Ah, not so fast. First, Herzog had installed more than 7,000 crossties south of Willits as part of the emergency repair work in 1998, plus another 10,000 crossties in 1999 as part of the “permanent” repair effort, also south of Willits. The FEMA work was followed by the NWPY which placed another 2,200 crossties (plus a bunch of switch ties) between Ely Road and Lombard between mid-2000 and almost October 2001. Finally, Stacey & Whitbeck did a bunch more in 2002. The track was inspected in 2002 and found to be a strong class 1 all the way to Willits.

The 50,000 crossties Mr. Pechner refers to are all to be placed in the 62 miles between Lombard and Windsor. That works out to a 25% replacement. Remember the FRA standard for crossties (49 CFR Part 213.109(c)) is the same for both class 2 and class 3, i.e., 8 "good" crossties per 39 ft. , or about one-third. Given the number of new crossties installed between 1998 and 2001, 50,000 sounds exactly right to bring the track well into compliance to Windsor.