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Railroad Newsline for Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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RAIL NEWS

FRENCH TRAIN SETS RAIL RECORD OF 357.2 MPH

Photo here:

[hosted.ap.org]

ABOARD TRAIN V150, FRANCE -- A French train with a 25,000-horsepower engine and special wheels broke the world speed record Tuesday for conventional rail trains, reaching 357.2 mph as it zipped through the countryside to the applause of spectators.

Roaring like a jet plane, with sparks flying overhead and kicking up a long trail of dust, the black-and-chrome V150 with three double-decker cars surpassed the record of 320.2 mph set in 1990 by another French train.

It fell short, however, of beating the ultimate record set by Japan's magnetically levitated train, which hit 361 mph in 2003.

The French TGV, or "train a grande vitesse," as the country's bullet train is called, had two engines on either side of the three double-decker cars for the record run, some 125 miles east of the capital on a new track linking Paris with Strasbourg.

Aboard the V150, the sensation was comparable to that of an airplane at takeoff.

The demonstration was meant to showcase technology that France is trying to sell to the multibillion-dollar overseas markets such as China. Hours before the run, Transport Minister Dominique Perben received a delegation from California, which is studying prospects for a high-speed line from Sacramento to San Diego, via San Francisco and Los Angeles.

People lined bridges and clapped and cheered when as the V150 roared by.

"We saw the countryside go by a little faster than we did during the tests," said engineer Eric Pieczac.

"Everything went very well," he added.

"There are about 10,000 engineers who would want to be in my place," Pieczac said. "It makes me very happy, a mixed feeling of pride and honor to be able to reach this speed."

Technicians on the train had "French excellence" emblazoned on the backs of their T-shirts.

Philippe Mellier, president of Alstom Transports, the builder, had said before the test that the train would try to break the record held by the Japanese maglev train.

Normally, French TGVs travel at a cruising speed of about 186.4 mph.

The V150 was equipped with larger wheels than the usual TGV to cover more ground with each rotation and a stronger, 25,000-horsepower engine, said Alain Cuccaroni, in charge of the technical aspects of testing.

Adjustments also were made to the new track, which opens June 10, notably the banking on turns.

Rails were also treated to the wheels could would perfect contact, Cuccaroni said. The electrical tension in the overhead cable was increased from 25,000 volts to 31,000.

It was the first time that double-decker cars were used at such a high speed, according to officials of Alstom, which makes TGVs and crawled back a year ago from the edge of bankruptcy.

The double-decker cars were transformed into a laboratory for the event so that technicians from the state-run rail company SNCF and Alstom could gather data during the run.

The goal was more than "simply breaking a record," Cuccaroni said, adding that data from the test should help improve the security and comfort of passengers.

The record gilds France's image in the expanding market for high-speed technology as countries turn to bullet trains. France competes with neighboring Germany and with Japan for contracts.

China, the biggest potential market, was to start building a high-speed line this year between Beijing and Shanghai to cut travel time from nine hours to five.

China's state media reported last year that the government plans to build more than 7,500 miles of high-speed railways in coming years at a cost of $250 billion to $310 billion. - Ingrid Rousseau, The Associated Press, The Billings Gazette, courtesy Marc Pearsall

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A TIMELINE OF TRAIN SPEED RECORDS

Some key milestones in the race to Tuesday's fast train record by a French TGV:

* Oct. 14, 1829: A English Rocket steam engine earns the first world train record, running between Liverpool and Manchester at 56 kilometers per hour (34 mph).

* June 20, 1890: Across the Channel, a French Crampton steam engine reaches 144 kph (89.4 mph) between Laroche and Montereau.

* December, 1891: The United States joins the race, as a steam engine operated by the Central Railroad of New Jersey reaches 156 kph (96 mph).

* Oct. 23, 1903: The race goes electric, as an electricity-run train speeds at 209.3 kph (130 mph) on a military track in Marienfeld, Germany.

* March 28-29, 1955: Two electric engines reach 331 kph (205 mph) in the Landes region of southwest France.

* Feb. 26, 1981: A French TGV -- French for "train a grande vitesse," or "very fast train" -- reaches 380 kilometers per hour (236 mph) in southeast France.

* May 18, 1990: Another TGV improves on the last record by 35 percent, hitting 515.3 kilometers (320.2 mph) in Vendome.

* April 3, 2007: A TGV with a 25,000-horsepower engine and three double-decker cars cuts through eastern France at 574.8 kilometers per hour (357.2 mph), the new record.

