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Railroad Newsline for Saturday, March 24, 2007

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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RAIL NEWS

RAIL CARS DUMPED INTO RIVER WHEN BRIDGE COLLAPSES

Photo here:

[www.kare11.com]

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL, MN -- A part of the Minnesota River in Scott, County is a little bit sweeter Friday night after train cars carrying sugar dumped into the water.

A Union Pacific locomotive pulling seven cars was crossing a short wooden bridge when the bridge collapsed, dumping five of the cars into the river near Louisville Township, Minnesota, which is just north of the Renaissance Festival.

There were two people onboard the train, the engineer and the conductor, neither was injured. - KARE-TV11, Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN

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UP COMES OUT SMOKIN' ON RAIL FIX

SACRAMENTO, CA -- As a column of black smoke rose like an exclamation point above Union Pacific's burning trestle in Sacramento last week, state officials launched their own firestorm of e-mails and conference calls.

The message from the Governor's Office was simple:

Do whatever possible to help UP rebuild its freight line to ensure the "critical corridor reopens as quickly as possible," said Eric Lamoureux of the state Office of Emergency Services.

Photo here:

[media.sacbee.com]

Caption reads: Work lights create a surreal scene as Union Pacific crews race to repair a vital rail line that was destroyed by fire in the American River Parkway last week. (Sacramento Bee/Carl Costas)

Reacting with equal urgency, and even before the flames died, UP rolled an armada of trucks in four Western states loaded with precast construction materials, all bound for Sacramento.
In a flash, an astonishing construction site has emerged on the north bank of the American River near downtown Sacramento.

The cause of the fire that destroyed 1,400 feet of wooden trestle March 15 during the evening commute has yet to be determined.

Working night and day, seven days a week in 12-hour shifts, a crew of 135 -- headed by a travel-weary UP veteran from Omaha, Nebraska -- is erecting a curving concrete and steel rail bridge from the ground up. The goal is 16 days.

Within 72 hours, the first of 282 iron pilings had been driven 60 feet into the parkway ground. Neighbors knew it because the pounding reverberated a mile away.

A second adjacent track will be built separately at the site, and is expected to be finished May 1.
"Knock on wood, everything is rolling along," said UP construction manager Bart Culbertson this week. Culbertson has dealt with derailments, washouts and bridge fires throughout UP's rail empire. "It's not the worst I've been to, but, it is one of the longest, and it's double track. At least it wasn't a derailment."

For UP, time is of the essence.

"The only way they make money is by moving their customers' stuff," said Chuck Baker of the National Railroad Construction and Maintenance Association. UP, he said, may be losing millions of dollars a day.

The issue is economic as well for the state of California.

The severed line is the main link between the Port of Oakland in the Bay Area and the rest of the nation. Dozens of trains a day pass through carrying essentials like home-building products, automobiles, produce and electronic equipment. Several passenger trains also use the line.

State Public Utilities Commission official George Elsmore said the state's sense of urgency was heightened by news of critical shipments being slowed, such as trains carrying chemicals needed at the Valero gasoline refinery in Benicia.

"If those aren't delivered, they would shut the Valero refinery," Elsmore said.

Regulators quickly concluded no special permits would be required for UP to rebuild its destroyed trestle. The state Transportation Department agreed to allow oversized trucks to haul bridge materials on highways. State Fish and Game officials decided the emergency nature of the project means a streambed alteration permit isn't required.

State and federal environmental protection and water quality officials determined that although soil toxicity issues need to be addressed, most of that work can be done afterward.

The Governor's Office was even ready to declare a state of emergency last week, if need be, Lamoureux of emergency services said.

Officials said they are not shirking their governmental watchdog role in offering the railroad company a quick green light. The rebuilding project, which will cost the rail company up to $30 million, is on UP land and amounts to rebuilding an existing structure, they pointed out.

"The intent was never to circumvent anything," Lamoureux said. State Fish and Game officials have been sent to the site to watch and consult with UP, he said.

But some officials also say they are relying on UP's experience on how to handle the situation.

Federal EPA officials, who deal with soil and water contamination issues, will oversee cleanup work, but otherwise will step out of the way.

"EPA would look at their cleanup and sampling plans and make changes if necessary," spokesman Mark Merchant said. "We would monitor them all along, and in the end make sure the cleanup was done properly."

Antonia Vorster of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board said officials so far have only limited groundwater samples from a single pit dug on site.

"We have no idea, really, what the groundwater situation here is," she said.

To protect the American River during construction, runoff is being pumped into a tank, she said. Her agency may ultimately require soil removal or covering on what she calls a "long-term project."

While the work schedule is a marvel to some, rail experts say it is not unusual.

Photo here:

[media.sacbee.com]

Caption reads: Pile driver Dave Stephens attaches a crane cable to steel pilings Thursday as crews work around the clock to rebuild the burned-out rail line. Within 72 hours of last week's fire, the first of 282 pilings had been driven 60 feet down into the American River Parkway near downtown Sacramento as construction materials were raced to the site from three states. Union Pacific hopes to have the first of two rail lines open by April 1. (Sacramento Bee/Carl Costas)

"I'm impressed with railroads in general when they respond to an emergency," Caltrans' Bill Bronte said.

After Hurricane Katrina hit News Orleans, the Norfolk Southern railroad company pieced together five miles of damaged rail line in 16 days. After fire destroyed 800 feet of rail bridge in Yuma, Arizona, last year, UP crews had a new line open in eight days.

Thanks to prefabricated pieces, construction on-site is like building a Tinkertoy set, engineers said. The bridge under construction at the American River this week is the same design -- the same basic pieces -- as the Yolo Causeway rail line reconstruction in 2002.

The main problem, UP's Culbertson said, is quickly getting materials to the site. By project's end, more than 500 trucks will have made deliveries from Texas, Nebraska and New Mexico. Some materials are being shipped from Roseville, where UP keeps an emergency store for the West Coast.

Workers continue to laboriously pound pilings into the ground, even through the night, when the construction site becomes a surreal scene: heavy equipment and men in orange, lit up by banks of construction lights, surrounded by shadows and riparian foliage.

