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Railroad Newsline for Saturday, February 24, 2007

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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RAIL NEWS

RAIL VETERANS GET READY TO RETIRE

CHENOA, IL -- Conductor Ed Kavanaugh is weary.

Not because of the biting wind and driving snow, or the oppressive roar of the locomotive as it rumbles across America's agricultural heartland. Not even because it's a 14-hour day. It goes much deeper than that -- he is nearing the end of the line.

"I've been working for the railroads since 1974," the 57-year-old Kavanaugh said, brushing snow off his jacket as he steps into the locomotive cab. "When I turn 60, I'm gone."

And I can't wait!" he added with a laugh.

Photo here: [www.reuters.com]

Like thousands of aging U.S. railroad workers, Kavanaugh and locomotive engineer Phil Tidwell, 60, have met or will soon meet the legal requirements allowing them to retire after 30 years on the rails.

A day with these two men on the TPW -- the Toledo, Peoria & Western railroad, a 369-mile stretch of track run by Fortress Investment Group unit RailAmerica Inc., owner of around 47 U.S. and Canadian "short lines" -- illustrates the daunting task U.S. railroads face in replacing thousands of veteran workers.

Photo here: [www.reuters.com]

and here: [www.reuters.com]

"We started hiring aggressively around four years ago," said Wick Moorman, Chief Executive Officer of railroad Norfolk Southern Corp.. "We're trying to get enough experienced people out on the tracks so we can cope."

For 20 years after deregulation in 1980, U.S. railroads mostly cut staff and did little hiring. But now business is booming thanks to rising U.S. imports, soaring demand for coal from utilities, plus increased ethanol shipments. The railroads have hired thousands to handle that business, but they must also teach a new generation of employees to operate the trains -- a tricky and hazardous job.

On this particular day, Tidwell and Kavanaugh depart East Peoria in central Illinois with 47 rail cars stretching more than half a mile behind them, making stops to drop off hundreds of tons of soybeans or corn gluten meal, plus picking up empty cars for delivery elsewhere.

It's well below freezing, with winds gusting up to 30 miles an hour by the time they turn around in Fairbury, 60 miles east of their starting point. The snow falls almost horizontally.

"Life on the railroad looks to many youngsters like fun," said Kavanaugh as he climbed into the warm cab, face reddened by the wind and glasses fogged over from the temperature change. "But their first cold spell like this they want to go home to Mom."

Like many rail workers themselves, rail analyst Tony Hatch of New York-based ABH Consulting describes the job as an "outdoor sport."

"Replacing this aging workforce will be a significant challenge for the railroads," he said.
But Hatch and some investors say the railroads have taken the problem seriously enough and are taking the right steps.

With combined experience of 71 years, Tidwell and Kavanaugh understand each other well -- though they have only worked together for two weeks.

At one point, Kavanaugh is nearly swept off the back of the train by low-hanging branches as he guides Tidwell into a siding.

But his voice on the radiophone, while loud enough to be heard over the wind, shows little alarm: "That'll do, that'll do."

Tidwell hits the brake immediately, and the train grinds to a halt.

A typical stop is the town of Chenoa, about 45 miles from East Peoria, where the crew drop off 10 cars of corn gluten meal, a livestock feed before hooking up five empties.

The sulfurous rotten-egg smell of a sewage treatment plant hangs in the air as Kavanaugh makes his way slowly in a perfect duck walk, toes sticking outward in the snow and loose stones of the rail bed.

"If you're not careful, it's easy to get hurt out here," he says.

Kavanaugh advises against being in too much of a rush, as it is unsafe and makes you sweat.
"If you sweat, you're wet," he said. "If you then get cold, you can't work."

Tidwell loves trains, he says, as he smokes in the locomotive cab, calmly following Kavanaugh's radio instructions as they shunt cars in and out of sidings.

A native of Wyoming, Tidwell is one of five "floating" engineers at RailAmerica, whose job it is to plug gaps in the workforce while the company seeks replacement engineers. With 38 years' experience, he is eligible for retirement, but remains one of a tiny minority who stay on.

Michael Ward, CEO of railroad CSX Corp., said the company plans to hire 1,000 workers in 2007, but adds "with attrition, our headcount (of 36,000) will remain almost unchanged."

Don Hodges of the Dallas-based Hodges Fund, which manages assets of roughly $1 billion and holds shares in U.S. railroads Union Pacific Corp., Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp., Norfolk Southern and Canadian National Railway Co., said railroads have "had difficulty hiring crews."

"But I'm confident the railroads are doing what it takes to address this problem," Hodges said. - Nick Carey, Reuters

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JEEP SIZE CHUNKS OF ICE CAUSE CONCERN

Photo here: [www.fremontneb.com]

Caption reads: The river from the Nebraska Highway 79 bridge in North Bend eastward was filled with ice Thursday afternoon and commuters got good views of the ice in Fremont. (Matt Gade/Fremont Tribune)

FREMONT, NE -- Emergency volunteers Leonard and Helen Maly watched a parade of ice chunks flowing along the Platte River just south of Fremont late Thursday afternoon.
They were watching to see how much more flooding ice jams would cause.

"When we got here (around 3:30 p.m.), this was a solid sheet of ice across most of the river," Leonard said.

Maly and his wife volunteer with the Dodge County Radio Emergency Associated Communications Team.

"All of a sudden it just started breaking loose," Helen said. "I saw one block of ice that looked to be about the size of one of those old Jeeps. It was going along, and then it just went down."

When the couple arrived at the Platte River bridge along U.S. Highway 77 just south of Fremont, they could see the grass at a riverside park just on the west side of the highway, Leonard said. In just a half an hour, water from the river flooded the park, detoured from its usual flow by an ice jam.

"This water rose eight or nine inches in just 15 minutes," he said.

The river had risen to just a couple of feet below the bridge's roadway support.

"Look at that," exclaimed Helen, trying to get her husband's attention as she watched large ice chunks bounce off the bottom of the bridge roadway support.

Across the highway, Dan Blackburn had gotten help from four friends and family members to load or anchor several items in his mother's yard.

Nancy Blackburn had lived in a trailer along the river, just east of the highway, for about five years, Dan said.

"She called me earlier today and said the river was starting to cut loose, to come get her," Dan said. "She's 68 years old. So, she's spending the night in town, at my house. She's there already."

Blackburn said he came by his mother's property just before noon Thursday when there was a solid sheet of ice across the river.

