby, now, that grandparents share with their grandkids,” Allen says. “One of the best parts of these shows is seeing kids run between sets, saying ‘Hey, look at this!’ And the new trains now? They’re unbelievable.”
You know the Pennsylvania Limited is arriving in Chicago, because the model 1920s passenger train tells you so. (“Now arriving on Track One …”) As Steven Palmer brings it in to the station, the owner of Arizona Train Depot describes what a modern model can do: “This one can be command-controlled with 200 features,” he says. His 19th century locomotive has 186K memory with downloadable upgrades.
“I can have it talk to the station, loud whistle, medium whistle, I can adjust the ‘chuff rate’ on the smoke.” His “ready-to-run” sets from MTH Electric Trains include locomotive, cars and track for a little more than $300.
“Model trains are pretty big out here,” Palmer says. “Christmas is the big train season. But we only do about 20 percent of our business then. We’ll see a lot of people who got a set over Christmas and now they want more track, or want to dedicate a room to it.”
Palmer is bullish about the future: “Here’s how I know,” he says, nodding toward his Acheson Topeka. “If you see a train like this going down a track and it fascinates you, that never leaves you. It’s there or it’s not. If it’s there, you can go through denial, years of being a teenager, discovering girls, all that … you’ll come back to it after you get older.” - Michael Grady, The East Valley Tribune
ALBERT LEA'S FIRST TURKEY
ALBERT LEA, MN -- For about 31 years the Albert Lea processing plant of the famous Land O'Lakes firm on West Clark Street was a prime source of turkeys for the nation's ovens during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
However, when Land O'Lakes was organized as a cooperative in Litchfield in 1921, the intention was to help dairy farmers with the processing and marketing of milk and butter. Then, in the early 1930s, the cooperative expanded into eggs, poultry hatcheries, cheese plants, dry milk production, and turkey processing.
One of the men on the board of directors who helped to bring Land O'Lakes to Freeborn County was Chris Skaar of Hayward. He served on this board from 1934 to 1954.
In 1934 a large building next to the tracks at 721 West Clark Street was empty, just waiting to be used by some new firm. This three-story structure was constructed about 1915 and used as the manufacturing plant of Albert Lea Sprayer Co., which went out of business in 1929 or so.
One of the local leaders who really worked to get Land O'Lakes to use this building was Lester Spicer, a local pharmacist, drug store owner, and area history expert.
A Land O'Lakes history book says the new Albert Lea Plant "handled mostly eggs and poultry.
Then a turkey dressing operation was added in 1936, plus a hatchery and locker plant the following year, with increasing business requiring further additions in 1945 and 1946."
The main focus at this plant was eventually concentrated on the seasonal processing of turkeys with strong emphasis on the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Thus, the employment could go from about a dozen employees most of the year to a hundred or more people in the fall.
Thousands upon thousands of live turkeys were brought from farms in the region by trucks pulling trailers with special cages. These farms were near localities such as Ellsworth, Wisconsin, Ellsworth, Minnesota, and Ellsworth, Iowa. The turkeys were shackled and conveyed through the Albert Lea plant on an overhead line where the birds were killed, the feathers and entrails removed, then washed and packaged for shipment. During this process the turkeys were inspected by a representative from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and given the Plant 29 designation.
Most of the packaged turkeys were shipped out in refrigerated boxcars on the nearby Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad side track. In later years, most of the shipments were made in refrigerated truck trailers.
Nearly all the turkeys were sold under the Land O'Lakes brand. However, some packaging was made for private and supermarket brands.
About 1959 the Albert Lea turkey processing plant became one of the first places in the nation to use a process called liquid freezing to prepare the packaged whole birds for sale to consumers.
During this same time, the local plant started to produce turkey rolls, and later boneless roasts, and packaged parts, such as wings, breasts and drumsticks.
Land O'Lakes was determined to make its version of white and dark meat more consumer friendly and a product for year-round use. This eventually helped to even out the plant's year-round employment situation.
In 1962, the city issued a building permit for the construction of a large building at 830 13th St. for the Albert Lea Freezer warehouse. This storage facility was set up to work closely with Wilson & Co., Land 'O'Lakes and several other food processors.
Then, in 1966, Land O'Lakes, started construction on a new adjoining processing plant at 702 13th St.
The move from West Clark Street to the city's southside was completed the following year. The old Land O’Lakes plant reverted to other uses such as Wangen Advertising, a recycling operation, storage areas and several small business ventures. On Oct. 27, 1991, a good portion of this three-story building was destroyed by fire. Since that time this now smaller building has been used for storage and various business ventures. - Ed Shannon, The Albert Lea Tribune
Most likely, his passing didn't generate any tears.
JACKSON, MI -- Instead, the death last week of 73-year-old Rudy Bladel from thyroid cancer prompted thoughts of "good riddance." At least, that was the guess of Gerald Rand, a retired detective with the Jackson, Michigan, police department.
"He was probably the coldest-hearted person I ever met in my life. He won't be missed,'' Rand said. "Probably a lot of families rested well the night he died.''
Thomas Hutton, also a retired police detective in Jackson, described Bladel as "absolutely the worst ... stone (cold) killer'' he had ever encountered.
"Mr. Bladel was proof there are monsters among us,'' he said.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the imposing figure of the hulking, 200-pound plus Bladel was the worst nightmare for railroad workers in southwestern Michigan and northern Indiana. Employees living in Michigan feared him the most because, as Bladel saw it, they had robbed him of his chance to move up through the ranks and become a Conrail engineer.
An Elkhart resident who worked for the railroad as a fireman, Bladel's hatred of Michigan railroad workers began to fester in 1959 when the freight yard in Niles was merged with the one in Elkhart. A union agreement and subsequent court decision allowed Michigan workers to follow their jobs, resulting in periodic layoffs and a loss of seniority for Indiana workers like Bladel.
The slayings began in Hammond, IN, in 1963, when two railroad workers were shot and killed. Five years later, Niles resident John "Wesley'' Marshall, 51, died of a shotgun blast at the rail yard in Elkhart.
The shooting of New Buffalo railroad worker John Sayer at the Elkhart rail yard followed in 1971. Sayer, the lone survivor of the attacks, managed to wrestle the gun from Bladel and return fire, wounding him in the stomach.
"I shot him in the belly because that was the biggest target,'' said Sayer on Tuesday. He now makes his home in Pahrump, Nevada.
Bladel was fired by the railroad in the wake of the Sayer shooting and served 33 months in prison. It probably was no coincidence that, shortly after his release, Niles' railroad employee James McCrory, 51, was gunned down at the rail yard in Elkhart in 1976.
It was only after three more railroad employees were shot and killed at the Jackson train depot on New Year's Eve 1978 that police obtained the necessary evidence to prosecute and convict Bladel. Still, an appeals court granted him a new hearing, and a retrial was necessary in 1987 to put him back behind bars for good.
Bladel's anger with the railroad union and Michigan workers came across loud and clear in a January 1979 Tribune interview. Although he stopped short of admitting involvement in any of the slayings, he seemed to make a telling comment regarding his feeling about the slain railroad workers.
"These people are trying to be difficult ... OK, let's be difficult,'' he said.
To say Bladel was difficult would be a gross understatement. Hutton said Bladel so relished the fact that railroad employees feared him that he'd stand on overpasses and glare at workers as they'd go to work in the rail yards below.
"I asked him about that and he said, 'I was just giving them static,''' Hutton recalled.
He and Rand both said it's all but certain Bladel was responsible for all the killings. Relatives of the Niles victims also blamed Bladel, even though no one was ever convicted in the shooting deaths of Marshall and McCrory.
"It's unfortunate he got to live a long life and my dad didn't,'' said Marshall's daughter, Nora Pitcher, 62, of Niles.
She said Bladel perhaps targeted her father because he was a steward with the railroad union.
Louis McCrory, 79, of Niles, the brother of James McCrory, said he was pleased to hear Bladel had died. He said when authorities notified him of the slaying of his brother in 1976, it was left for him to inform James McCrory's wife, Shirley.
"He (James McCrory) was her hero,'' he said.
He said Shirley McCrory's health subsequently declined. She died about 15 years ago.