Earlier this week, under a sliver of a moon, deep-throated frogs in nearby Bushy Lake croaked in counterpoint to the thumping of an 80-foot pile driver. Nearby, sparks flew into the night from welding torches.

Once pilings are driven, Culbertson said, cranes will quickly add concrete caps to the pilings, then girders on top, and finally rails that come in ready-made 80-foot sections with the timber ties already attached.

Graphic here:

[media.sacbee.com]

The whirlwind pace, especially the nighttime pile driving, has kept some people in nearby residential areas awake.

City Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy, who can hear the nighttime pile-driving, has contacted UP and asked for consideration for residents.

A UP spokesman on Thursday, however, said the company will continue to drive pilings during the night as long as officials feel they need to.

"We recognize it is an inconvenience, but our goal is to finish this bridge as quickly as possible," UP spokesman James Barnes said.

At the site, workers have a definite goal in mind, as well, project head Culbertson said -- seeing the tracks back in operation.

"There isn't a railroader out there who doesn't get a little enjoyment seeing that first train run." - Tony Bizjak, The Sacramento Bee

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THE OTHER RAILROAD TRESTLE BLAZE

Photo here:

[www.columbiabasinherald.com]

Caption reads: Tom Johnson/courtesy photo

Grant County Fire District 5 battled to contain a fire on a Columbia Basin Railroad trestle Wednesday.

The fire happened one mile east of road Q N.E., north of I-90 near Moses Lake, Washington. Battalion Chief Rick Wentworth said the irrigation district was burning weeds, when the trestle caught on fire. The track crosses an irrigation district ditch.

"The fire got a hold of this thing and we were probably 20 minutes getting it under control and two hours mopping it up," Wentworth said.

Wentworth said the fire district put the fire out approximately an hour before a train was scheduled to go over the tracks. - The Columbia Basin Herald

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HARRY POTTER TRAIN ATTACKED BY VANDALS

Photo here: [www.wheels.co.uk]

Caption reads: Hogwarts Express on Platform 5, Nuneaton Station in better days.

Vandals have caused an estimated £50,000 of damage to the train made famous by the Harry Potter films.

A gang of six youths are thought to be responsible for smashing about 200 windows on the Hogwarts Express, which is stored in Carnforth, Lancashire.

West Coast Railways (WCR), which operates the train, said hammers were used to smash the toughened glass.

Officers from British Transport Police (BTP) are investigating the incident, which happened on 10 March.

A spokeswoman told BBC News that 200 of the rolling stock's 230 windows were smashed during the wrecking spree.

Tourist attraction

Work on repairs is yet to get under way as officers, including forensic teams, are still examining the damage.

No timetable has yet been put on getting the train back up and running, the spokeswoman added.

The attack was not the first time the iconic train has been hit by vandals.

In September 2003, the company was forced to spend about £3,000 on repainting one carriage after it was daubed with graffiti near Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

The number 5972 - emblazoned on front of the engine - is instantly recognizable with fans of J K Rowling's books.

The train is used during the summer by tourists across the country and it is also hired out to Warner Bros for the Potter films. - BBC News

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LOCOMOTIVE STOPS AT WAYNOKA DEPOT

Photo here: [news.mywebpal.com]

Caption reads: AT TRAIL'S END -- The Waynoka Historical Society's locomotive reaches its destination Tuesday morning as workers from BNSF and Hulcher Services donated their time and equipment to place the engine by the Santa Fe Depot. The ATV trail, completed last year, allows visitors to the Little Sahara State Park to drive from the dunes to the historical site. (Photo by Helen Barrett)

WAYNOKA, OK -- Like eager children waiting for their first train ride, residents of Waynoka and the surrounding area disregarded drizzling rain to watch the final trip of the Hudson Bay Railroad Engine 2511.

For members of the Waynoka Historical Society, the event fulfilled a decade-long dream. As early as 1993 the group began applying for grants from the Oklahoma Department of Transportation.

In 1995 the BNSF Railway Company donated the Waynoka depot and Harvey House to the Historical Society.

A retired alumnus who worked in Wellington, Kansas, for Santa Fe and later for the Southern Kansas Railroads, knew of the engine's existence. He contacted the Historical Society to see if they would be interested in acquiring one for their historical plaza.

President Earl Metcalfe presented the idea to the group who agreed to accept one.

"It's been several years since it was moved to our yard," Sandie Olson said. "We've been waiting on the railroad's window of opportunity to get it moved."

Olson said the locomotive's value is approximately $98,000.

Photo here: [news.mywebpal.com]

Caption reads: PERMANENTLY SECURED -- A BNSF worker welds "skates" to the wheels of the locomotive to keep it from moving from its intended location. (Photo by Helen Barrett)

BNSF and Hulcher Services, headquartered in Denton, Texas, and Tulsa, agreed to donate their time and equipment, valued at between $35 - $38,000, to move the engine to a short track of rail near the depot - at their convenience.

That time arrived Tuesday, March 20, 2007.

Two dozen or so workers from both companies arrived at the railroad yard in Waynoka amid passing thunderstorms which dwindled to a drizzle during the move.

Two giant Caterpillar 13-050s, backs to each other, lined up on either side of the big emerald green and cream engine. With counter weights to balance the load, the four s ide booms winched the locomotive above the tracks.

Photo here: [news.mywebpal.com]

Caption reads: MOVING THE LOCOMOTIVE -- Caterpillars with side booms lift the engine from its tracks. Inch by inch the winches move the engine across the tracks. Once on right-of-way, the moving equipment barely avoids sliding into the ditch. In place at last, workers and residents admire the finished product. (Photos by Helen Barrett)

Inches at a time the CATs moved the locomotive over the rails to the right-of-way, barely avoiding falling over the edge of the ditch at times.

Once on the straight-away, the machines moved in synchronization to the end of the partial track where the locomotive would ultimately rest.

Then by controlled movements, the CATs winched the locomotive a few degrees at a time, turning it until it faced the opposite direction.

"We're going to paint it Santa Fe colors, blue and yellow with the war bonnet paint scheme," Olson said.

Once the engine was in place, BNSF workers welded "skates" to the rails to keep the train from rolling in any direction.