"In the last 20 minutes, the river's come up a lot," he said.

Blackburn's worry is that the yard would flood, making it treacherous for his mother to walk around.

"I think things in the trailer will be safe," he said. "The floor is above the 100-year flood plain. I'm worried about her things in the yard. All of this could be under water."

If the yard does flood, he said he doesn't expect it to come over a four-feet-high dike.

"The water will come around the back side," he said. "It's only done that once in the 20 years she's owned this."

But still, Blackburn said he was keeping a close eye on the river.

"The ice is pretty thick," he said. "The thicker the ice the better the chance of it jamming. The railroad bridge (just to the east a few hundred yards) is shorter than the highway bridge. It has a better opportunity for jamming. But the ice is sailing through pretty fast. If it does jam, it can rise very fast and go down just as fast." - Don Bowen, The Fremont Tribune

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DM&E HIRES COMPANY TO PLOT CHANGES

PIERRE, SD -- An independent company hired by Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad was in Pierre Thursday taking measurements around several sections of train tracks.

Workers for the company, Utility Mapping Services, Inc. of St. Cloud, Minn., were on the tracks on Central Avenue around noon, making measurements and painting marks on the sidewalk and sod.

"We're checking out what DM&E would need to do if they were going to expand," Mark Brenner, one of the workers, said.

Brenner said the measurements made yesterday are not final, only preliminary.

Representatives from DM&E would neither confirm nor deny that workers were making these preliminary measurements on their behalf, or that they were planning to replace or expand any of the railroad track.

One local resident who was not happy to see the work being done was Pierre resident Mike Pulaski. He said he was not surprised by it though.

"In the western part of the state and in Wyoming they're moving ahead on eminent domain proceedings well in advance of being notified," Pulaski said.

Pulaski said this gives people the impression that there is no use in complaining because measuring already has started.

"What they're doing is positioning themselves to be visible doing the work," Pulaski said.

The DM&E project would rebuild 600 miles of track across South Dakota and Minnesota and add 260 miles of new track to Wyoming in order to haul low-sulfur coal eastward to power plants.

The estimated cost is $6 billion, with $2.3 billion coming from a federal loan DM&E is seeking and the rest from private sources. Last month, the Department of Transportation's Federal Railroad Administration determined the DM&E's project had met the requirements of the federal environmental review process, triggering a 90-day period during which the FRA must approve or reject the loan.

DM&E's expansion will bring the railroad to Class I freight classification and will make DM&E the first railroad to reach that distinction in almost 50 years. A Class I railroad, as defined by the Association of American Railroads, has an operating revenue exceeding $319.3 million.

Concerns have been raised by citizens regarding DM&E's safety record, and published reports have raised questions as well.

In November 2005, the FRA published its 2004 Railroad Safety Statistics Annual Report, which ranked DM&E among the worst in total safety and train-accident rate among the nation's 43 largest railroads.

According to a press release, DM&E has consistently blamed these derailments on old track, even though the railroad is required to maintain the track they run their trains on.

Pulaski said he has concerns about how DM&E's expansion will affect health and economic conditions for the state and he feels an independent investigation should be undertaken.

"The state Office of Economic Development told me they have not done a study, have no plans of doing a study in the future and have no funding to do it," he said. "I don't like it when the government or politicians don't individually check these things out. We're talking about $2.3 billion here."

Earlier this week, a law firm representing the Rochester Coalition and the Mayo Clinic filed a lawsuit seeking the release of DM&E's financial records. In a suit filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Washington law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP, asked a judge to direct the FRA to release the materials it had sought last April in a Freedom of Information Act request.

According to the suit, Manatt, Phelps and Phillips still has not received those materials, which include financial information such as balance sheets, income statements, market capitalization, debt, feasibility and market studies related to DM&E. - Travis Gulbrandson, The Pierre Captial Journal

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FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WILL REGULATE RAILROAD HOURS OF SERVICE AND INCREASE FOCUS ON SAFETY RISK REDUCTION, UNDER ADMINISTRATION'S PROPOSED RAIL SAFETY LEGISLATION

The following information was released by the U.S. Department of Transportation:

For the first time ever the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) will have authority to regulate railroad worker hours of service and will provide greater focus on risk reduction to improve safety in the railroad industry under a rail safety reauthorization bill submitted to the Congress today, announced FRA Administrator Joseph H. Boardman.

"We must embrace new methods and strategies to further reduce the number of accidents in the rail industry," Boardman said. "Railroads must be more accountable for the safety of their operations and rail employees need work schedules that reduce fatigue and promote safety," he added, noting that the bill will reauthorize the federal rail safety program through 2011.

Boardman said the FRA proposal will replace railroad hours of service laws, first enacted in 1907, with comprehensive, scientifically based regulations to address the serious issue of worker fatigue. The laws, which set the maximum on-duty or minimum off-duty hours for train crews, dispatchers, and signal maintainers would now be set by the FRA, much like hours of services standards are set for airline pilots and truck drivers. Under the proposal, the FRA Railroad Safety Advisory Committee, made up of railroad management, labor representatives and other key stakeholders, will review the issue and develop recommendations on new hours of service limits based on current, sound science before any changes are made.

To achieve additional safety improvements, the proposal also will supplement traditional safety efforts with the establishment of risk reduction programs, Boardman explained. FRA will place increased emphasis on developing methods to systematically evaluate safety risks in order to hold railroads more accountable for improving the safety of their own operations, including risk management strategies and implementing plans to eliminate or minimize the opportunity for workers to make errors which can result in accidents.

Other provisions in the proposal include requiring states and railroads to update the National Highway-Rail Grade Crossing Inventory on a regular basis to ensure current information is available for hazard analysis in determining where federal safety improvement funding is directed. In addition, the proposed legislation would expand the authority of the FRA to disqualify any individual as unfit for safety-sensitive service for violation of federal regulations related to transporting hazardous materials, among other items. - Logistics Management

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ASSEMBLY CHALLENGES ARMY RAILROAD PROJECT

FAIRBANKS, AK -- The Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly, in an attempt to force Alaska Railroad Corp. officials to refocus efforts on realigning train track in the Fairbanks area, formally opposed an Alaska Railroad Corp. project planned for Fort Wainwright Army Post.

The assembly passed a resolution Thursday opposing the Fort Wainwright project - which would reroute train traffic on the post - until the larger realignment plan receives more attention.
Borough officials suggested the railroad was failing to consider the community's long-term needs, and the resolution aims to delay the smaller project and consider it as a potential component inside the realignment plan.