Louis McCrory said his brother, like Marshall, was a union representative but he had never expressed any fear of Bladel. He called James McCrory a "quiet, gentle giant, like John Wayne'' who had no known enemies.
It wasn't until Jackson residents discovered parts of a disassembled shotgun in the bushes of a Jackson park that police were able to link Bladel to any of the slayings. A check of the serial number revealed Bladel had purchased the weapon at a Kmart store in Indiana.
Rand said Bladel had made no attempt to disguise the purchase, signing his own name when he purchased the weapon. That surprised detectives, Rand said, based on his previous attempts to cover his tracks.
Bladel had gone so far as to personally fashion the bullets used to shoot Sayer, apparently so they couldn't be traced.
"I didn't want to kill him,'' he told The Tribune in that 1979 interview. His only intent, he added, was to call attention to the issue of the railroad jobs.
That point he made all too clear. - Lou Mumford, The South Bend Tribune
TRANSIT NEWS
BART MAY PUT CORK IN ALCOHOL ADS
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- Reacting to pressure generated by an alcohol industry watchdog group, the BART board of directors will reconsider its recent decision allowing beer, wine and liquor advertisements in trains and stations.
The board voted 6-3 in September to adopt the new policy, which is expected to add $500,000 to BART's annual advertising revenue of $3.3 million.
The policy limits alcohol pitches to 17 percent of total ads on a single train or station and to 17 percent of the ads printed on tickets.
Almost as soon as the BART board approved the change, however, the Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog group based in San Rafael, began working against it.
"The alcohol industry has significant negative impacts on public health and safety," said Shailushi Ritchie, the institute's advocacy manager. "And alcohol is not an ordinary commodity, so the way alcohol is sold and advertised needs to be looked at more like cigarettes but less like soda."
The Marin Institute persuaded the boards of supervisors in Contra Costa and San Francisco counties to pass resolutions requesting BART rescind the new policy and started a Web-based letter writing campaign.
The institute also complains that while the BART board approved the policy at a public meeting, there wasn't sufficient public comment.
The organization found a sympathetic ear in BART Director Gail Murray, who represents parts of Contra Costa County. Murray voted against the policy change in September and has placed the issue on the board's Dec07 agenda for reconsideration.
"I think there are plenty of places that advertise alcohol," Murray said. "I just don't think that public transit, funded by the public, should be one of them."
The San Francisco and Contra Costa boards of supervisors agree, and although they have no direct control over the independently elected BART board, they did send letters requesting that alcohol ads stay out of the transit system.
"In BART's many years of existence they have never allowed alcohol advertisements on trains or on stations," said Contra Costa Board President John Gioia. "And I think there comes a time when you need to draw a line andsay that the little bit of extra revenue isn't worth the price you pay, which is the continual, in-your-face advertisement of alcohol where there is a lot of young people.
San Francisco's supervisors took a similar tack, despite the fact that the city's Muni light rail system allows some alcohol ads on its shelters.
Muni's current advertising contract with CBS Outdoor, which also manages BART's ad sales, was signed before San Francisco leaders banned alcohol advertisements. The contract allows the company to place unlimited alcohol ads on the shelters, but CBS Outdoor voluntarily agreed to limit them to 10 percent, said Steve Shinn, the company's vice president of transit development.
When the contract expires next year, however, the ban could be extended to the entire Muni system, said San Francisco Supervisor Jake McGoldrick.
"We do not have an opportunity to revisit that (contract) until the end of 2007," McGoldrick said. "At which point I guarantee you that this board of supervisors, as currently composed, will ban all alcohol advertisements."
Despite disapproval from the Marin Institute and its allies, however, it's unclear if there are enough votes on the BART board to rescind the new policy.
BART Director Tom Radulovich is unconvinced that the ads will lead to alcohol abuse.
"If I see a smoking gun, presented with evidence that advertising alcohol generally either encourages problem drinking or underage drinking, then I'd rethink my position," Radulovich said.
The alcohol industry disputes studies that link advertising with underage drinking, but also abides by a self-imposed rule to keep the ads out of television, radio and other types of electronic media that claim a 30 percent audience of people not old enough to drink.
Only 5 percent of BART riders are younger than 18, but the system doesn't keep statistics on riders who are younger than 21.
"Every advertising question always comes down to that lowest common denominator," said Wendell Lee, general council for the Wine Institute in San Francisco. "Which is where advertising in some way has an impact on consumption and the science is still out on that."
Still, Muni and BART — if its new policy survives — are the only transit agencies in the Bay Area that allow such ads. And while the Marin Institute isn't pressuring the region's ferries or the Capital Corridor commuter train to stop selling alcohol to passengers, Ritchie says that could change.
"That's certainly a policy that we would support being looked at if there was community outrage." - Kiley Russell, The Fremont Argus
HE HAS AN TRAINED EYE ON THE RAILROAD PLATFORM GAP
Photo: [graphics10.nytimes.com]
NEW YORK CITY, NY -- If you are the sort who feels a transportational-historical chill when the conductor on the Long Island Rail Road calls out, “Next stop, Babylon! Babylon, next stop!” you will probably be intrigued by Raymond Kenny, the railroad’s acting president. Mr. Kenny is a railroad man’s railroad man, an up-from-the-yard guy who started in the business 36 years ago as a summer ticket clerk and now rides herd on a huge network of M1, M3 and M7 trains, 282,000 commuters and more than 700 miles of open track.
Recently, Mr. Kenny earned public kudos for coming up with a sensible and elegant solution to what has been a longstanding problem on the railroad: the gap between train doors and station platforms. He proposed simply moving the tracks.
“One advantage of having so much railroad experience,” he said, “is that I tend to focus not on what we can’t do, but on what we can do.”
Running a railroad is a complicated task, one which in its fickleness and convolutions is not unlike trying to coordinate the various mountebanks and tumblers who make up a traveling vaudeville show. In much the way a harried stage manager must contend with a tardy contortionist or an intoxicated strongman, the president of the LI-double-R struggles daily with downed trees at Ronkonkoma or multicar trains stalled in the bowels of Pennsylvania Station.
There are engineering questions: How to move 400 M7s daily through the Harold Interlocking in Sunnyside, Queens? Labor questions: What salary increase do the signalmen deserve? And fiscal questions: Who put that allocation for J Tower back in the budget?
And, of course, there was the question of the gap. For years, the railroad has tolerated gaps between its train doors and its station platforms, papering over the danger by posting signs that read, “Watch the Gap.” Then, in August, a woman, while under the influence of alcohol, fell through the gap at the station in Woodside, Queens, was struck by a train and died. The accident led to institutional hand-wringing in which it was decided that the platforms were far too heavy to move and that nothing could be done.
A month later, when Mr. Kenny was appointed acting president, he and his crew figured that if Muhammad could not make it to the mountain, perhaps the mountain might be moved to Muhammad.
They determined that it was possible to simply shove the tracks a little closer to the platforms.
Railroading is a practical business, and Mr. Kenny, 55, came to it in a practical way. At age 14, he began commuting on the rails from his home in Cedarhurst, Nassau County, to Archbishop Molloy High School in Briarwood, Queens. The trek, five days a week, gave him ample time to study the complexities of the Jamaica Station where hundreds of trains pass daily in a transportational ballet on numerous switches and eight separate tracks.
“I developed an interest in the railroad on that commute,” he said. “Waiting at Jamaica I could see the operation, the trains moving simultaneously, the way they connected.”
It is worth noting that three decades later Mr. Kenny’s presidential desk affords a dead-on view of Jamaica’s Track 1. (And for those who believe, like Wordsworth, that the child is father to the man, Mr. Kenny’s foundational contact with the railroad was an old Lionel train set, O-27 gauge.)
Since 1970, Mr. Kenny has spent only one year not working for the railroad. That was the grim expanse between the end of his summer clerkship and the start of his true career. Like a young recruit impatient to enlist, he had applied to the railroad when he was 17. They told him to come back when he was 18. In the meantime, he worked in a clothing store until he got the clerk’s position. He did not care for the clothing job. “It was not a train job,” he said.