When workers finished securing the locomotive, the Waynoka Historical Society treated them to lunch.

"We think we have a great finished product," Olson said.

After painting is completed, the historical group plans to allow visitors to climb up the steps of the old train, look inside its windows and experience the grandeur of days gone by. - Helen Barrett, The Alva Review-Courier

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BUILDING UP STEAM: PAIR OF TSRR BILLS REFERRED TO COMMITTEE

AUSTIN, TX -- A pair of bills in the Texas Legislature aimed at allowing transfer of control of the Texas State Railroad from the State of Texas to a private company have inched a little closer to passage.

Senate Bill 1659, written by Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, and House Bill 3113, written by Rep. Byron Cook, R-Corsicana, each were referred to committees this week, one of the first steps for a filed bill to take in the legislative process.

The two bills are companion bills, each mirroring the other in its request to transfer control of the TSRR to a Texas State Railroad Authority with the intent of allowing a private company to take over operations of the historic trains.

On Wednesday, SB 1659 was referred to the senate's Natural Resources Committee, while in the House, HB 3113 was transmitted to Gov. Rick Perry's office on Tuesday, after receiving its first reading and being referred to the Culture, Tourism and Recreation Committee on Monday.

Both bills were filed on March 8.

According to Cheryl Lively, Cook's media relations director, HB 3113 was transmitted to Perry's office as a formality because it deals with a railroad authority.

"It's just giving the governor formal notice that it's been filed," Lively said. "It should be set for a hearing in the House."

As of midday Thursday, no hearing date had been set for either bill. The Senate has adjourned until 13:30 Monday. - Beth Foley, The Palestine Herald

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GRAIN RAILCAR SHUTTLE LOADER PLANNED IN MOORE, MONTANA

ConAgra Foods Inc. has announced preliminary plans to expand its 52-car Peavey Co. grain elevator in Moore, Montana to a $6 million, high-speed 110-car shuttle loader.

A ConAgra spokeswoman stressed the company has made no final decision yet but is exploring the option, which includes resolving a road-blockage issue.

Company officials discussed plans at two informational meetings with the Moore City Council in the past two weeks, Mayor Linda Barthol said Thursday. Residents will get their say at a town meeting on April 9. "Nearly everybody is quite delighted with the idea, because any kind of growth in this area is way good," said Barthol.

Area grain farmers believe the bigger, high-speed loader could bring them more competitive rates for crops, she said, while the expanded facility would boost the grain elevator from four to six workers and hike the tax base for Moore, a town of 186 people about 10 miles east of Lewistown.

The biggest concern -- with the details still being ironed out -- involves road access to Moore, Barthol said.

While some shuttle loaders run railroad cars along a large circular track, ConAgra is proposing a straight-line facility where railroad cars would be stretched out nearly 1.3 miles, she said.

Under that plan, the two main roads into Moore, east and west entrances each about a mile off U.S. Highway 87, would be blocked while train cars are loaded.

ConAgra told city officials that it can unload a train in 12 to 15 hours and expects there would be only about one train a week during harvest time and fewer trains at other times of the year, Barthol said.

"Road blockage is a big concern," she said. "It creates quite an inconvenience for residents and a safety threat in health or fire emergencies."

Moore and ConAgra officials negotiated what to do about roads during the two meetings, she said.

One alternative access, or detour, already exists west of town, she said, and ConAgra officials tentatively agreed to build a gravel road to meet up with U.S. Highway 191 east of town. ConAgra would maintain the detour road when the main roads are blocked.

Each detour would be a mile out of the way on gravel roads.

Local officials also are asking the grain company to post flashing signals along U.S. 87 at the two normal access roads to Moore. That way residents can tell when the long grain train is being loaded and they have to detour around it.

"Most everybody is excited about a larger grain facility," Barthol said. "But we need the company to put its assurances on the road issue in writing because local government's top concern has to be public safety."

Melissa Baron, a ConAgra spokeswoman from Omaha, Neb., said she could not discuss the proposal in detail.

"There is no done deal yet," she said. Rather, company officials "are in preliminary stages of reviewing an opportunity to expand our Moore grain facility."

"We were proactive and talked to town officials early, because the shuttle loader could block access roads for a period of time.

"The timing of our moving forward is tentative," Baron said. "This is a fairly expensive project and more analysis is needed."

"A second grain shuttle loader in Central Montana would be a huge benefit to farmers," said Bing Von Bergen, a Moccasin-area farmer and member of the Montana Grain Growers board.

With a ConAgra shuttle loader in Moore competing with United Harvest's Moccasin facility about 20 miles to the northeast, both companies would have to sharpen their pencils to give farmers a better price and work to broaden their markets, he said.

Gus Melonas, a Seattle-based spokesman for BNSF Railway Company, the railroad that would serve the proposed Moore shuttle loader, said that "railroad officials participated in on-site meetings to evaluate the terrain's suitability for shuttle development."

BNSF serves 11 shuttle grain loaders in Montana.

Columbia Grain hopes to complete a 12th shuttle loader near Carter this year.

"We've got a contractor hired, have applied for a building permit and hope to break ground in April," Columbia Vice President Dan Treinin said Thursday. - Peter Johnson, The Great Falls Tribune

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FORMER SUPREME COURT JUSTICE TO PRESIDE OVER DM&E HEARING

PIERRE, SD -- Former South Dakota Supreme Court Justice Robert A. Amundson of Sioux Falls has been appointed to preside over a state hearing on Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad's request to use eminent domain for its proposed $6 billion expansion project.

The hearing has been delayed at least twice because of various motions by the parties and requests that other hearing examiners remove themselves from the case. No new hearing date has been set, Bill Nevin, a lawyer for the state Transportation Department, said Thursday.

Amundson retired from the Supreme Court in 2002 after more than a decade on the state's highest court.

Amundson is now considering various motions in the case, including a request that additional landowners along the line be allowed to take part in the hearing, Nevin said.

Project opponents from the Pierre area planned to meet Thursday evening to discuss the DM&E expansion plan. South Dakota's top elected officials support the project, but opposition has cropped up in Pierre and Brookings, where the increased train traffic would go through the cities.