"This puts us back into the playing field on what happens to the community," said Assemblyman Luke Hopkins, who along with Mayor Jim Whitaker sponsored the resolution.

Local elected officials first grew concerned last year with the proposed Fort Wainwright project, saying it seemed to decrease the likelihood railroad track would ever be removed from developed neighborhoods in the city.

The borough will send copies of the resolution, which passed 6-3, to federal transportation authorities, the railroad's board of directors, state and federal lawmakers and Gov. Sarah Palin.

The railroad hopes to move track from the core of Fort Wainwright to the post's outskirts, and hopes to get started this year. The corporation is simultaneously researching the much larger plan to improve safety, decrease travel time and eliminate road-to-rail intersections by realigning almost 20 miles of track in the greater Fairbanks area - possibly by building new tracks south of town to allow trains to "bypass" the city.

Since Fort Wainwright abuts residential neighborhoods on the city's northeast corner, local official have argued the first project undercuts the reality a "southern bypass" would be built anytime soon.
The railroad received specific federal approval in January to divorce the smaller Fort Wainwright project from the larger realignment plan. The railroad had previously submitted the larger plan to federal authorities, but now needed to redefine their plans for the Fairbanks area to move ahead with the Army post project, railroad vice president Eileen Reilly said.

Railroad president Pat Gamble said splitting the two - through a federal process known as "independent utility" - benefits the Army project, which would have lagged behind the lengthy environmental review and funding search required for the larger realignment plan.

Gamble said the railroad has committed money toward community outreach for the southern bypass option. But he said the corporation is obliged to the military to move ahead with the Fort Wainwright project, which the Department of Defense has already committed to help fund. Gamble suggested the Fairbanks North Star Borough should take its concerns directly to federal funding and military authorities, not to the state-owned railroad.

"I can relay your positions, but I'm not an advocate for your positions," Gamble said. "We cannot call this project off at this point."

Whitaker, however, suggested local and railroad officials are locked in a political "battle" to determine how and where trains will travel through the Fairbanks community for decades.

"We want to solve the broader problem," he said. The railroad's current plan, he argued, would make it difficult to leverage future funding for the realignment plan "and probably precludes a solution."

Assemblymembers Randy Frank, Charlie Rex and Nadine Winters voted in opposition. Winters questioned claims from railroad skeptics that the Fort Wainwright project could frustrate efforts to secure future funding for the larger realignment plan.

The resolution urges the railroad to "aggressively" seek funding for the larger realignment project - specifically the southern bypass route, which the corporation estimates could cost $450 million.

Fairbanks City Council members are scheduled to consider a similar resolution next week, and city Mayor Steve Thompson supported the measure coming from Hopkins and Whitaker.

"Please, step back and look at the whole situation, the whole problem," Thompson told railroad officials Thursday. - Chris Eshleman, The Fairbanks News-Miner

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RAILROAD UNDERPASS PROJECT AGAIN PLACED ON HOLD

LA MIRADA, CA -- Increasing costs for concrete and steel, as well as rising property values, could delay the construction of a proposed railroad underpass at Valley View Avenue, a city official said Thursday.

It appears now that the cities of La Mirada and Santa Fe Springs, which are working together on the project, do not have sufficient money to fund the entire project, said Steve Forster, La Mirada's public works director.

"We're going to have to go back to Caltrans to seek funding to make up for the shortfall," Forster said at a state-of-the-city presentation sponsored by the La Mirada Chamber of Commerce and held at Holiday Inn Select.

When asked about the prospects of getting additional Caltrans funding Forster said, "I'm optimistic."

"Caltrans is looking for projects that are designed and ready to go. This one can be completed easily, as long as funding is available," he added.

Residents for years have been clamoring for the underpass at Valley View, at the border of La Mirada and Santa Fe Springs. They say an underpass there would greatly alleviate traffic congestion at the rail crossing, as well as noise from horns as trains approach the crossing.

La Mirada and Santa Fe Springs officials have worked together to acquire about $49.1 million in federal, state and railroad company funding for the project. Construction costs had been estimated at nearly $35 million.

Property acquisition had been estimated at $3.5 million, but those costs also are likely to go up, Forster said Thursday. Other costs include design, management and track work, to make the final earlier estimate nearly $48.9 million.

However, those costs were based on year-old plans and older property values, Forster said.

Officials from both cities have been working to cut costs, but it now looks like construction will cost more than the original estimate, Forster said.

Forster said he doesn't have exact figures on the projected increases. Those numbers are expected to be finalized in about a month.

Construction was supposed to have been about a year away. Officials are in the process of acquiring land for the underpass.

In 2001, the underpass was supposedly fully funded at an estimated cost of $29.7 million. Then the state, facing a budget crisis, took back the money. - Mike Sprague, The Whittier Daily News

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BROKEN RAIL BLAMED FOR CSX DERAILMENT

EAST ROCHESTER, NY -- A preliminary report by CSX blamed a broken rail for a train derailment that sent freight cars toppling from an overpass and onto front yards, East Rochester Mayor David Bonacchi said.

Bonacchi expressed concern Thursday about the railroad's inspection process, since the faulty rail reportedly had been inspected the day before the Jan. 16 accident. He also called on CSX to reduce the speed of trains traveling through East Rochester to 30 mph.

The Federal Rail Administration is conducting a separate investigation of the derailment.

No one was injured when 18 freight cars fell off the tracks, but several residents reported property damage.

CSX has given East Rochester $30,000 as an initial payment for cleanup costs and is working to compensate affected residents.

"This is proof positive that we need to overhaul upstate New York's rail infrastructure," Sen. Charles Schumer said in a statement. "For far too long, big railroad companies have turned a blind eye to safety and, at times the consequences have been deadly. The FRA needs to stop dragging its feet and crack down on these companies so we can prevent a far greater tragedy." - The Associated Press, The Houston Chronicle

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TRAIN ENGINEER SIGHTS CAR IN ICY SLOUGH ALONG I-84

Photo here: [www.hoodrivernews.com] images/015wed/A1 eaton trooper.jpg

Caption reads: Oregon State Police Senior Trooper Dan DeHaven works with Hood River City Police Detective Andy Frasier to recreate the scene of a vehicle accident that ended with the drowning of Ronnie Eaton. Orange marks indicate where Eaton's car left the roadway. (Photo by RaeLynn Ricarte/Hood River News)

HOOD RIVER, OR -- The remains of a missing Hood River man were discovered inside a submerged vehicle along Interstate 84 on Friday afternoon.

