The industry standard is 100 cars per mile per year to maintain the track to Class II standards assuming it was Class II when the shortline took it over. While class I (or excepted if the number of cars per train is 5 or less) is acceptable, no railroad wants to stay in business just to "break even".

Oregon Pacific finds the average cost per crossing is about $315 per year for electric power and another $2,733 per installation (some are island circuits with gates; some are HXP motiion sensors) and some are more susceptible to vandalism than others.

I hyrailed the line into Moscow several weeks ago with the speeder group and found that portion of the line to be in fairly good condition and easily met class I standards.

Dick Samuels
www.oregonpacificrr.com