In Minnesota, the city of Rochester and the Mayo Clinic also have sought to block the project because they argue the additional high-speed trains could threaten the safety of patients at the clinic located a few hundred yards from the track.

The DM&E project would rebuild 600 miles of track across South Dakota and Minnesota and add 260 miles of new track around the southern end of the Black Hills to reach Wyoming's Powder River Basin. It would haul low-sulfur coal eastward to power plants.

DM&E had sought a $2.3 billion federal loan to help finance the project, but the Federal Railroad Administration rejected the application last month. DM&E officials have said they are now seeking private financing.

The South Dakota Transportation Commission originally planned to hold a hearing in late December to determine whether DM&E can use eminent domain to get the right to cross private land in South Dakota for its project.

The hearing was rescheduled to late January and then delayed again.

State law allows railroads to take land from unwilling owners only if a project is for a public use consistent with public necessity. Railroads must have already negotiated in good faith to acquire the property.

State officials earlier had said the Transportation Commission's hearing would deal only with whether DM&E has negotiated in good faith to privately acquire sufficient property for the project. That determination would be made with respect to the project as a whole, not with respect to each individual parcel of land along the route, officials said.

But Nevin said some landowners have indicated they may challenge what issues can be raised in the hearing.

So far, only landowners along the proposed new line that would be built around the southern end of the Black Hills have been allowed to intervene as parties in the case, Nevin said.

But former Gov. Bill Janklow, representing some landowners, has asked that other landowners who live along the existing line be allowed to intervene in the case. Janklow's request was initially denied, but he has asked Amundson to reconsider that issue.

Lawyers in the case also have asked for more time to gather information before the hearing is held, Nevin said. - Chet Brokaw, The Associated Press, The Rapid City Journal

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CN PROFIT A BOON FOR TOP BRASS

Canadian National Railway Co.'s top five executives had multimillion-dollar pay packets last year, when the company posted a record $2.1-billion profit.

Hunter Harrison, CN president and chief executive officer, collected $7.3-million (U.S.) in compensation in 2006, according to the Montreal-based freight carrier's management information circular. His remuneration included a $1.5-million salary and $4.2-million bonus, but he didn't cash in any options. In 2005, Mr. Harrison's pay packet totaled $46.4-million, including $22.5-million in option gains and $17.3-million in long-term incentive plan payouts.

James Foote, Ed Harris, Claude Mongeau and Sean Finn were also part of CN's multimillion-dollar circle in 2006. Mr. Foote, executive vice-president of sales and marketing, had $13.1-million in compensation, including $11.8-million in option gains. Mr. Harris, who retired two months ago as executive vice-president of operations, garnered $9.5-million, including $8.4-million in option gains.

Mr. Mongeau, chief finance officer, had $4-million in option gains to boost his total pay to $5.3-million. Mr. Finn, senior vice-president of public affairs and chief legal officer, collected $2.1-million, including $1.3-million in option gains, CN's circular shows.

The circular was released as CN management continues to clash with the United Transportation Union over productivity measures.

CN sets daily standards, seeking to fill all available slots for train traffic by carefully assigning locomotives, crews and maintenance work to focus on moving shipments on time.

The 2,800-member UTU, which went on strike for 15 days last month, counters that employees are constantly under the gun, facing a stream of deadlines in an effort to meet CN's targets as a "precision railroad."

The results of a union vote on a tentative, one-year contract with CN will be released April 10.
Former UTU chief negotiator Rex Beatty said in an interview yesterday that union members should reject the pact, but UTU Canadian legislative director Tim Secord urged ratification.

Meanwhile, CN and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. are maintaining their profit forecasts for 2007, despite a harsh winter that slowed rail operations in the first quarter.

CN estimates that its growth in diluted share profit for the full year will be in the "10 per cent-plus range, consistent with the company's long-term vision," according to Jean-Jacques Ruest, CN senior vice-president of marketing.

CPR president and CEO Fred Green said severe winter weather meant that trains endured frequent "stop-and-go" disruptions, including last week's five-day shutdown of CPR's main line in British Columbia. The railway rerouted traffic to other lines to keep the freight moving. "We aren't running as efficiently as we did last year," Mr. Green said yesterday at a JPMorgan Chase & Co. transport webcast from New York, where he showed photos of a section of B.C. track that washed out last week after a mudslide.

Still, he reaffirmed Calgary-based CPR's profit guidance of $4.30 (Canadian) to $4.45 a diluted share, despite softening revenue.

David Newman, an analyst with National Bank Financial Inc., said that while CPR is able to direct some trains onto CN tracks, the added cargo on rail lines erodes efficiency. - Brent Jang, The Toronto Globe and Mail

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RAILROADS' ANTI-TRUST EXEMPTION UNDER FIRE

A coalition of more than 250 rail shippers ranging from wood products and agricultural producers to utilities that burn coal is joining a bipartisan group of U.S. senators and representatives in pressing for freight rail reform to fix a national rail system they call "broken."

On March 15, U.S. Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-WV; Larry Craig, R-WY; Byron Dorgan, D-ND; and David Vitter, R-LA, introduced legislation to force the Surface Transportation Board to give equal consideration to both railroads and their freight customers. The legislators and shipper coalition, called Consumers United for Rail Equity (CURE), charge the federal agency, which regulates railroads, has been captured by the industry it was created to oversee.

The Surface Transportation Board approved a wave of rail mergers and acquisitions that has left an industry dominated by just four big railroads: Burlington Northern Santa Fe; Canadian National; CSX; and Union Pacific. Collectively, they eschew competition, provide unreliable service and gouge customers served by just one carrier, according to the critics.

"The lack of competition in the nation's freight rail system is jeopardizing the economic security of the country," said Jack Gerard, chief executive of the American Chemistry Council and a member of the CURE campaign. "A reliable, efficient freight rail system is critical for a strong, competitive American economy."

Tom White, a spokesman for the Association of American Railroads, said the industry opposes any federal attempt to expand government control. He said the rail industry wants the government's help to expand future rail capacity, noting major railroads already have asked Congress to provide tax credits for capacity expansions.

Joining Gerard and the four U.S. senators on March 15 were U.S. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-MN; Jon Tester, D-MT; Rep. Richard Baker, R-LA, and other CURE members.