The body of Ronnie Eaton, 36, was recovered from a slough off the eastbound lanes of the freeway between Mosier and Hood River. A medical examiner determined that he had drowned after his blue Honda Accord landed upside down in about 5 feet of icy water.

"He likely became unconscious during the accident but the air bag had deployed properly and the car frame was in pretty good shape. If it weren't for the water, he would probably be here today," said Police Detective Andy Frasier.

The engineer of a passing Union Pacific train located the vehicle about 15:15 on Feb. 16. According to reports, the railroad employee thought that he had glimpsed metal below the icy pool on Feb. 1 and had taken a closer look during a return trip.

Frasier said Oregon State Police Senior Trooper Dan DeHaven and Hood River County Sheriff's Deputies Matt English and Juan Pulido were the first to arrive at the scene. They ran the numbers from a car license plate that was found on the ground near the wreck.

When dispatch confirmed moments later that the vehicle was owned by Eaton, divers from the Skamania County Sheriff's Office were called for help. They dove into the murky water with flashlights and found Eaton buckled in the driver's seat. J&L Towing from Hood River was asked to pull the car out of the water. Eaton's body was then turned over to Andersen's Tribute Center for burial arrangements.

His funeral will take place at 11:00 on Saturday at the Church of Christ, 1512 Tucker Road.

Eaton was last seen at his place of employment on Jan. 25. Frasier said the last call made on his cell phone was at 23:15 -- and then there was no further activity.

Friends and family members organized a 75-person search along county roads two weeks later. They were concerned that there had been no movement on his bank account or credit cards. Everyone who knew Eaton contended that it was out of character for him not to not show up for work -- or to leave town without notifying anyone.

Fliers with the missing man's picture and physical description were posted on bulletin boards and in business windows throughout town.

Frasier worked with OSP to reconstruct the fatal accident on Monday. DeHaven said that excessive speed was a factor in the accident. He said that Eaton's car traveled 400 feet from the time that it left the eastbound lane of the freeway until it landed in the water.

Frasier said it appears, based on a debris trail and marks on the ground, that Eaton's car went into a spin. And was turned sideways when it became airborne and then flipped after encountering the railroad tracks.

Frasier said the results of toxicology tests will be available in a few weeks to determine if alcohol played a role in the crash. - RaeLynn Ricarte, The Hood River News

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WIFE AND MOTHER OF BNSF EMPLOYEES FOIL METAL THIEVES

Be careful of what you do, you never know when someone may be watching you. That's what two metal thieves discovered after a family member of two BNSF employees saw the thieves tearing signal wire out of the ground near a BNSF train tunnel.

Barbara Powell was on her way to visit her daughter in Visalia, California, when she spotted the incident in Caldwell, California, Tuesday, Feb. 6. Powell is the wife of Richard (Whitey) Powell, superintendent, Operations, Woodward, Oklahoma, and the mother of R.J. Mitchell, a locomotive engineer, Stockton, California.

She had just pulled off Highway 99 at the Caldwell exit when she noticed two men doing something rather suspicious near BNSF trackage. "I was sure they didn't work for the railroad," says Powell. "They were driving a four-door sedan and were not wearing orange vests nor hard hats," says Powell who was very accurate in her observation.

Powell discretely found a place to park within viewing distance of the tunnel and called 911. A short while later, two sheriffs arrived on the scene and arrested one of the men. The other man escaped into a nearby orange grove. Powell provided a very detailed description and later identified the man who had been caught by law enforcement officials.

"The sheriff I gave the identification to told me he wished he had a bouquet and some candy because most people don't bother to call when they see something like this," she said. But according to Powell, it wouldn't have occurred to her not to call. "The stupid thing was that the wire they were trying to steal wasn't even copper, which is usually what thieves are after."

Team BNSF gives kudos to Barbara for taking the time to do the right thing, being attentive to detail and reporting the incident accurately. It should also be noted that Powell kept a safe distance and did not attempt to intercept the two thieves. - BNSF Today

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RAILROAD WORKERS' CLAIMS DENIED; FINDERS NOT KEEPERS

BANGOR, ME -- Finders are not keepers, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock found that the more than $150,000 in cash discovered last year in a black duffel bag beside railroad tracks in Aroostook County belongs to the government, not the railroad workers who found it and turned it over to Border Patrol agents.

Daniel D. Madore, 44, and Traves La Pointe, 54, both of Fort Kent, found $165,580 on Feb. 4, 2005, in some bushes beside the Maine, Montreal and Atlantic tracks.

They turned it over a short time later to two Border Patrol agents who were checking out a report of fresh snowmobile tracks near a home believed to be associated with drug smuggling.

LaPointe works for the railroad as a conductor and Madore is an engineer.
Three days later, Allen Gagnon, 45, of Van Buren claimed the money was his life savings that he had placed into the bag. He said he lost the duffel bag stuffed with $100, $50, $20 and $10 bills near the spot where the railroad workers said they found it.

Gagnon said he lost the bag while he was driving his snowmobile on the tracks from Van Buren to Madawaska with the bag containing his savings strapped on the back.

A drug-sniffing dog gave a positive alert on the bag for the scent of drugs the day after border agents received the duffel bag from the railroad workers, according to court documents.

LaPointe, Madore and Gagnon all laid claim to the cash, although Gagnon allowed his claim to lapse.

The U.S. Attorney's Office opposed their efforts to keep the money, arguing that it belonged to the government because it's traceable to drug trafficking and is evidence of a violation of federal currency laws.

Woodcock held a hearing on the matter in Bangor last week.

Gagnon is not facing charges as a result of his claim on the money.

The area where the money was found is known to law enforcement agencies as a drug smuggling route between Maine and Canada, the judge wrote in his 13-page order.

"In the deep of the Maine winter, the St. John River . freezes over as it flows through the town of Van Buren," Woodcock wrote. "Instead of a moat, the river is seasonally transformed into a pathway, suitable for travel by foot or snowmobile; for those who prefer to avoid United States Customs, particularly those engaged in illegal drug importation, the river becomes an opportunity for illegal entry. ... Typically, the smuggling consists of drugs being brought in the United States and cash heading for Canada."