As far as train jobs go, Mr. Kenny has held his fair share, progressing steadily from junior industrial engineer to block operator to train dispatcher to manager of timetable schedules to field supervisor to supervisor of train movement to general superintendent of transportation to chief transportation officer to senior vice president for operations to acting president, a post in which he remains nostalgic for the old, ungainly, un-air-conditioned MP-54s of his youth.
Along the way, he says, he has met some good people (most notably Walter Ernst, the storied former Amtrak chief) and has gotten to employ some fairly Orwellian train jargon (including something called “mean distance between failure” which, though it sounds like something from an anger management course, is actually the number of miles a train can travel before breakdown).
“I bring a detailed knowledge of the operation to the job,” Mr. Kenny said. “I feel I can picture the entire system up in my mind.”
That is fairly impressive, given that the system extends from Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan all the way out to lonely Greenport on the eastern end of Long Island. There is no grid that charts the progress of his trains, although there is a frequently updated electronic report called Timacs that tells viewers the last station a train passed through. Mr. Kenny says he can digest the raw data and visualize the capillary network of the railroad in his head.
Still, the best part of the job is watching actual trains go by, especially those he can control.
“If I don’t see one in a while,” he said, “I just call somebody up.” - Alan Feuer, The New York Times
LAGNIAPPE (Something extra, not always railroad related, for Saturdays only)
SCIENTISTS NOT DONE WITH WHALE CARCASS YET
SEATTLE, OR -- Confronted with a rotting whale carcass on the beach in 1970, officials in Florence, Oregon, hauled in 20 cases of dynamite and lit the fuse.
The resulting rain of blubber chunks smashed a car a quarter-mile away, sent onlookers fleeing for cover and yielded one of the Internet's most side-splitting video clips.
Biologists at the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Laboratories have a better idea for disposing of a 54-foot fin whale that turned up dead in the Port of Everett earlier this month.
They plan to attach 3 tons of metal railroad wheels to the corpse and sink it off the coast of San Juan Island.
But because these are scientists, that's just the beginning of the story.
The real goal is to study the whale's decomposition at a level of detail that would make most people gag.
Using an underwater drone equipped with a video camera, the researchers will document the types of fish, crabs and other creatures that feed on the carcass, and the role it plays as a food bonanza in the marine ecosystem. Divers will also visit the site for an up-close view of the putrefaction.
In about two years, when the bones are picked clean, the skeleton will be retrieved for display as part of a marine mammal exhibit at the UW's Burke Museum of Natural History.
"What we're re-creating in a somewhat artificial manner is something that happens occasionally in nature and may turn out to be a very interesting ecological phenomenon," said UW marine ecologist David Duggins.
Not to mention very cool to those who like such things.
"I'm anxious to see it firsthand," said Duggins, who plans to dive to the carcass as soon as possible.
This isn't the first time researchers have tracked whale decomposition.
A University of Hawaii biologist who will collaborate on the project specializes in what he calls "whale falls." When a dead behemoth falls to the sea floor, it can radically alter a world where light doesn't penetrate and food is normally in short supply. In some cases, carcasses can seed living communities that persist for up to 80 years and include worms that feed only on whale bones.
A whale carcass that Duggins and his colleagues sank in 300 feet of water off San Juan Island several years ago attracted a massive aggregation of sea life.
"I saw densities of fish higher than I've ever seen in the San Juans — just huge clouds," Duggins said.
He's been waiting for another candidate carcass ever since.
This time, the experiment will be conducted in water only about 100 feet deep, making it easier for divers to reach it. The scientists hope the shallower depth will also make it possible to collect the bones and bring them to the surface when all the flesh has been stripped away.
"This is really a new method for preparing a skeleton for exhibit," said Jim Kenagy, curator of mammals for the Burke Museum.
Normally, marine-mammal carcasses destined for display are buried in sand to decompose, a process that can take five years or longer. Digging up and transporting tons of bones, including skulls up to 10 feet long, requires backhoes, cranes and trucks. Then comes the painstaking job of scraping away remaining bits of muscle and sinew.
"It's a very costly procedure," Kenagy said.
The male fin whale that could wind up at the Burke had a short life and brutal ending. The juvenile had been entangled in rope that cut into its jaw and kept it from opening its mouth to feed. It was emaciated when it was apparently struck and killed by a ship and dragged into the harbor at Everett. It was partially decomposed by the time it surfaced.
Duggins is waiting for calm weather to sink the carcass.
He and his crew towed the animal from Everett to San Juan Island on Tuesday — almost 36 years to the day after the infamous Oregon whale explosion.
To view that explosion, click on the following link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtVSzU20ZGk
- Sandi Doughton, The Seattle Times
As Decades Pass, Wall Drug Keeps Up The Kitsch
WALL, SD -- What do Wyatt Earp, T. Rex, a flea-scratching hound and a 6-foot rabbit have in common?
Absolutely nothing.
But you'll find them all on the edge of the Badlands, at the intersection of Kitsch and Camp.
Wall, population 800, is a dusty cow town at the geographic center of nowhere. But it draws a million visitors a year, thanks to a drugstore that has morphed over the decades into a 76,000-square-foot Western wonderland.
Welcome to Wall Drug, where you can spend an hour or a day among the wacky and whimsical. And where, no matter how long you stay this time, there will always be something new to see the next time you pass through.
That's Teddy Hustead's personal promise.
"Theater is our business, and Wall Drug is our stage," says Hustead, 55.
Hustead is a third-generation owner of the family business established in 1931 by his grandfather, a licensed pharmacist who also was called Ted Hustead.
In those days the business center of Wall consisted of a single block of stores along Main Street. But there wasn't much business going on. Grandpa Ted and Grandma Dorothy endured some pretty tough times, Hustead said. They lived in a room behind the store that was freezing in the winter and unbearably hot in the summer, praying for enough customers to keep food on the table.
One Sunday in the summer of 1936, Dorothy Hustead was trying to take a nap. The clatter of cars bumping over the unpaved road between the Badlands and Rapid City was keeping her awake, and she thought the tourists must be terribly hot and dry.
That was really too bad, she thought, because their drugstore - just a block and a half south of the "highway" - had a big soda fountain and tons of ice. If only they could figure out a way to let those thirsty tourists know ...
The first signs - reminiscent of the Burma-Shave signs she remembered seeing along other highways - read "Get a Soda, Get a Root Beer, Turn Next Corner, Just as Near, to Highway 16 and 14, FREE ICE WATER, Wall Drug." At the turnoff was a 12-foot wooden arrow pointing drivers toward the store.
Corny as they were, the signs worked and carloads of customers dropped in. By the end of the summer they had signs 15 to 20 miles away. By the end of the 1940s, the signs stretched across South Dakota and into Minnesota and Wyoming.
"It was the perfect marketing plan for the 1930s," said Teddy Hustead, who went to Harvard Business School. "There was a drought, there was a Depression, there was 23 percent unemployment."
Today, the serious signage begins 40 miles from Wall, if you're coming from the west along Interstate Highway 90. The first of several dozen proclaim "Entering Wall Drug Country." Others advertise "Great Hot Coffee 5 Cents," "Ride Bucking Horse (Stuffed)," "Real American Home-Made Ice Cream" and, of course, "Free Ice Water."
When you get there, life-size wood carvings of Wyatt Earp and Buffalo Bill Cody, five stuffed elk, a stuffed longhorn and a totem pole adorn the main street of what looks like an old frontier town.
There are shops selling cowboy hats, jewelry, books, leather goods, homemade fudge and souvenirs. There's a chapel where weary travelers can rest and reflect.
Hustead points out proudly that everything at Wall Drug is authentic. The artwork is original Western art. The leather-goods shop sells real gun holsters, sized to fit your waist as well as your weapon. The dining room is paneled in real American black walnut.
Walk around the backyard and you'll find a real tepee; a real horse carriage; a real covered wagon; and a passel of once-real animals, now neatly stuffed: a buffalo, a bucking horse, a 6-foot rabbit. What? OK, that one's a joke.
Incongruously, the backyard also includes a caged tyrannosaurus Rex that roars and spouts smoke every 8 minutes as lightning cracks reverberate off the walls.
There's the Chuck Wagon Quartette, a diorama featuring a prairie dog that pops out of the ground, a baying coyote and a jackalope - a fantastical cross between a jack rabbit and an antelope.