"Unreliable coal deliveries are forcing utilities to use higher-cost energy sources," said James Kerr, president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. "These higher costs are passed on to consumers - industrial, residential and small businesses - all are feeling the pinch," he said. "It is time for Congress to step in and ensure the Surface Transportation Board works not only for railroads but also the customer at the end of the track."

"The rail system is so unreliable that some utilities actually are importing coal for power generation from Indonesia," said Scott Parsley, board member of the American Coalition for Ethanol. "If that is the case for coal, how can we possibly rely on the railroads to deliver the ethanol America needs to help ensure our energy security?"

Parsley and Kerr said Baker and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman James Oberstar, D-MN, soon will introduce similar legislation in the U.S. House.

Current antitrust law protects a wide range of railroad industry conduct from scrutiny by antitrust enforcers. Railroad mergers and acquisitions are exempt from antitrust law and are reviewed solely by the Surface Transportation Board. Railroads that engage in collective ratemaking are also exempt from antitrust law.

CURE also supports legislation already introduced in the House and Senate to repeal the antitrust exemption for railroads.

On March 6, U.S. Sens. Herb Kohl, D-WI; Norm Coleman, R-MN; Russ Feingold, D-WI; Vitter and Rockefeller introduced Senate Bill 772, the Railroad Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2007.
Kohl chairs the Senate's anti-trust subcommittee.

The legislation would eliminate the rail industry's antitrust exemptions, allowing the federal government, state attorneys general and private parties to challenge anti-competitive mergers and acquisitions. It also would eliminate the antitrust exemption for railroad collective ratemaking and restore review of rail mergers to the Justice Department's Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission.

In the House, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-WI, is expected to introduce identical legislation. - Wayne Nelson, BusinessNorth

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TRANSIT NEWS

BART CONSIDERS INSTALLING VIDEO SCREENS FOR AD REVENUE

OAKLAND, CA -- BART hopes to generate up to $7 million a year in new revenue by charging advertising fees for video screens on station platforms and in all train cars, transit agency spokesman Linton Johnson said Thursday.

Video screens with BART news and ads could be place in BART stations in about two years, as the agency will be putting out a request for proposals for potential vendors for that idea in the near future, Johnson said.

A request for proposals for video screens for all BART cars will be put out at a later date, he said.

BART first discussed the idea of installing video screens in stations and on cars two years ago when it looked at new ways of generating revenue in the wake of the agency's budget shortfall, Johnson said.

Johnson said BART is thinking about providing its own local programming with news on the transit system, which he called "BART TV." The video screens also would be able to provide updates on BART service, such as delays and emergencies, he said.

Johnson talked about the video screen proposal in the wake of a presentation at today's BART Board of Directors meeting about how the agency can do a better job of making announcements to its riders in a timely fashion.

Tamar Allen, BART's chief mechanical officer, said it will be very expensive to upgrade its public address system because the Americans With Disabilities Act mandates that if BART upgrade its verbal system it must also upgrade visual information for hearing-impaired passengers.

Allen it's estimated that it would cost BART $2.2 million to upgrade its public address system with new equipment that wouldn't be knocked out of service from time to time due to vibrations on BART trains.

But it would cost an even larger amount of money to install video screens in all BART cars so that hearing-impaired passengers could get updates on BART service and delays, she said.

Johnson said a possible solution to finding the money for upgraded audio and visual information systems would be to contract with a vendor or vendors to install video screens in stations and in cars. There wouldn't be any cost to BART under such a system, he said.

Johnson said BART hopes to choose a vendor for video screens in stations within six to eight months.

The vendor would then need to install and test the system, so it could be about two years before the screens were in use in stations, he said. - KTVU-TV2, San Francisco/Oakland, CA, courtesy Coleman Randall, Jr

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PUEBLO OFFICIALS LIKE PROPOSED PASSENGER RAIL

PUEBLO, CO -- The Pueblo Area Council of Governments voted Thursday to support a proposed commuter railway along Colorado's Front Range - in hopes of buying a local stop on the railroad one day, as City Councilwoman Barbara Vidmar put it.

Bob Briggs, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Rail Authority, told PACOG members that the Colorado Department of Transportation has granted $1.2 million for a feasibility study, but a 20 percent match or $311,000 is required from local governments. Counting $25,000 from Pueblo's city and county governments, Briggs said he has $307,000 lined up now.

The plan is to move coal and freight trains off of existing tracks along Interstate 25 onto new tracks on the Eastern Plains, and put new passenger lines on the existing tracks. Obviously, that's a long-term project and a costly one; supporters hope a sales tax could pay the costs.
Briggs said the Colorado Rail Association will be raising money and conducting a petition campaign for a November 2008 ballot question to establish a statewide rail district; approve the sales tax; authorize a bond issue; and permit an interstate contract with New Mexico and Wyoming.

Planners hope to have the north-south route operating at the same time the Regional Transportation District's FasTracks begins operating in the Denver metro area in 2014 or 2015, Briggs said.

"The theory is that you could start building the bypass track and at the same time order your equipment (for the passenger line), because it takes at least a year to get the equipment," he said.

"Two years ago when we started this, people said it wouldn't work. But it's working so far," he said.

Early studies indicate the commuter train could attract 26 million riders a year.

Neither City Council nor the Pueblo County Board of Commissioners have appropriated its contribution to the rail study yet, but both boards said they can act quickly on the matter.

Vidmar said, "Obviously, this railroad is going to go through Pueblo. But we need to buy a seat at the table if we want it to stop here."

Commissioner Jeff Chostner added, "And we need to make sure that the southern terminus of the first phase is here, not in Security or Widefield."

Nick Gradisar of the Board of Water Works said the railroad could be a key to future economic development in Pueblo, and he made the motion to support the plan, which the other members approved unanimously. - Margie Wood, The Pueblo Chieftain

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RAIL AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE

God just gave Los Angeles $100 billion to fix traffic. What would you do?

Given the generous contribution, the most ambitious item on the list is indeed the most obvious one: $10 billion to extend the Wilshire Boulevard subway to Santa Monica, with stops at Century City and UCLA. Another $7 billion would be used to create either a subway spur or a separate light rail line to connect the San Fernando Valley with LAX and Westwood. This line would tunnel between UCLA and Sherman Oaks and continue north on Van Nuys Boulevard above ground.