Woodcock found that the two railroad workers had not done what is required by Maine law before an individual can lay claim to found property. The state requires that the finder notify in writing the town clerk of the municipality where the cash or items were located and post a notification of what was found in a public place in the community.

If the found cash or goods are valued at more than $10, the finder also is required to place an announcement in a local newspaper. If no owner appears within six months, the finder and the town are to split the cash or property 50-50.

The railroad workers failed to do any of those things, the judge ruled. He also found that the federal law making money gained through illegal activities subject to forfeiture trumped their claims under state law.

Madore and LaPointe "can no more claim ownership in the proceeds of an illegal drug deal than they could claim rightful ownership in illegal drugs themselves or in the proceeds of an illegal gambling operation or house of prostitution," Woodcock wrote. "Simply because they found the money on the side of the railroad tracks does not legitimize the cash or their claim to it." - Judy Harrison, The Bangor Daily News

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TRANSIT NEWS

LIGHT-RAIL CENTER IS GLIMPSE OF FUTURE

Photo here: [www.azcentral.com]

PHOENIX, AZ -- With the sound of an industrial buzzer and Aerosmith's Walk This Way, the door raised, the ribbon was cut and Metro's $64 million maintenance center officially opened Wednesday.

Within hours of the dignitaries leaving, work began to fully assemble the first built-from-scratch train. Train cars in silver tarpaulins and green netting sat outside the facility next to crates of plastic-wrapped wheel trucks. All were awaiting assembly inside.

But Wednesday was a day for light-rail fans to gawk at a new train, whose cars were preassembled in Japan. They checked out the maintenance center. And politicians crowed about what Metro Executive Director Rick Simonetta called the heart of the 20-mile system. They spoke as if the full system was ready to open, something not expected until December 2008.

"This is the future. We get to have a glimpse at that future when we look at these cars," Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said, touting 2,000 jobs that light rail is expected to bring.

About 250 employees will work in the Operations and Maintenance Center just east of Sky Harbor International Airport.

His Tempe counterpart, Mayor Hugh Hallman credited forward-thinking transportation planners in his city and generous voters.

"The progressive voters of our region have paid to try this on for size, and they will not be disappointed," Hallman said.

Mesa Mayor Keno Hawker talked about the future.

"We will someday extend a rail to downtown Mesa," said Hawker, whose city now has one mile of track. "I want to point out that the line will start in Mesa, progress through Tempe and end in Phoenix."

Manny Martinez, vice mayor of Glendale, said, "We're all looking anxiously forward to an opening in December 2008."

An hour later, Metro's governing board approved a $2.3 million contract to begin planning an extension into Glendale. - Sean Holstege, The Arizona Republic

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NORTH LINE OFFERS ARE ON THE WAY; METRO BOARD CLEARS MOTION FOR RIGHT OW WAY ALONG FOUR ROUTES

HOUSTON, TX -- A number of homeowners and merchants along four routes where Metro plans to build Bus Rapid Transit lines can expect offers on their properties soon from the agency's real estate staff.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority Board voted Thursday to authorize right of way acquisitions along the North, Southeast, East End and Uptown routes.

Metro has not revealed how many properties it will need for the four, but the North line officials said recently that number will be far fewer than stated in a federally required environmental impact statement.

"Those properties that we are authorizing them to acquire are both whole takings and pieces of parcels that have been fully identified as fully necessary under any scenario for acquisition," board Chairman David Wolff said after Thursday's vote.

The board took no action Thursday for right of way acquisition on the controversial University light rail line. But that line was at the center of a raucous gathering Thursday night at Rice University, where supporters and opponents of a proposed segment on Richmond argued about the plan.

Some supporters engaged in a shouting match with U.S. Rep. John Culberson, R-Houston, who opposes rail on Richmond and hosted a town hall meeting on it.

When Culberson said that "97 percent of residents on or near Richmond oppose" a light rail line there, the audience of about 200 erupted in "boos" and catcalls.

Crowd gets rowdy

RichmondRail.org, a group of civic associations, neighborhood groups and business owners, which supports light rail on Richmond, met in the same auditorium just prior to Culberson's meeting.
Culberson repeatedly had to ask the crowd to settle down and speak politely.

"One at a time!" Culberson cautioned. "I am not going to recognize anyone who does not speak politely."

Culberson was red-faced when the crowd gave a standing ovation to Robin Holzer, chairwoman of the Citizens' Transportation Coalition, who told Culberson that he was "misleading" the audience.

"I feel pandered to, I feel marketed to, I feel misled," Holzer said. "You never told us you oppose rail. And, I'm a bit suspicious about hearing you say local government makes the best decisions, then you come here and tell them how to do it."

Culberson responded, "I'm sorry you don't recognize reality."

Culberson and other Richmond rail opponents say voters in 2003 approved a route designated on the ballot as "Westpark," and that the line should run mostly on that thoroughfare south of Richmond.

Metro has not completed environmental studies for the line nor finalized its route, but it says that one along Richmond, Cummins and Westpark would attract the most riders at the least cost and be most likely to win federal funding approval.

Culberson says he prefers a route along Montrose, the Southwest Freeway and Westpark, which Metro says would cost more and attract fewer riders.

'Friendly acquisitions'

After the board meeting earlier Thursday, Metro spokeswoman Sandra Salazar said the properties acquired for the four Bus Rapid Transit lines will be for transit use only, not for transit-oriented development.

She also described the board action as allowing only "friendly acquisitions" and said any condemnation proceedings under Metro's right of eminent domain would require separate authorization by the board.

However, officials expect that condemnation lawsuits will be needed to obtain right of way for the lines. Owners are entitled by law to fair market value for their property.

In a separate vote the board authorized condemnation if necessary to acquire 9.7 acres at the southeast corner of North Main and Burnett on the Near Northside for the planned Intermodal Terminal. Metro has bought 20 acres nearby for the facility, which would serve buses and trains, and is negotiating for a few other pieces, said Todd Mason, Metro vice president of real estate services.

Mason said the targeted land is occupied by a large warehouse and is now owned by CR V Hardy Yards, whose general partner is Cypress Real Estate Advisors in Austin. Mason said Metro made a final offer, whose amount he would not disclose, and has not received a response. Cypress officials could not be reached for comment. - Rad Sallee and Anne Marie Kilday, The Houston Chronicle

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NO BREAK YET ON $5 CABLE CAR FEE

Photo here:

[www.examiner.com]

SAN FRANCISCO, CA -- Proposed fare changes for San Francisco's cable cars -- including offering transfers or allowing kids to ride free -- have been put on hold, despite a vow from Mayor Gavin Newsom to do something about the high cost of the ride aboard the historic vehicles.