Another room-size animated attraction is the Cowboy Orchestra that plays (you got it) real folk music while a mangy hound dog scratches his fleas and a life-size tick bites into his shoulder.
In case you're wondering, the residents of Wall don't do their shopping at Wall Drug.
"We're a roadside attraction," says Hustead, "not a general store." But the drugstore still employs a registered pharmacist. And the soda fountain still sells the richest ice cream west of the Mississippi.
Y'all come back now. - Judy Peres, The Chicago Tribune
THE END
Compiled by Larry W. Grant
In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006
RAIL NEWS
TRAIN DERAILMENT COULD AFFECT DM&E DISPUTE
COURTLAND, MN -- The president of the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad says a train derailment near New Ulm demonstrates why the company needs to secure a controversial federal loan.
Cleanup was to continue this morning after the Wednesday night crash in the town of Courtland that saw 30,000 gallons of ethanol spilled.
Kevin Schieffer says the two-point-three (b) billion dollar loan will allow the railroad to upgrade existing track and lay some new ones. That's created strong opposition in the city of Rochester and efforts by its political and business leaders to block the federal loan.
Schieffer says some of the tracks, quote, "desperately need to be replaced." - The Associated Press, KTTC-TV, Rochester, MN
WORK RESTORES CREEKS, MEADOWS DAMAGED BY OLD RAILROAD LINE
TRUCKEE, CA -- Cleaning Up After the Past
Although the Boca and Loyalton Railroad existed for only seventeen years, it served a booming logging economy in Sierra Valley. Fifteen spurs led to over a dozen small lumber mills built along the Little Truckee River and its tributaries. Even ranchers used the railroad line to transport their products.
The tracks were removed in 1917; but the road grade remained, as well as the diverted streambeds of Davies and Merrill Creeks. In the decades that followed, spring runoffs eroded topsoil and dried up meadows, damaging habitat and water tables.
"They put the railroad through Sardine Meadow because is was easier than to build it along the edge of the meadow, which is hillier," said Lisa Wallace, director of the Truckee River Watershed Council. "But they also had to dry up the meadow, redirect the streams to concentrate flows alongside the railroad grade."
When water rushes quickly, it gouges deep channels and pulls sediment into the channel instead of spreading this nourishing mud across the meadows. Plants starve, fisheries die and flood plains deteriorate into rocky gorges. Repairing these streams rehabilitates lands that have been cleared of lumber by helping new growth to flourish.
In 2001, Randy Westmoreland, of the U.S. Forest Service, began the long process to assess the Merrill/Davies Creek watershed. Thirteen sites were identified for restoration and permits from the Army Corp. of Engineers, Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board and the California State Fish and Game were obtained.
There are approximately 20 drainages from Sardine Valley to the Davies/Merrill Creek watershed.
Westmoreland estimates this project will take five years to complete, depending upon funding. "Many of the grants are site specific. No one likes to pay for the planning process," said Westmoreland, who was able to get Forest Service funds for it.
The planning and environmental assessments cost about $50-$60 thousand. Implementation cost about $55 thousand. Proposition 13 Water Quality funds covered about $80 thousand for the restoration of Sites 2 through 12. The U.S. Forest Service supplied $15-$20 thousand in matching funds. Nonpoint Source Pollution funds from the State funded restoration of Site 5 and 6.
With help from the TRWC, Westmoreland secured grants to start work on this immense area. "It seemed like a natural fit to partner with the TRWC" in procuring these grants, Westmoreland said.
The first project involved adding more culverts of a larger capacity to the Henness Pass Road bridges over the creeks.
Traditional thinking believed flooding was something to be controlled. A single, straight river channel would remove the runoff more quickly, thus protecting the area from flooding.
Since then, it's been learned that the natural process of flooding is desirable. Meadows need that yearly influx of water and sediment to renew the environment.
By overflowing a slower, meandering channel, water spreads across the land and stays longer, sinking into the water table and benefitting plant and animal life.
Westmoreland and his crews added eleven culverts to Site Five in 2005. Truckee River Day volunteers also dismantled a campground near this site and planted willows. Fifteen hundred feet of railroad grade were removed, and streams were redirected, using a technique called "plugging and ponding," where earthen plugs of natural materials were placed into actively eroding channels to return water flows into pre-existing natural channels in the meadow surface.
During last month's Truckee River Day, volunteers continued work in redirecting the creek to its original course, removing the railroad grade and digging up sage and other invasive plants. The result will be a restored riparian zone where the meadow functions properly to cleanse and store spring runoff in the ground. This helps maintain the many ways people use water in the entire Truckee River Basin.
Former adversaries, such as developers and environmentalists, have learned that environmental health is imperative to their respective interests.
While Truckee residents use well water, people further downstream depend on a clean abundant supply of surface water. Restoring these tributaries and their environements assures a high quality of water for everyone from Tahoe to Pyramid Lake.
The TRWC holds stakeholder open houses on the second Tuesday and Thursday of each month from 8 -9 am in their offices at 10418 Donner Pass Road: Learn more about the TRWC and their projects on their website at truckeeriverwc.org - The Reno Gazette-Journal
RAILROAD CALLS MEAL EXCURSIONS SUCCESSFUL
SANTA MARIA, CA -- Santa Maria Valley Railroad's first-ever Customer Appreciation Lunch Special and Dinner Train Excursion on Nov09 aboard the former California Zephyr private railcar Silver Lariat were a big success, according to its new owners.
More than 30 railroad freight customers were served lunch prepared aboard the Silver Lariat and had a rare chance to tour the railroad's main line from Santa Maria and Guadalupe.
Representatives from Union Pacific Railroad and the Santa Maria Valley Railroad maintenance of way crew also attended the event.
Later that night, 47 customers boarded the Silver Lariat for a night of gourmet dining as the railroad operated a rare night train, which sold out within weeks even though it wasn't advertised, a company spokesman said.
The Santa Maria Valley Railroad has preliminary plans for a dinner train in spring 2007 and is looking to form alliances or partnerships to continue the dinner trains on a regular basis.
Long-term plans include wine trains, murder mystery dinner trains and holiday dinner trains, the spokesman said.
The Vista-dome Silver Lariat was built in 1948 for use on the famed California Zephyr passenger train. Current owners Al Bishop and Burt Hermey purchased the Silver Lariat from Amtrak in 1985 and restored the car to its full 1948 splendor.
It is one of the top private cars to charter and is frequently chartered by top executives from Union Pacific Railroad, the spokesman said. - The Santa Maria Times
PLACENTIA LOOKS AT WAYST TO OVERCOME COSTLY RAILROAD-TRACK PROGRAM
PLACENTIA, CA -- Increasing city service fees, putting off some road and storm drain improvements and keeping some City Hall staff positions unfilled are possible ways to help Placentia, California shore up a $2.7 million deficit.
City Administrator Bob Dominguez said the city could eliminate in two to three years the deficit caused by spending on the city's OnTrac project to sink railroad tracks underground.
The project caused the city to dig deep into its coffers and take out millions in loans.
Some steps Dominguez said Tuesday night that could be taken this fiscal year, which ends in June, were:
•Deferring about $50,000 budgeted for capital-equipment purchases like computers and network components.
Shaving as much as $1.4 million from intended city-fleet replacements.
•Freezing some vacant city staff positions, such as perhaps two police officers and jobs in the public works and finance departments, saving about $200,000.
For the 2007-08 fiscal year, he suggested other possible options:
•Eliminating a $500,000 contingency fund.
Reducing $280,000 total in department budgets.
Also, Dominguez expects the city to get at least $1.2 million from KB Homes because of an agreement with the developer based on the number of new Old Town townhomes it sells. Some of that revenue could go toward the deficit. - Sushma Subramanian, The Orange County Register
TREE TRIMMING DONE BY AIR
BRANSON, MO -- Some in the Tri-Lakes Area got the chance last week to see a unique way to trim trees.
The Missouri Department of Energy used an air-trimming helicopter near power lines along Missouri 76 to not only cut tree limbs, but to also cut costs and time for local businesses.
Photo here:
[www.bransondailynews.com]
“Three miles of line a day (are trimmed),” said pilot Vic Johnson, of Oregon, who was contracted to do the job. “We started three miles north and are trimming to (Table Rock) dam.”