Another $3 billion would be spent on establishing a light rail network that involved a completed Expo Line to the beach, a Gold Line to Montclair and a downtown light rail subway to connect them, establishing a continuous inland-to-ocean light rail network. Another $3 to $5 billion would establish Metrolink regional rail on the Harbor Subdivision right-of-way that links LAX and the South Bay to Union Station, and a Green Line that goes to LAX and the Westside to Santa Monica

Light rail should replace the Orange Line Busway and extend through Burbank and Glendale to the Gold Line in Pasadena. Perhaps $1 billion could be used to extend the Green Line via a tunnel to the Norwalk/Santa Fe Springs Metrolink station.

Another $10 billion would expand the Metrolink commuter rail system to other areas of Southern California, convert it from diesel to electrical power, and establish 30-minute service along most lines, including the Chatsworth-Laguna Niguel rail corridor. This system would feed into a $20 billion high-speed rail network that links to the rest of the state. With that kind of money, you could also bring weekend, reverse commute and late-night service to several lines, in particular the Antelope Valley line.

The funds would also pay for grade separations for commuter and freight trains where they intersect with roadways. Cars would then not have to wait at railroad crossings, nor would railroads need to worry about collisions, which would reduce delays for both cars and trains.

You could also spend billions to purchase additional buses to run more frequent service in areas that are not suited for rail. Express buses could serve particular niches using our growing carpool lane network. The problem with this is that the cost of operating said services would be quite high and would require increased fares, quite unlike current practice at L.A. Metro, where fares are preserved at the expense of even basic service. Also, you must continue replacing buses because of their shorter life cycles, so billions more would have to be spent over time.

The rest could be spent on freeway upgrades and bicycle and pedestrian corridors. For example, extending the Harbor Transitway into downtown L.A. could make the facility far more useful for buses and carpools than it is now. Funds would also be allotted for a region-wide signal synchronization program that would aid both cars and buses where Rapid Bus service (which instead employs signal preemption) may not be practical.

So long as the spending for automobile-based transportation remains lopsidedly greater than rail spending, we'll continue to promote the idea that California is one big suburb when, in fact, much of our state is urban. We cannot continue to pretend it is 1950, so we must explore a balanced and aggressive approach to ending this gridlock that has become the hallmark of modern-day Los Angeles. - Commentary, Bart Reed, The Los Angeles Times (Bart Reed is the Executive Director of The Transit Coalition, a Sylmar based non-profit dealing with issues of transportation, mobility and land use planning.)

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

ALTOONA AWAITS REFURBISHED STEAM LOCOMOTIVE

ALTOONA, PA -- Scott Cessna leans over, his fingers dancing around a coal-black model of a locomotive and its tender, as he explains just what has happened to No. 1361.

Photo here: [www.pittsburghlive.com]

The Pennsylvania Railroad Pacific Class K4 steam locomotive is scheduled to come home to Altoona in the summer, 11 years and $1.8 million after the workhorse symbol of the PRR passenger service was transported to Steamtown, in Scranton, for repair.

"The whole front end, the smoke box, is gone," Cessna says. "The smokestack is brand new. The front wheels, the lead truck wheels, are brand new; the axles are brand new. The entire firebox and wrapper sheet four feet up both sides of the boiler are brand new.

"The whole back end, both the inside sheet and the outside sheet, where the butterfly doors are that you shovel the coal .. that whole back end is brand new.

Photo here: [www.pittsburghlive.com]

"This locomotive was a basket case. A basket case."

Five years ago, so was its owner, the Railroaders Memorial Museum in Altoona. Both, apparently, are poised for a remarkable return.

Dean McKnight, a retired banker and Altoona native, joined the museum's board of directors in 2002 and quickly discovered that the paean to rail workers on the grounds of the once-mighty PRR was in financial crisis.

"They had a terrific burden," McKnight says. "They had almost half a million dollars in debt.
The board didn't want to admit there was a problem. I said, 'People will help if you if they know you need help.' Some wonderful relationships developed because the need was recognized."

McKnight, 67, who no longer serves on the board, tapped a friendship with Ed Cessna, a fellow banker and father of Scott Cessna. The younger Cessna was working as chief financial officer of the Hite Co., an Altoona electrical-supply company, when McKnight called. McKnight asked Scott Cessna to take on the task of rebuilding the museum's financial infrastructure.

"There was massive reorganization here when I got here," says Cessna, executive director of the museum. "They went looking for someone like me because of the situation the museum was in. I didn't graduate from college with a museum-studies degree, and I'm not a curator or exhibit designer. I don't come from the museum world. I spent my entire working life as a controller or CFO kind of guy."

It was Cessna's task to terminate employment for most of almost three dozen museum employees and to reduce the number of days the museum was open. The museum carried a half-million dollars in debt and hadn't built significant fundraising relationships with the corporate and residential communities. Four years later, the staff has been streamlined, a new turntable and quarter roundhouse are under construction, and programs designed to allow interaction with the community have rejuvenated the museum, which is open from March 31 until the week before Christmas.

And, just maybe, the steam whistle atop the museum's prodigal son -- the K4 -- will blow once again.

The Altoona Railroaders Memorial Museum rose out of the desire of local rail enthusiasts and veterans of the Pennsylvania Railroad to see a presence sustained in the city. At the height of operations in the 1920s, the PRR employed 18,000 people in a city of 80,000.

The state designated Strasburg, Lancaster County, as home of the state railroad museum in 1965, and stunned residents of Altoona began work on a private museum for their city soon thereafter.
The Altoona museum was developed and located in a low-slung building on the PRR grounds for almost two decades. An influx of $16 million in state and federal grant money in the mid-1990s funded the renovation of the four-story PRR master-mechanics building, a stone's throw from the original site.

The board of directors touted the museum as focusing on the stories of railroad heritage and the people who built the railroads. The installation of the museum facilities was paralleled by the growth of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Heritage Preservation Commission, an independent organization that also was funded primarily with state and federal grant money. The commission heavily promoted what it called heritage tourism, focusing on the stories behind the Johnstown Flood, Altoona and the railroad, and the Pittsburgh region and its steel and coal heritage.