Last September, Municipal Transportation Agency Executive Director Nathaniel Ford told the agency's board of directors that Muni was considering offering cable car riders the option of transferring to another cable car.

In September 2005, the MTA raised the fare from $3 to $5. No transfer is offered on the cable cars, but one-month pass holders can ride the cable cars. The fare for Muni's other vehicles is $1.50 per ride, which includes a 90-minute transfer.

The boost has concerned the mayor, who last week, during a public policy talk, renewed a promise "to do something" about the cable car price.

MTA staff had begun researching the cost effectiveness of transfers, Ford said in September, because it was a more feasible option than reducing the price of the popular tourist attraction.
According to Muni data, operating, maintenance and capital costs for the cable cars add up to an annual cost of nearly $40 million a year. Divided by the number of passengers in fiscal year 2006 -- 7.4 million -- it calculates to about $5.34 per passenger.

Since that time, MTA staff have proposed two other options to make the cable cars more attractive to riders: allowing children with a parent to ride for free and cutting by $1 the cost of the $11 one-day Muni pass.

No changes to the cable car fare structure are included in the operating budget approved by the MTA board on Tuesday, however. In addition, Sonali Bose, the agency's financial officer, recommended that the board not make any decisions regarding cable cars now, but wait to "look at the entire revenue picture of the organization" during talks that will begin in April for the fiscal year 2008-09 budget.

MTA board member Michael Kasolas called the cable cars a "national treasure," and cautioned his colleagues not "to get caught up in cost recovery."

Andrew Sullivan, of the transit agency watchdog group Rescue Muni, said that while the higher price for cable cars is understandable, it's not "customer-friendly" to withhold a transfer that would allow passengers to get on another cable car, a bus, streetcar or light rail.

"We want to send a message to tourists and commuters alike to ride mass transit," Sullivan said.

Riders find historic trolleys magnetic

San Francisco has the only remaining cable car line in the country, according to Jim Graebner, chairman of the American Public Transportation Association's Streetcar and Heritage Trolley subcommittee.

"They require a two-person crew, that's why historically most cities have gotten rid of their cable cars," Graebner said.

What cities haven't given up is their love of the old-fashioned street car or trolley, he said.
He noted that in Little Rock, Arkansas, downtown development has included a two-and-a-half-year-old rail line with street cars that are designed to look historic, but are brand-new.

Friday and Saturday, Graebner and several dozen members of the subcommittee, from all over the country, will be in San Francisco for their biannual meeting. On their agenda is a tour of Muni's historic F-line streetcars.

"There is something about streetcars and rail that captures the imagination of a lot of people; not just tourists, but also people who otherwise wouldn't be on public transportation," Graebner said. "A lot of people will ride the F line down Market; there's not quite the same magic going down Geary [on the bus]." - Bonnie Eslinger, The San Francisco Examiner

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LAGNIAPPE (Something extra, not always railroad related, for Saturdays only)

AT THE END OF THE LINE, AN OPPORTUNITY LOST

The Washington and Old Dominion Railroad is now largely a bicycle trail. But it could have become a high-speed commuter rail link between Loudoun County and the near suburbs of Northern Virginia had the arguments of some local officials been heeded more than 40 years ago.

In 1965, when the railroad's demise was a near certainty, Loudoun County planners came up with population projections providing ample warning of the number of drivers who, jockeying on overloaded roads, would one day bring forth from the lamp a genie named Gridlock.

A year later, in April 1966, the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission recommended that the 48-mile W&OD right of way from Alexandria to Purcellville be maintained as rapid-transit access to "the most densely populated and rapidly growing sections of Northern Virginia."

But with few commuters on two-lane Route 7 east of Leesburg, and with that road soon to be widened to four lanes, rapid transit in Loudoun and western Fairfax seemed a luxury.

There were great expectations for the W&OD when the first tracks were laid in Alexandria in 1855. It was to reach the coal fields of Hampshire County (now in West Virginia), because coal was replacing wood as the urban fuel of choice. But its trackage never made it west of the Blue Ridge.

The railroad began the decline that led to its 1968 abandonment when neglect and poor management held sway during the profit-making years of 1905 to 1918.

I recently came across an undated Virginia State Corporation Commission report from that era, citing the railroad for "insufficient labor and material, insufficient equipment and inadequate motive power" -- and not turning on engine lights at night -- all of which led to conditions that "cannot give the public a reasonably safe, adequate, and dependable service."

Herbert H. Harwood Jr., in his history of the railroad, writes of trainmen sabotaging the profitable daily milk run by emptying farmers' milk cans into butter churners and then selling the butter. A favorite spot for pitching the telltale cans was the high and remote Goose Creek trestle east of Leesburg.

Old-timers told me stories of crewmen slowing down the train so they and frustrated buffalo hunters could fire weapons at wildlife.

Automobilists, as they were called before the 1920s, sounded a knell for the railroad when they began motoring beyond Bluemont, which had been the western terminus of the W&OD since 1900. The Shenandoah Valley beckoned, luring visitors with the Luray and Skyline caverns and pristine Civil War battlefields.

Even before the motor car was deemed a threat, a 1913 fire destroyed the rambling frame Blue Ridge Inn, a prime destination of summer vacationers and railroad excursionists from Washington.
Homespun boarding houses in the Loudoun Valley could not match the inn's allure. The summer visitors stopped coming.

Route 7, paralleling the railroad, was a constant nemesis. In 1922, the state began maintaining and paving the road and took off its tolls. The completion of paving in 1928, the Great Depression of 1929 and the great drought the following year led to the end of passenger service to Bluemont in 1930. In 1939, the W&OD sold its right of way from Purcellville to Bluemont.

At the opposite end of the line, the railroad's passenger trains entered Washington via trackage across Aqueduct Bridge. But in 1923, when Francis Scott Key Bridge replaced the older span, the railroad gave up its right of way to the nation's capital. The new passenger terminal was in Rosslyn, on the Virginia side of the bridge. The freight terminal remained in Alexandria.

While the W&OD was ignoring repeated State Corporation Commission complaints of shabby maintenance and service, the grousing of locals led to disparaging nicknames: "Wait Over and Doze," "Wobbly and Old Dilapidated" and "Washington and Old Dog."