The blades, which hang below the helicopter, are powered by a small gasoline engine located just above the top blade. It holds two and a half gallons and needs to be refueled approximately every hour.
Ground Crew Leader Bruce Dyches, of South Carolina, trails the chopper by land. His main job is to repair the trimmer if needed throughout the process.
“Trimming the trees by air cuts the cost by half; the fuel is limited because of weight limitations on the helicopter,” Dyches said.
The cost of operating the air trimmer is $1,000 per hour. It is used by power, gas, telephone and railroad companies across the country each year.
This job is contracted by a local Trans Line company and work was to be completed on Friday. - Lisa Queen, The Branson Daily News
UNION PACIFIC LIABLE FOR PEDESTRIAN'S INJURIES?
TRUCKEE, CA -- Here is a case recently decided by the Third District Court of Appeal out of Sacramento — our district. It involves a pedestrian hit by a passing Union Pacific train. You decide whether U.P. is responsible.
U.P. Bridge
At 20:30 in the evening, Steven Christoff was walking along Roseville Road. Because the sidewalk narrowed as the road crossed Arcade Creek, Christoff decided to use the nearby Union Pacific railroad bridge to cross the creek.
The railroad bridge had a metal grid area on the side of the bridge which had a 1-foot-9-inch wide walkway. The walkway was for employees to work on the railroad, not for pedestrians. In fact, Christoff had to step over metal struts that held up the attached walkway.
There was no signage prohibiting pedestrians, but the “walkway” was clearly not meant for Roseville Road pedestrians.
There was testimony that standard chain–link fences are not effective against trespassing, and tamper–proof fencing would cost about $1 million per mile and would endanger people in the event of deraiment. There was little explanation of why U.P. did not have a “no trespassing” sign other than the obvious danger presented.
50 mph
While Christoff was on the railroad bridge, a freight train approached from the opposite direction at a speed of approximately 50 mph. Under the speed limit. The engineer sounded the horn. Christoff saw the train’s lights and heard the horn, but did not take any evasive action.
Christoff said when he heard the train whistle, he waved, because when he used to live near railroad tracks the train conductors would beep the whistle and he would wave. The court noted that he had time to wave but not enough time to hold onto the railing.
As the train passed it either struck him or threw him to the ground and he was badly injured. But he lived to tell the story — and hire a lawyer.
Duty to warn
Christoff claimed that U.P. did not warn him of the dangers of walking on the narrow passageway next to the tracks on the bridge. The Court of Appeal noted that “any reasonable person would know that standing within a few feet of a high speed freight train is dangerous.” As the court said, a busy railroad track is itself a warning to anyone “possessed of ordinary intelligence” that it is not safe to walk on or near the tracks, and indicates the possibility of being struck by a passing train. Hard to argue with that.
Ruling
The Sacramento Court of Appeal agreed with the trial court: “defendant railroad was not negligent; did not have a duty to warn of open and obvious dangers on its property; it acted with reasonable care to prevent injury to trespassers and its conduct was not a legal cause of plaintiff’s injuries.” That is, U.P.’s failure to warn of the obvious danger did not cause Christoff’s injuries.
His stupidity did. - Jim Porter, The Truckee Sierra Sun (Jim Porter is an attorney with Porter· Simon, with offices in Truckee, South Lake Tahoe and Reno. He is a mediator and was the governor's appointee to the Bipartisan McPherson Commission and the California Fair Political Practices Commission.)
TOY TRAINS HELP USHER IN THE HOLIDAY SEASON
TOPPENISH, WA -- Tiny tots as well as older engine aficionados can hop aboard a real working caboose and travel to see Santa Claus at the ongoing annual Toy Train Christmas celebration.
The event runs from 10:00 - 16:00 every Saturday through Dec16 at the Northern Pacific Railway Museum, 10 Asotin Ave.
Visitors are invited to tour the museum, which has been decorated with festive Christmas trees. At least 10 trees will be ringed at the bottom by working toy train sets from local collections -- and once they're all going, it'll be music to the ears of railroad fans.
"Every one has its own sound," says Jerry Boekholder, president of the Yakima Valley Rail & Steam Museum Association, which puts on the fundraising event and supports the museum.
The event also includes a five-minute caboose ride to see Santa and have your picture taken with the man in red, arts and crafts activities, free hot chocolate and cookies and a raffle each Saturday for a toy train.
Raffle tickets are also available, at an additional cost, to win a decorated tree that's adorned with $250 worth of candy. The tree, sponsored by the Toppenish Chamber of Commerce, will be raffled off Dec16.
Admission to Toy Train Christmas is $6 for adults, $4 for ages 12 and under. Pictures with Santa cost $4 and $6, depending on the size. Proceeds benefit the nonprofit museum. - The Yakima Herald-Republic
LITTLE TRAINS THAT CAN, AND STILL DO
MESA, AZ -- The black locomotive jumps from its tunnel like a ghost from the past. It’s an O-gauge model, a replica of the 19th-century Acheson Topeka & Santa Fe Line, puffing gray curls down the straightaway.
But before you can fuss over the authentic sound, the visual detail or the surreal charm, it vanishes into another tunnel. And part of you wonders if you’ll see it again.
Model trains of all varieties will steam toward Mesa this weekend as the Desert Division of the Train Collectors Association holds its annual Turkey Meet at the Mesa Convention Center. Once a high-profile hobby, model training has sustained itself under the radar for more than a generation. So who collects model trains these days? Is it a dwindling crop of elder hobbyists who remember the iron horse? Or have they built bridges across to the younger generation?
“In a way, my grandfather got me started,” Gordon Wilson says. “He would take me to the railroad station and we’d sit and watch the Lackawanna trains go by.” The 66-year-old Fountain Hills resident says he caught the bug in the early ’40s but model trains go back much further than that.
“Model trains started in Germany, where the tradition of running a train around the Christmas tree began in the 19th century.” In America, they seized upon a youthful fascination with progress. “When I was growing up, that smoke and whistle were the cat’s meow,” he chuckles. Joshua Lionel Callen began manufacturing Lionel trains around 1900 and — like real-life railroads — they were wildly popular through the middle of the 20th century.
“Their allure is very complex, to be honest,” Wilson says. “Although, in the ’40s, I didn’t think beyond, ‘Gee, these are fun.’ ” Lionel sales reached $33 million in 1953, but the industry began to falter in the ’60s as young fancies turned toward rockets and slot cars.
“Model trains went into a tailspin,” say Chris Allen. “At the beginning of the computer age, (the industry) almost died.”
A Mesa resident and the incoming president of the local division of the Train Collectors, Allen says the hobby is “at a crossroads.” At 55, he considers himself among the younger group of avid collectors. But that is changing. “ ‘Thomas the Train’ (the PBS children’s series) and the movie ‘The Polar Express’ have really rekindled interest in trains.” So, too, has the booming number of retirees with discretionary incomes.
“It has become a hobby, now, that grandparents share with their grandkids,” Allen says. “One of the best parts of these shows is seeing kids run between sets, saying ‘Hey, look at this!’ And the new trains now? They’re unbelievable.”
You know the Pennsylvania Limited is arriving in Chicago, because the model 1920s passenger train tells you so. (“Now arriving on Track One …”) As Steven Palmer brings it in to the station, the owner of Arizona Train Depot describes what a modern model can do: “This one can be command-controlled with 200 features,” he says. His 19th century locomotive has 186K memory with downloadable upgrades.
“I can have it talk to the station, loud whistle, medium whistle, I can adjust the ‘chuff rate’ on the smoke.” His “ready-to-run” sets from MTH Electric Trains include locomotive, cars and track for a little more than $300.
“Model trains are pretty big out here,” Palmer says. “Christmas is the big train season. But we only do about 20 percent of our business then. We’ll see a lot of people who got a set over Christmas and now they want more track, or want to dedicate a room to it.”