Soon after Cessna took over the Railroaders Museum in 2002, he was designated an employee of Westsylvania Heritage, an offshoot of the Heritage Preservation Commission. After a year, when Cessna's salary again could be sustained by the streamlined museum, he left the employ of Westsylvania. Westsylvania Heritage, based in Hollidaysburg, was shuttered earlier this year when federal funding ran dry.

Cessna says the railroad museum was criticized when he was hired. It was suggested, he says, that an education mission would suffer without leadership from someone steeped in the museum business.

"I mean, honestly, to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and those kind of folks that made those comments, (I thought), 'If somebody doesn't start paying attention to the financial ramifications around here, there won't be an educational mission, period.' "

Jane Crawford, the state Museum Commission press secretary, recently said the commission was "not in a position to comment" on the question of leadership at the Railroaders Museum.
After turning its focus to seeking private donations and sponsorships, relying more on volunteer support and severely cutting its payroll, the museum has shown profits three of the past four years, Cessna says. There are four full-time employees during the off-season, when they play host to occasional events, with that number boosted by 10 during the peak season in July. The operating budget for this year is $560,000, and the museum continues to make payments on its debt.

If the scale model that Cessna used to describe the work on the K4 were to drop to the floor and break into hundreds of pieces, it would create a picture of the fate to befall the prized locomotive and tender when it arrived at Steamtown, a National Historic Site operated by the National Park Service.

Late last year, Mike Tillger was the most recent person tapped to lead refurbishment of the 15-feet-tall, 84-feet-long locomotive and tender. Four people, along with two subcontracted companies and dozens of volunteers, are working on the engine. Tillger was a volunteer before becoming a full-time employee of the railroader's museum 3-1/2 years ago.

"When the railroads were maintaining these, people specialized," Tillger says. "Here we have to be multipurpose-type people. Some of the stuff is a lost art . We have to relearn the trade to replace that specific part."

The Pennsylvania Railroad built more than 400 K4 locomotives in its Altoona shops beginning in 1912. There are two left. One, No. 3750, sits on display at the state railroad museum in Strasburg. The other is No. 1361, retired by the railroad in 1956 after 38 years and more than a million miles of service. Destined for the PRR scrap heap, it was obtained by the city of Altoona and placed at the Horseshoe Curve, an iconic rail transit through the Allegheny Mountains, west of Altoona.

It was placed in the arc of the Horseshoe Curve and sat there for 30 years, when it was brought back into the city and restored so that it could pull excursion trains beginning in 1987. The power train of the engine was worn out, and, as a succession of team leaders and volunteers learned during the years, the rest of the locomotive wasn't in good shape, either.

"We've had some turmoil," Cessna says. "The project's gone on much longer than anybody anticipated it would. ... I was relying on an individual to tell me it's going to take another eight months and another $500,000 to get it done, and eight months and $500,000 later, we were still eight months and $500,000 away from getting it finished.

"It wasn't mismanagement, and he wasn't lying to me. It was every Friday afternoon they found something else wrong with this locomotive."

Photo here: [www.pittsburghlive.com]

The restoration team has relied on veteran machinist Joe Kadelak.

"He spends his entire day standing at a lathe and a milling machine up there, making these parts that have never been commercially available and have not been made by anybody since before World War II," Cessna says. "He's a magician, an absolute magician. He's not one of these guys that the Career and Technology Centers are putting out now, where they program the computer screen and hit go. He's there with a micrometer and one hand going at this speed and one hand going at this speed, turning a lathe and making this stuff."

Tillger explains that many of the dozens of worn-out parts replaced on the locomotive and tender weren't original. He says No. 1361 was scheduled to be retired in 1952, but stayed on the rails until 1956, when diesel fuel-powered engines took over the industry.

"You're not going to spend a lot of money on something you know is going to go to the scrap pile," Tillger says, adding that the railroad industry was notorious for cannibalizing its equipment, sometimes retrofitting parts from different models. As a result, many of the parts that should be stamped "1361" to identify them as part of the original locomotive instead reveal just how many hands touched and rebuilt the locomotive.

"We have people come in and say, 'How much of it is original fabric?' My answer to them is: 'None of it,' " Tillger says.

Cessna says he inherited the project and has put in volunteer hours riveting and grinding steel, in part so he could better understand how the work was progressing and what it would take to complete it.

"No sane person would undertake that (project)," he says of the decision to refurbish the locomotive. "But it's bigger than the K. Especially as the state steam locomotive, it sounds corny or cliche or whatever, but it's dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of people that did this for a living in this state. And not just this state but all over."

The restoration team has begun putting the locomotive back together. Cessna planned to take a contingent of media and project supporters to Scranton this month to see the wheels placed back on the engine. It is expected the locomotive will return for the museum's Railfest, July 7-9, or a week or two after the popular event.

When it does return, Cessna says No. 1361 will roll into Altoona under its own power.

Maintenance will be done at the museum site, utilizing the new turntable and quarter roundhouse that are expected to be completed by fall. "We're looking at $7.5 million by the time the locomotive, the turntable and the roundhouse project are all completed," Cessna says. The museum board hasn't settled on how much the K4 will be fired and run across the rails during the year.

"There are those who want to see that engine steaming down the mainline pulling those excursion cars," McKnight says. "If you had a Model A Ford, would you take it out every Saturday and run it in a parade? There are some real challenges ahead from the standpoint of how much it should be used. Just maintaining a steam engine is a tremendous amount of work."

McKnight had stepped away from keeping close watch on the museum after Cessna settled in. Now, McKnight says, he's ready to get back into the mix. It would be another opportunity to return to his heritage.

"On my dad's day off, he would take us down to watch the trains," McKnight says. "We never had to cut the grass, because there was nothing but cinders. When you played and slid, you got cinders under your skin ..."