A federal government edict continued passenger service through World War II and until 1951. One or two segregated coaches buoyed up the end of a freight run. The daily jaunt from Leesburg to Rosslyn took two to 2-1/2 hours. There were 13 station stops.

After 1951, the freight-only railroad's trackage west of the Trap Rock siding (just east of Goose Creek) was in such a poor state that diesel engines had to be changed. Only lighter ones could safely navigate the course and then at no more than 12 mph.

Desiring a highway right of way, Virginia made a tentative offer to buy the entire W&OD for a highway right of way in 1961. But state legislators decided the price was too high. In early 1965, however, the railroad accepted the state's offer of $3.5 million pending approval by the Interstate Commerce Commission.

Soon after, The Washington Post disclosed that the state had privately agreed to sell all the right of way, except for four miles in Arlington needed for highway improvements, to the Virginia Electric and Power Co. (now Dominion Virginia Power). State officials explained that the secrecy had been necessary to keep real estate values stable.

Public hearings began in March 1965. In March 1966, the ICC recommended abandonment of the entire W&OD line, citing the railroad's continuing losses and the agreement among the state, the railroad and the power company.

In June 1966, the Loudoun Board of Supervisors and the W&OD Users Association, made up of 137 organizations that wanted to keep the railroad operable, presented one of many challenges to the ICC's decision. The association wanted to purchase the W&OD and had financial backing from New York's Lehman Bros.

Back-and-forth challenges and ICC rebuttals continued for 2-1/2 years.

As the ICC's original proposal to abandon the W&OD appeared to continually trump the opposition, companies using the railroad either bought trucks or made plans to move. In April 1968, Loudoun's largest industrial company -- Leesburg's Barber & Ross, a builder with 150 employees -- began phasing out operations and relocating to Point of Rocks on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

In August 1968, the ICC, with its previous decision to abandon the railroad having been upheld by the courts, ordered the W&OD to cease operations.

At the very time plans for Metrorail were being formulated, Northern Virginia lost a transportation artery that today bisects its fastest-growing area. The genie named Gridlock looms over us all. - Eugene Scheel, The Washington Post

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AMERICAN FORK CANYON: UTAH'S YOSEMITE

When the American Fork Canyon Railroad Co. was incorporated in April 1872 with $300,000 in capital stock, its corporate leaders hoped the little railway would be able to keep the canyon open the year around. Full access to the canyon would help make the railroad, as well as the canyon's mines, sawmills, charcoal kilns and smelter, more profitable.

For a few months, it appeared as though their optimism might be justified. Although the canyon received measurable amounts of snow for 27 straight days during the last part of December 1872 and the first part of January 1873, the fluffy white crystals accumulated to a height of only five feet on the level. No snow slides of any consequence blocked the tracks, and the locomotive continued running its regular schedule to Deer Creek. Wagons still made the four-mile trip from the terminus of the railroad to Forest City.

Then deep snow finally forced the railroad to suspend operations in mid January. Some men continued working in the Miller Mine until February, but they mainly prospected for new veins of ore. The Sultana (wife or daughter of a Sultan) Smelter suspended operations when it became impossible to deliver ore from the mine to the smelter on the wooden-railed tram. The canyon drifted into suspended animation and stayed in that state until spring.

In late April, the track was apparently travel worthy. The Salt Lake Herald reported "Messrs. Baskin and DeWolfe came down from the Miller Mine ... on a flat car they navigated down from Deer Creek at the rate of thirty miles an hour."

Early in May 1873, 20 men went back to work in the Miller Mine, and the railroad company employed a large force of workmen to repair bridges, put the track in working order and prepare for high water. Mules pulled the rolling stock up the canyon until the new more powerful locomotive arrived.

The spring thaw began in earnest in June, and melting snow and rising water threatened the railroad. Nearly 40 men went to work to save the track and secure the railroad bridges. Only one major mishap occurred. The dam at Lewis Robinson's sawmill collapsed, and the resulting wall of water washed out the bridge in American Fork.

Later that month, the Salt Lake Daily Tribune spread some good economic news. Twenty more men went back to work in the Miller Mine. The newspaper reported, "A gentleman well qualified to judge ... holds to the opinion that that camp in time will exceed Little Cottonwood in the amount of ore produced. This, of course, will please the American Forkites."

That news did please the devotees of the canyon, and so did the fact that by July 4, the American Fork Canyon Railroad was running between Lehi and Deer Creek every day of the week except Sunday. This created a perfect opportunity for tourists to visit the canyon -- and they did.

Tourist Attraction

In a July 1873 letter to the editor of the Salt Lake Daily Tribune, G.M. Peirce, who had recently completed a trip to American Fork Canyon, described it as "scenery unsurpassed in the Rocky Mountains, and a resort provided by nature that we predict, in a few years, will be one of the most popular summer resorts among the mountains of our continent."

From 1873 to 1877, the routine followed by tourists who visited American Fork Canyon remained about the same. Travelers destined for a day trip to the canyon boarded a southbound Utah Southern train in Salt Lake City at about 7 a. m. Excursionists briefly detrained at the station in Lehi and purchased a ticket for the 18-mile-long ride to Deer Creek.

J.C. Cameron Jr., who made one of the early trips into the canyon in 1872, noticed the changes brought about in Lehi by the arrival of the railroad. He wrote, "A stranger here gets the impression that some pleasant dream of a millennial dawn has been disturbed by the shrill notes of the iron-horse, the acknowledged harbinger of progress in these latter days, as he wakes the sleeping solitude which has so long surrounded them."

Lesiruely ride

Some of the tourists left Lehi on open cars shaded by canopies. Employees of the canyon railroad sometimes trimmed these cars with evergreen boughs to add a touch of alpine atmosphere. These open cars provided passengers with the best view of what Peirce called "the rugged, grand, and almost startling ride up the mountains." Scarcely a quarter-mile section of the track ran straight.

The train's genial conductor catered to the whims of the passengers. He stopped the train to let riders fish, gather flowers or get a drink from the stream.

As the train traveled through the lower stretches of the canyon at speeds of four to six miles per hour, tourists absorbed views of rock formations Peirce described as "giant cliffs, turreted castles, and frowning battlements, rugged, ragged, jagged, broken, fantastic, from one thousand to three thousand feet high."

In Peirce's opinion, the cliffs of Echo Canyon looked like tame foothills compared to the crags in American Fork Canyon.