Palmer is bullish about the future: “Here’s how I know,” he says, nodding toward his Acheson Topeka. “If you see a train like this going down a track and it fascinates you, that never leaves you. It’s there or it’s not. If it’s there, you can go through denial, years of being a teenager, discovering girls, all that … you’ll come back to it after you get older.” - Michael Grady, The East Valley Tribune
ALBERT LEA'S FIRST TURKEY
ALBERT LEA, MN -- For about 31 years the Albert Lea processing plant of the famous Land O'Lakes firm on West Clark Street was a prime source of turkeys for the nation's ovens during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.
However, when Land O'Lakes was organized as a cooperative in Litchfield in 1921, the intention was to help dairy farmers with the processing and marketing of milk and butter. Then, in the early 1930s, the cooperative expanded into eggs, poultry hatcheries, cheese plants, dry milk production, and turkey processing.
One of the men on the board of directors who helped to bring Land O'Lakes to Freeborn County was Chris Skaar of Hayward. He served on this board from 1934 to 1954.
In 1934 a large building next to the tracks at 721 West Clark Street was empty, just waiting to be used by some new firm. This three-story structure was constructed about 1915 and used as the manufacturing plant of Albert Lea Sprayer Co., which went out of business in 1929 or so.
One of the local leaders who really worked to get Land O'Lakes to use this building was Lester Spicer, a local pharmacist, drug store owner, and area history expert.
A Land O'Lakes history book says the new Albert Lea Plant "handled mostly eggs and poultry.
Then a turkey dressing operation was added in 1936, plus a hatchery and locker plant the following year, with increasing business requiring further additions in 1945 and 1946."
The main focus at this plant was eventually concentrated on the seasonal processing of turkeys with strong emphasis on the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Thus, the employment could go from about a dozen employees most of the year to a hundred or more people in the fall.
Thousands upon thousands of live turkeys were brought from farms in the region by trucks pulling trailers with special cages. These farms were near localities such as Ellsworth, Wisconsin, Ellsworth, Minnesota, and Ellsworth, Iowa. The turkeys were shackled and conveyed through the Albert Lea plant on an overhead line where the birds were killed, the feathers and entrails removed, then washed and packaged for shipment. During this process the turkeys were inspected by a representative from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and given the Plant 29 designation.
Most of the packaged turkeys were shipped out in refrigerated boxcars on the nearby Minneapolis and St. Louis Railroad side track. In later years, most of the shipments were made in refrigerated truck trailers.
Nearly all the turkeys were sold under the Land O'Lakes brand. However, some packaging was made for private and supermarket brands.
About 1959 the Albert Lea turkey processing plant became one of the first places in the nation to use a process called liquid freezing to prepare the packaged whole birds for sale to consumers.
During this same time, the local plant started to produce turkey rolls, and later boneless roasts, and packaged parts, such as wings, breasts and drumsticks.
Land O'Lakes was determined to make its version of white and dark meat more consumer friendly and a product for year-round use. This eventually helped to even out the plant's year-round employment situation.
In 1962, the city issued a building permit for the construction of a large building at 830 13th St. for the Albert Lea Freezer warehouse. This storage facility was set up to work closely with Wilson & Co., Land 'O'Lakes and several other food processors.
Then, in 1966, Land O'Lakes, started construction on a new adjoining processing plant at 702 13th St.
The move from West Clark Street to the city's southside was completed the following year. The old Land O’Lakes plant reverted to other uses such as Wangen Advertising, a recycling operation, storage areas and several small business ventures. On Oct. 27, 1991, a good portion of this three-story building was destroyed by fire. Since that time this now smaller building has been used for storage and various business ventures. - Ed Shannon, The Albert Lea Tribune
Most likely, his passing didn't generate any tears.
JACKSON, MI -- Instead, the death last week of 73-year-old Rudy Bladel from thyroid cancer prompted thoughts of "good riddance." At least, that was the guess of Gerald Rand, a retired detective with the Jackson, Michigan, police department.
"He was probably the coldest-hearted person I ever met in my life. He won't be missed,'' Rand said. "Probably a lot of families rested well the night he died.''
Thomas Hutton, also a retired police detective in Jackson, described Bladel as "absolutely the worst ... stone (cold) killer'' he had ever encountered.
"Mr. Bladel was proof there are monsters among us,'' he said.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the imposing figure of the hulking, 200-pound plus Bladel was the worst nightmare for railroad workers in southwestern Michigan and northern Indiana. Employees living in Michigan feared him the most because, as Bladel saw it, they had robbed him of his chance to move up through the ranks and become a Conrail engineer.
An Elkhart resident who worked for the railroad as a fireman, Bladel's hatred of Michigan railroad workers began to fester in 1959 when the freight yard in Niles was merged with the one in Elkhart. A union agreement and subsequent court decision allowed Michigan workers to follow their jobs, resulting in periodic layoffs and a loss of seniority for Indiana workers like Bladel.
The slayings began in Hammond, IN, in 1963, when two railroad workers were shot and killed. Five years later, Niles resident John "Wesley'' Marshall, 51, died of a shotgun blast at the rail yard in Elkhart.
The shooting of New Buffalo railroad worker John Sayer at the Elkhart rail yard followed in 1971. Sayer, the lone survivor of the attacks, managed to wrestle the gun from Bladel and return fire, wounding him in the stomach.
"I shot him in the belly because that was the biggest target,'' said Sayer on Tuesday. He now makes his home in Pahrump, Nevada.
Bladel was fired by the railroad in the wake of the Sayer shooting and served 33 months in prison. It probably was no coincidence that, shortly after his release, Niles' railroad employee James McCrory, 51, was gunned down at the rail yard in Elkhart in 1976.
It was only after three more railroad employees were shot and killed at the Jackson train depot on New Year's Eve 1978 that police obtained the necessary evidence to prosecute and convict Bladel. Still, an appeals court granted him a new hearing, and a retrial was necessary in 1987 to put him back behind bars for good.
Bladel's anger with the railroad union and Michigan workers came across loud and clear in a January 1979 Tribune interview. Although he stopped short of admitting involvement in any of the slayings, he seemed to make a telling comment regarding his feeling about the slain railroad workers.
"These people are trying to be difficult ... OK, let's be difficult,'' he said.
To say Bladel was difficult would be a gross understatement. Hutton said Bladel so relished the fact that railroad employees feared him that he'd stand on overpasses and glare at workers as they'd go to work in the rail yards below.
"I asked him about that and he said, 'I was just giving them static,''' Hutton recalled.
He and Rand both said it's all but certain Bladel was responsible for all the killings. Relatives of the Niles victims also blamed Bladel, even though no one was ever convicted in the shooting deaths of Marshall and McCrory.
"It's unfortunate he got to live a long life and my dad didn't,'' said Marshall's daughter, Nora Pitcher, 62, of Niles.
She said Bladel perhaps targeted her father because he was a steward with the railroad union.
Louis McCrory, 79, of Niles, the brother of James McCrory, said he was pleased to hear Bladel had died. He said when authorities notified him of the slaying of his brother in 1976, it was left for him to inform James McCrory's wife, Shirley.
"He (James McCrory) was her hero,'' he said.
He said Shirley McCrory's health subsequently declined. She died about 15 years ago.
Louis McCrory said his brother, like Marshall, was a union representative but he had never expressed any fear of Bladel. He called James McCrory a "quiet, gentle giant, like John Wayne'' who had no known enemies.
It wasn't until Jackson residents discovered parts of a disassembled shotgun in the bushes of a Jackson park that police were able to link Bladel to any of the slayings. A check of the serial number revealed Bladel had purchased the weapon at a Kmart store in Indiana.
Rand said Bladel had made no attempt to disguise the purchase, signing his own name when he purchased the weapon. That surprised detectives, Rand said, based on his previous attempts to cover his tracks.
Bladel had gone so far as to personally fashion the bullets used to shoot Sayer, apparently so they couldn't be traced.
"I didn't want to kill him,'' he told The Tribune in that 1979 interview. His only intent, he added, was to call attention to the issue of the railroad jobs.
That point he made all too clear. - Lou Mumford, The South Bend Tribune
TRANSIT NEWS
BART MAY PUT CORK IN ALCOHOL ADS
SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- Reacting to pressure generated by an alcohol industry watchdog group, the BART board of directors will reconsider its recent decision allowing beer, wine and liquor advertisements in trains and stations.