The Railroaders Memorial Museum will open for the season on March 31. For more information about activities planned for the year, visit [www.railroadcity.com], or call 814-946-0834.
The K4

Specifications:

* Total length: 84 feet, with tender

* Maximum boiler diameter: 89 inches (minimum 78.5 inches)

* Cylinder diameter: 27 by 28 inches

* Driver wheel diameter: 80 inches

* Boiler pressure: 205 pounds

* Grate area: 69.89 square feet

* Total heating surface: 4,041 square feet

* Total engine weight: 320,000 pounds

* Tractive force: 44,460 pounds

* Water capacity: 11,300 gallons Coal capacity 22 tons

Other facts

* 425 K4 locomotives were built between 1914-28; two remain.

* K4 locomotives are of the Pacific class, with a wheel arrangement of 4-6-2, meaning that their lead truck has four wheels, with six driving wheels, and two wheels on the trailing truck.

* K4s pulled the fastest and most prestigious trains of the Pennsylvania Railroad for many decades.

* When pulling long or heavy trains, it was common for two K4s to be paired to provide sufficient power. Because each engine had a separate crew of engineer and firemen, detailed operating rules were in place to ensure that the engines worked in harmony.

* K4 locomotives 3750 and 1361 were designated the official state steam locomotives in 1987.

* The 3750 is on display at the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania in Strasburg, Lancaster County.

- Dirk W. Kaufman, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

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INDUSTRY'S BAKERY

Photo here: [www.chieftain.com]

Caption reads: The Segundo coke ovens are shown in this 1925 photo after a summer cloudburst caused the Purgatoire River to overflow its banks. Flood debris can be seen along the tracks. (Courtesy Photo/Bessemer Historical Society)

SEGUNDO, CO -- Segundo was first, not second, in the production of high-grade coke for Colorado Fuel & Iron.

Built in 1901-1902 along the Purgatoire River 14 miles west of Trinidad, Segundo - its name means "second" in Spanish - boasted 800 beehive ovens that turned out about 5.8 million tons of coke during their 28 years of operation. It was fine coke that had "a decided ring when one piece is struck against another." It was low in sulfur and well-suited for use in the Minnequa Works' blast furnaces, at copper smelters and at foundries.

Segundo exemplified how the CF&I could "carry out untrammeled" its ideas for building a camp. It had company housing, a company store, a boardinghouse, a YMCA, and the Colorado and Wyoming Railroad round house and shops. The company town was built across the river from old Segundo or Varros, a collection of adobe houses, unpainted buildings and an unfinished church. Primero, where most of the coal for the Segundo ovens was mined, and Tercio, another coal mine/coke plant/camp, were built in the area at the same time as Segundo; in Spanish, their names mean "first" and "third."

In 1903, about 400 men were employed at Segundo. In 1915, when the YMCA conducted a post-Ludlow Massacre survey of conditions at the CF&I camps, only half of the 800 coke ovens were operating.
Company records showed that about 400 people lived in Segundo at the time and 201 of them were employed in the coke ovens; about 20 were employed in the C&W shops and on the railroad. Among the workers were 122 Italians, 30 Americans, 42 Mexicans and a smattering of other nationalities. Ten black families lived in the camp, but the men worked at the Frederick mine at Valdez.

The report states that Segundo had 126 houses (one of them a boardinghouse with 15 rooms), all of them occupied. There also were 22 shacks near one of the washeries and two other rows of shacks along the ravine dividing the camp. The houses were located on a hillside so all of the refuse washed down to the Purgatoire; there were no sewers in the camp, but garbage receptacles were provided to residents and the garbage was collected twice a week.

The residents' health was good despite the lack of sanitation facilities. Workmen returned to their homes "as dirty as mine workers and need bathing facilities equally as much," according to the report's author. The town had no bath house, and the only bathtub was attached to the barbershop; a bath cost 25 cents.

Photo here: [www.chieftain.com]

Caption reads: Rufe Tafoya began work at Segundo in 1889. This photo was taken when he retired in 1919. (Courtesy Photo/Bessemer Historical Society)

Water, however, was good and plentiful and came from the Trinidad main and was supplied through hydrants. Some of the houses had electric lights and some had porch lights that shone into the streets; there were no street lights. The company was fencing the houses at the time of the YMCA survey, and some residents had put in lawns or gardens.

Coke oven employees worked 10 hours a day, depending upon when the coke was burned. They were paid by the ton and their wages ranged between $2.50 and $3.10 a day -- their average was about 50 cents less a day than miners.

The report says there was no poverty at Segundo, and there were very few calls for charity.

The "Coke Number," an article in the company's Camp and Plant magazine (Jan. 23, 1904), was devoted to the production of coke. It explains that coke manufacture began in about 1817 as a substitute for anthracite coal and charcoal in metallurgical operations. By 1904, it was used almost exclusively in iron and steel operations and other smelting.

A little less than half of the coke produced at Segundo was shipped to Minnequa Works in Pueblo, the region's largest consumer of coke. The remainder was sold to smelters.

The object of making coke from coal is to remove all of the moisture, volatile material and as much sulfur and phosphorus as possible, leaving only fixed carbon and ash. To do this, coal first was pulverized and separated from slate and rock at the washery. It was carried from the washery to the ovens in large cars running along an elevated track. The pulverized coal ran into the ovens through an opening in the top. It was burned for about 48 hours, then the ovens were unsealed and the coke was pulled out. It then was forked into rail cars and hauled away.

Photo here: [www.chieftain.com]

Caption reads: This photo, published in 1904 in the CF&I's Camp and Plant magazine, shows children at Segundo. The caption appearing with the photo notes the company couldn't prevent ‘the construction of such unsanitary dwellings’ because some land was privately owned. (Courtesy Photo/Bessemer Historical Society)

The highest-paid workers at the Segundo coke plant were the pullers, who drew the finished coke from the ovens by hand at $1 an oven. A good puller could draw three ovens a day. The work must have been extremely hot, dirty and dangerous. The ovens were "red-hot" during the burning process and the fire was extinguished with 450 gallons of water per oven before the coke could be drawn.

A beehive oven could yield about 3 tons of coke every 48 hours.

The camp was regularly harassed by flooding on the Purgatoire River, and fire closed down the coke plant in 1929. It was not rebuilt. - Mary Jean Porter, The Pueblo Chieftain

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THE END