Most of the way up the canyon, the track closely followed the course of the American Fork River. The ever effusive Peirce described the stream as "roaring, rattling, jumping, leaping, bounding, singing, screaming, foaming, rolling, rushing, a mad, wild stream, let loose from some Arctic fountain." (His ballyhoo surely compared favorably with that of P.T. Barnum.)

The Tribune claimed the scenery of the canyon was so sublime that even "those eyes -- which once had no admiration for rocks -- here confess, with extreme enthusiasm, that there is beauty beyond the wildest imagination."

Charles Kingsley, a Canon of the English Church in London, went so far as to call American Fork Canyon "the rival of the Yosemite."

It appears, however, that some of the travelers in the canyon were not so deeply touched as others. Charley, another contributor to the Tribune, made the trek up the canyon with a group of tourists. Some of the women passengers of the flatcar he rode on made such profound statements as, "How delightfully pretty!" or "What a cute mountain!"

Money prospects

Many miners looked at the canyon through materialistic, rather than artistic eyes. One Sunday in September 1875, George Fry, a blacksmith working at the Miller Mine, was prospecting on a stream at the very head of American Fork Canyon when he discovered a deposit of sand and gravel containing particles of gold. He named it the Sunday Lode in honor of the day on which it was found.

Several days after the discovery of Fry's placer mine was announced, a man using the pen name Bion visited the canyon. He revealed his crass, inner feelings to the Tribune:

"I have lost all taste for sublime scenery and look listlessly upon various views ... filthy lucre has driven from my mind the soft, artistic, poetic feelings which heretofore existed, and I see visions of $20,000 rock, immense placer diggings and ledges which I have only to tap and run out the crude metal and resume specie payment."

Two rock formations, one natural and one manmade, seldom failed to gain the attention of railroad passengers. Tourists called a hole in a sharp-pointed prominance on the summit of the canyon's rock walls the "@#$%&'s Eye."

About 1.1 miles above the current Timpanogos National Monument, Hanging Rock jutted outward about 20 feet over the railroad track. Blasters and graders created the rock formation when they blew away the lower portions of a cliff face to make space for the track bed. The upper part of the cliff looked solid, and it didn't interfere with the passage of the train. Consequently, workmen left the overhang hovering above the rails, and it became a tourist attraction.

Just before the track reached the junction of the right and left-hand forks of the canyon, the train passed a rustic sawmill nestled among dense trees. Thick bushes flanked the rippling stream near the mill, and a majestic rock stood guard nearby. The whole scene was back dropped with soft shades of distant light.

The view was so charming, the Salt Lake Tribune attested: "The scene is one considered the most lovely and picturesque, not only of the entire canyon, but also of all the Territory. In all that grand reach of country, of 2,000 miles from Omaha to the Sierras, not a single view is the equal of this delightful scene of the Old Mill."

By 1877, sawyers had abandoned the mill, but they had used it earlier to saw timber for the railroad.

Tracks led up the right hand fork, and about eight miles from the mouth of the canyon, the country opened into what G.M. Peirce called "a landscape of beauty in the extreme ... like some monster bird's nest of the mountains." Peirce described Deer Creek, originally called Silver Lake City, which served as the terminus of the railroad. This small settlement once stood where Tibble Fork Reservoir lies today.

Food, fun and religion

In March 1872, the tiny hamlet consisted of a saw mill and a good boardinghouse. That summer, Deer Creek grew rapidly. By November, it contained over 20 small, primitive houses, three stores and a saloon owned by Euster and Stewart.

William Chislett kept a stable at Deer Creek in 1873, and Mr. and Mrs. Clark ran an excellent eating house. Tourist trains arrived at about noon, just in time to lunch with Mrs. Clark. Among other things, she cooked trout and fresh eggs and served real honey. The Tribune asserted a trip to her table would wreath "the 200 pound epicurean's face with smiles of satisfaction."

In 1877, a man named R.N. Baskin, who had leased the Miller Mine and worked it with a small force of men, contemplated building a new boardinghouse at Deer Creek. His plans may never have materialized, but that same year, E. H. Parsons opened a short-lived boardinghouse and fitted up some houses for use by tourists.

He built Mountain Glen House, a 20 by 40 foot structure divided into enough bedrooms to accommodate large numbers of guests. The Tribune offered its approval of the establishment's food when it wrote, "Mrs. Parsons always spreads a nice table." Unfortunately, fire destroyed the new building in September 1877.

G.M. Pierce stated that the abundance of cold, clear, invigorating water in and around Deer Creek almost made soda fountains and bars unnecessary. He believed the exhilarating breezes and cool, frosty nights in the mountains acted as a regular sanitarium for those whose systems had been "undermined by the long, sultry, debilitating breath of summer."

A July trip to Deer Creek in 1875 must have been stimulating to the systems of a party of Salt Lake City girls and boys who camped at Deer Creek. The Tribune reported the group went there "to court and say 'dear' all they wanted to without any allusion to creek."

While Pierce visited Deer Creek in 1873, the community held its first religious service in the dilapidated, unoccupied office of the Silver Lake Mining District's recorder. Sixty of the 100 residents of Deer Creek attended.

Pierce wrote of the congregation: "The most of the audience had been, or are now, in connection with the Mormon Church, and as a body earnestly requested that arrangements be made, if practicable, to give them regular Methodist meetings."

Apparently, providing regular meetings proved impracticable. Two years later in 1875, the Tribune reported that Prof. Coyner held Sunday services in the grove. The newspaper said this was the first religious gathering to take place in American Fork Canyon in over two years. The services were such a treat that miners and railroad company employees attended en masse.

Charcoal kilns

One oddity visited by many of Deer Creek's tourists was the community's 10 charcoal ovens that used 25 cords of wood per day and employed 40 men and 14 teams. Masons built the unique stone or brick, beehive-shaped kilns in 1872 using the newly developed plans of their inventor, T.C. Cameron. Evans and Morris of Salt Lake City owned the right to manufacture the new-styled kilns.

These beehives were 50 to 75 percent cheaper to construct than the old rectangular kilns, and they manufactured charcoal 25 to 50 percent cheaper. They could be fired all year round.

People who came to the canyon for a day trip saw the sights in Deer Creek, ate, boarded the return train to the valley and departed. At Lehi, they re-boarded the Utah Southern, and after completing a full day of sightseeing in Utah's Yosemite, they arrived back in Salt Lake City by 19:00. - D. Robert Carter, The Provo Daily Herald

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THE END