The board voted 6-3 in September to adopt the new policy, which is expected to add $500,000 to BART's annual advertising revenue of $3.3 million.
The policy limits alcohol pitches to 17 percent of total ads on a single train or station and to 17 percent of the ads printed on tickets.
Almost as soon as the BART board approved the change, however, the Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog group based in San Rafael, began working against it.
"The alcohol industry has significant negative impacts on public health and safety," said Shailushi Ritchie, the institute's advocacy manager. "And alcohol is not an ordinary commodity, so the way alcohol is sold and advertised needs to be looked at more like cigarettes but less like soda."
The Marin Institute persuaded the boards of supervisors in Contra Costa and San Francisco counties to pass resolutions requesting BART rescind the new policy and started a Web-based letter writing campaign.
The institute also complains that while the BART board approved the policy at a public meeting, there wasn't sufficient public comment.
The organization found a sympathetic ear in BART Director Gail Murray, who represents parts of Contra Costa County. Murray voted against the policy change in September and has placed the issue on the board's Dec07 agenda for reconsideration.
"I think there are plenty of places that advertise alcohol," Murray said. "I just don't think that public transit, funded by the public, should be one of them."
The San Francisco and Contra Costa boards of supervisors agree, and although they have no direct control over the independently elected BART board, they did send letters requesting that alcohol ads stay out of the transit system.
"In BART's many years of existence they have never allowed alcohol advertisements on trains or on stations," said Contra Costa Board President John Gioia. "And I think there comes a time when you need to draw a line andsay that the little bit of extra revenue isn't worth the price you pay, which is the continual, in-your-face advertisement of alcohol where there is a lot of young people.
San Francisco's supervisors took a similar tack, despite the fact that the city's Muni light rail system allows some alcohol ads on its shelters.
Muni's current advertising contract with CBS Outdoor, which also manages BART's ad sales, was signed before San Francisco leaders banned alcohol advertisements. The contract allows the company to place unlimited alcohol ads on the shelters, but CBS Outdoor voluntarily agreed to limit them to 10 percent, said Steve Shinn, the company's vice president of transit development.
When the contract expires next year, however, the ban could be extended to the entire Muni system, said San Francisco Supervisor Jake McGoldrick.
"We do not have an opportunity to revisit that (contract) until the end of 2007," McGoldrick said. "At which point I guarantee you that this board of supervisors, as currently composed, will ban all alcohol advertisements."
Despite disapproval from the Marin Institute and its allies, however, it's unclear if there are enough votes on the BART board to rescind the new policy.
BART Director Tom Radulovich is unconvinced that the ads will lead to alcohol abuse.
"If I see a smoking gun, presented with evidence that advertising alcohol generally either encourages problem drinking or underage drinking, then I'd rethink my position," Radulovich said.
The alcohol industry disputes studies that link advertising with underage drinking, but also abides by a self-imposed rule to keep the ads out of television, radio and other types of electronic media that claim a 30 percent audience of people not old enough to drink.
Only 5 percent of BART riders are younger than 18, but the system doesn't keep statistics on riders who are younger than 21.
"Every advertising question always comes down to that lowest common denominator," said Wendell Lee, general council for the Wine Institute in San Francisco. "Which is where advertising in some way has an impact on consumption and the science is still out on that."
Still, Muni and BART — if its new policy survives — are the only transit agencies in the Bay Area that allow such ads. And while the Marin Institute isn't pressuring the region's ferries or the Capital Corridor commuter train to stop selling alcohol to passengers, Ritchie says that could change.
"That's certainly a policy that we would support being looked at if there was community outrage." - Kiley Russell, The Fremont Argus
HE HAS AN TRAINED EYE ON THE RAILROAD PLATFORM GAP
Photo: [graphics10.nytimes.com]
NEW YORK CITY, NY -- If you are the sort who feels a transportational-historical chill when the conductor on the Long Island Rail Road calls out, “Next stop, Babylon! Babylon, next stop!” you will probably be intrigued by Raymond Kenny, the railroad’s acting president. Mr. Kenny is a railroad man’s railroad man, an up-from-the-yard guy who started in the business 36 years ago as a summer ticket clerk and now rides herd on a huge network of M1, M3 and M7 trains, 282,000 commuters and more than 700 miles of open track.
Recently, Mr. Kenny earned public kudos for coming up with a sensible and elegant solution to what has been a longstanding problem on the railroad: the gap between train doors and station platforms. He proposed simply moving the tracks.
“One advantage of having so much railroad experience,” he said, “is that I tend to focus not on what we can’t do, but on what we can do.”
Running a railroad is a complicated task, one which in its fickleness and convolutions is not unlike trying to coordinate the various mountebanks and tumblers who make up a traveling vaudeville show. In much the way a harried stage manager must contend with a tardy contortionist or an intoxicated strongman, the president of the LI-double-R struggles daily with downed trees at Ronkonkoma or multicar trains stalled in the bowels of Pennsylvania Station.
There are engineering questions: How to move 400 M7s daily through the Harold Interlocking in Sunnyside, Queens? Labor questions: What salary increase do the signalmen deserve? And fiscal questions: Who put that allocation for J Tower back in the budget?
And, of course, there was the question of the gap. For years, the railroad has tolerated gaps between its train doors and its station platforms, papering over the danger by posting signs that read, “Watch the Gap.” Then, in August, a woman, while under the influence of alcohol, fell through the gap at the station in Woodside, Queens, was struck by a train and died. The accident led to institutional hand-wringing in which it was decided that the platforms were far too heavy to move and that nothing could be done.
A month later, when Mr. Kenny was appointed acting president, he and his crew figured that if Muhammad could not make it to the mountain, perhaps the mountain might be moved to Muhammad.
They determined that it was possible to simply shove the tracks a little closer to the platforms.
Railroading is a practical business, and Mr. Kenny, 55, came to it in a practical way. At age 14, he began commuting on the rails from his home in Cedarhurst, Nassau County, to Archbishop Molloy High School in Briarwood, Queens. The trek, five days a week, gave him ample time to study the complexities of the Jamaica Station where hundreds of trains pass daily in a transportational ballet on numerous switches and eight separate tracks.
“I developed an interest in the railroad on that commute,” he said. “Waiting at Jamaica I could see the operation, the trains moving simultaneously, the way they connected.”
It is worth noting that three decades later Mr. Kenny’s presidential desk affords a dead-on view of Jamaica’s Track 1. (And for those who believe, like Wordsworth, that the child is father to the man, Mr. Kenny’s foundational contact with the railroad was an old Lionel train set, O-27 gauge.)
Since 1970, Mr. Kenny has spent only one year not working for the railroad. That was the grim expanse between the end of his summer clerkship and the start of his true career. Like a young recruit impatient to enlist, he had applied to the railroad when he was 17. They told him to come back when he was 18. In the meantime, he worked in a clothing store until he got the clerk’s position. He did not care for the clothing job. “It was not a train job,” he said.
As far as train jobs go, Mr. Kenny has held his fair share, progressing steadily from junior industrial engineer to block operator to train dispatcher to manager of timetable schedules to field supervisor to supervisor of train movement to general superintendent of transportation to chief transportation officer to senior vice president for operations to acting president, a post in which he remains nostalgic for the old, ungainly, un-air-conditioned MP-54s of his youth.
Along the way, he says, he has met some good people (most notably Walter Ernst, the storied former Amtrak chief) and has gotten to employ some fairly Orwellian train jargon (including something called “mean distance between failure” which, though it sounds like something from an anger management course, is actually the number of miles a train can travel before breakdown).
“I bring a detailed knowledge of the operation to the job,” Mr. Kenny said. “I feel I can picture the entire system up in my mind.”
That is fairly impressive, given that the system extends from Penn Station in Midtown Manhattan all the way out to lonely Greenport on the eastern end of Long Island. There is no grid that charts the progress of his trains, although there is a frequently updated electronic report called Timacs that tells viewers the last station a train passed through. Mr. Kenny says he can digest the raw data and visualize the capillary network of the railroad in his head.
Still, the best part of the job is watching actual trains go by, especially those he can control.
“If I don’t see one in a while,” he said, “I just call somebody up.” - Alan Feuer, The New York Times
LAGNIAPPE (Something extra, not always railroad related, for Saturdays only)
SCIENTISTS NOT DONE WITH WHALE CARCASS YET
SEATTLE, OR -- Confronted with a rotting whale carcass on the beach in 1970, officials in Florence, Oregon, hauled in 20 cases of dynamite and lit the fuse.
The resulting rain of blubber chunks smashed a car a quarter-mile away, sent onlookers fleeing for cover and yielded one of the Internet's most side-splitting video clips.
Biologists at the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Laboratories have a better idea for disposing of a 54-foot fin whale that turned up dead in the Port of Everett earlier this month.
They plan to attach 3 tons of metal railroad wheels to the corpse and sink it off the coast of San Juan Island.
But because these are scientists, that's just the beginning of the story.
The real goal is to study the whale's decomposition at a level of detail that would make most people gag.
Using an underwater drone equipped with a video camera, the researchers will document the types of fish, crabs and other creatures that feed on the carcass, and the role it plays as a food bonanza in the marine ecosystem. Divers will also visit the site for an up-close view of the putrefaction.
In about two years, when the bones are picked clean, the skeleton will be retrieved for display as part of a marine mammal exhibit at the UW's Burke Museum of Natural History.
"What we're re-creating in a somewhat artificial manner is something that happens occasionally in nature and may turn out to be a very interesting ecological phenomenon," said UW marine ecologist David Duggins.
Not to mention very cool to those who like such things.
"I'm anxious to see it firsthand," said Duggins, who plans to dive to the carcass as soon as possible.
This isn't the first time researchers have tracked whale decomposition.
A University of Hawaii biologist who will collaborate on the project specializes in what he calls "whale falls." When a dead behemoth falls to the sea floor, it can radically alter a world where light doesn't penetrate and food is normally in short supply. In some cases, carcasses can seed living communities that persist for up to 80 years and include worms that feed only on whale bones.
A whale carcass that Duggins and his colleagues sank in 300 feet of water off San Juan Island several years ago attracted a massive aggregation of sea life.
"I saw densities of fish higher than I've ever seen in the San Juans — just huge clouds," Duggins said.
He's been waiting for another candidate carcass ever since.
This time, the experiment will be conducted in water only about 100 feet deep, making it easier for divers to reach it. The scientists hope the shallower depth will also make it possible to collect the bones and bring them to the surface when all the flesh has been stripped away.
"This is really a new method for preparing a skeleton for exhibit," said Jim Kenagy, curator of mammals for the Burke Museum.
Normally, marine-mammal carcasses destined for display are buried in sand to decompose, a process that can take five years or longer. Digging up and transporting tons of bones, including skulls up to 10 feet long, requires backhoes, cranes and trucks. Then comes the painstaking job of scraping away remaining bits of muscle and sinew.
"It's a very costly procedure," Kenagy said.
The male fin whale that could wind up at the Burke had a short life and brutal ending. The juvenile had been entangled in rope that cut into its jaw and kept it from opening its mouth to feed. It was emaciated when it was apparently struck and killed by a ship and dragged into the harbor at Everett. It was partially decomposed by the time it surfaced.
Duggins is waiting for calm weather to sink the carcass.
He and his crew towed the animal from Everett to San Juan Island on Tuesday — almost 36 years to the day after the infamous Oregon whale explosion.
To view that explosion, click on the following link:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtVSzU20ZGk
- Sandi Doughton, The Seattle Times
As Decades Pass, Wall Drug Keeps Up The Kitsch
WALL, SD -- What do Wyatt Earp, T. Rex, a flea-scratching hound and a 6-foot rabbit have in common?
Absolutely nothing.
But you'll find them all on the edge of the Badlands, at the intersection of Kitsch and Camp.
Wall, population 800, is a dusty cow town at the geographic center of nowhere. But it draws a million visitors a year, thanks to a drugstore that has morphed over the decades into a 76,000-square-foot Western wonderland.
Welcome to Wall Drug, where you can spend an hour or a day among the wacky and whimsical. And where, no matter how long you stay this time, there will always be something new to see the next time you pass through.
That's Teddy Hustead's personal promise.
"Theater is our business, and Wall Drug is our stage," says Hustead, 55.
Hustead is a third-generation owner of the family business established in 1931 by his grandfather, a licensed pharmacist who also was called Ted Hustead.
In those days the business center of Wall consisted of a single block of stores along Main Street. But there wasn't much business going on. Grandpa Ted and Grandma Dorothy endured some pretty tough times, Hustead said. They lived in a room behind the store that was freezing in the winter and unbearably hot in the summer, praying for enough customers to keep food on the table.
One Sunday in the summer of 1936, Dorothy Hustead was trying to take a nap. The clatter of cars bumping over the unpaved road between the Badlands and Rapid City was keeping her awake, and she thought the tourists must be terribly hot and dry.
That was really too bad, she thought, because their drugstore - just a block and a half south of the "highway" - had a big soda fountain and tons of ice. If only they could figure out a way to let those thirsty tourists know ...
The first signs - reminiscent of the Burma-Shave signs she remembered seeing along other highways - read "Get a Soda, Get a Root Beer, Turn Next Corner, Just as Near, to Highway 16 and 14, FREE ICE WATER, Wall Drug." At the turnoff was a 12-foot wooden arrow pointing drivers toward the store.
Corny as they were, the signs worked and carloads of customers dropped in. By the end of the summer they had signs 15 to 20 miles away. By the end of the 1940s, the signs stretched across South Dakota and into Minnesota and Wyoming.
"It was the perfect marketing plan for the 1930s," said Teddy Hustead, who went to Harvard Business School. "There was a drought, there was a Depression, there was 23 percent unemployment."
Today, the serious signage begins 40 miles from Wall, if you're coming from the west along Interstate Highway 90. The first of several dozen proclaim "Entering Wall Drug Country." Others advertise "Great Hot Coffee 5 Cents," "Ride Bucking Horse (Stuffed)," "Real American Home-Made Ice Cream" and, of course, "Free Ice Water."
When you get there, life-size wood carvings of Wyatt Earp and Buffalo Bill Cody, five stuffed elk, a stuffed longhorn and a totem pole adorn the main street of what looks like an old frontier town.
There are shops selling cowboy hats, jewelry, books, leather goods, homemade fudge and souvenirs. There's a chapel where weary travelers can rest and reflect.
Hustead points out proudly that everything at Wall Drug is authentic. The artwork is original Western art. The leather-goods shop sells real gun holsters, sized to fit your waist as well as your weapon. The dining room is paneled in real American black walnut.
Walk around the backyard and you'll find a real tepee; a real horse carriage; a real covered wagon; and a passel of once-real animals, now neatly stuffed: a buffalo, a bucking horse, a 6-foot rabbit. What? OK, that one's a joke.
Incongruously, the backyard also includes a caged tyrannosaurus Rex that roars and spouts smoke every 8 minutes as lightning cracks reverberate off the walls.
There's the Chuck Wagon Quartette, a diorama featuring a prairie dog that pops out of the ground, a baying coyote and a jackalope - a fantastical cross between a jack rabbit and an antelope.
Another room-size animated attraction is the Cowboy Orchestra that plays (you got it) real folk music while a mangy hound dog scratches his fleas and a life-size tick bites into his shoulder.
In case you're wondering, the residents of Wall don't do their shopping at Wall Drug.
"We're a roadside attraction," says Hustead, "not a general store." But the drugstore still employs a registered pharmacist. And the soda fountain still sells the richest ice cream west of the Mississippi.
Y'all come back now. - Judy Peres, The Chicago Tribune
THE END
| Subject | Written By | Date/Time (PST) |
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 Railroad Newsline for Saturday, 11/25/06 |
Larry W. Grant | 11-25-2006 - 05:20 |
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Re: Railroad Newsline for Saturday, 11/25/06
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Dick Seelye | 11-25-2006 - 06:43 |
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Re: Railroad Newsline for Saturday, 11/25/06
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Jim Fitzgerald | 11-25-2006 - 13:16 |
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Re: Railroad Newsline for Saturday, 11/25/06
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Paul B | 11-26-2006 - 11:39 |
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Re: Railroad Newsline for Saturday, 11/25/06
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test delete | 06-27-2018 - 20:19 |