Note: The absolute record for train speed, 581 kilometers per hour (361 mph) was reached in 2003 by a magnetically levitated train that hovers above the rails called a Maglev, in Japan. Tuesday's record was for the fastest train on conventional rails. - The Associated Press, The International Herald Tribune

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UNION PACIFIC THANKS EMPLOYEES, SACRAMENTO FIRST RESPONDERS AND RESIDENTS FOR RECOVERY EFFORTS AT CEREMONY

OMAHA, NE -- Union Pacific Tuesday thanked dozens of local, State and Federal agencies and private contractors who enabled the company's employees to rebuild a 1,400-ft. bridge approach destroyed by fire on March 15. The bridge reopened to freight and passenger train traffic over the weekend.

In a ceremony beside the new concrete and steel trestle, Dennis J. Duffy the company's executive vice president-operations said that the results clearly show what can happen when a community focuses its efforts on a critical need. "I want to thank Union Pacific's employees, our contractors and the hundreds of professionals at the many agencies who worked together - many of them around the clock - to restore this vital transportation link. It has been an impressive effort." He especially recognized the two Sacramento fire departments, as well as residents in the area near the bridge, for their patience during rebuilding.

In recognition of firefighters' efforts, Duffy presented the Sacramento Fire Department and Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District with equipment certificates. Union Pacific is ordering equipment that both departments felt would assist them with their operations. Equipment being ordered includes:

· Sacramento Fire Department - ten dry suits for the fire/rescue boat crew members and two marine search lights to assist with night operations.

· Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District - six safety packs, each of which includes: a 2007-compliant air pack, a 60-minute air bottle with regulator, a rescue sled, a search and rescue bag that contains 225 feet of rope and necessary hardware and a flat-head axe.

Duffy also presented $4,000 grants to each of the River Park, East Sacramento, McKinley and Woodlake Homeowner Associations. The neighborhoods are located near the bridge and the residents showed great patience and understanding during the round-the-clock rebuilding of the trestle.

The nearly 50 trains a day that operate on this line were detoured over other Union Pacific routes. The main detour was more than 90-miles that took trains from downtown Sacramento, north to Marysville, then south to reconnect with the main east/west line just east of Roseville, Calif. Since the reopening of the bridge, trains are now operating back on their normal routes.

Union Pacific once again expresses its appreciation to:

· First Responders

o Sacramento Fire Department

o Sacramento Police Department

o Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District

o West Sacramento Fire Department

o Sacramento Regional Fire/EMS Communications Center

o California Highway Patrol

o California Governor's Office of Emergency Services

o The Cosumnes River Community Services District

· Other State, County and City Agencies

o Office of California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

o California State Fish and Game Department

o California EPA

o California Department of Water Resources

o California Department of Transportation

o California Public Utilities Commission

o Sacramento County Public Health Department

o Sacramento Air Quality Management District

o City of Sacramento

o Sacramento County Parks

· Residents and businesses close to the site who may have been inconvenienced by construction of the new trestle

· U. S. Army Corps of Engineers

· Amtrak and Capitol Corridor and their passengers

· Utilities - Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Western Area Power Administration and Sacramento Municipal Utility District

· Cal Expo

· Union Pacific Employees. Special thanks to operating, engineering and Maintenance of Way employees for their dedication and hard work.

- Mark Davis, UP News Release

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BNSF EMPLOYEES REMAIN ON GUARD IN MARCH

It's springtime and many people are moving around. Unfortunately, some are on or near BNSF Railway Company property or right-of-way and in many cases, unknowingly putting themselves or others in danger.

But our employees are helping keep BNSF safe and secure. Several employees have reported children around tracks, thieves stealing BNSF property or trespassers crossing tracks.

Richie Young, signal maintainer, and Adam Zieger, foreman, Maintenance of Way, Jonesboro, Arkansas, caught a man coming out of a BNSF storage shed with wire and electronics. The two followed the man and called police, leading the police to a small house where the man was arrested with $700 worth of BNSF property confiscated.

Also reporting wire theft was E.A. Petrow Jr. and M.A. Martinez, both in train service in Temple, Texas. The two reported a man stealing copper wiring from BNSF's right-of-way. The man was arrested for theft and criminal trespassing.

A disturbing report came from a train crew in Spring, Texas, who reported kids playing around railcars in a storage track next to the mainline on the Mykawa Subdivision. Crew members Michael Allerd, engineer; Matthew Rosenbrock, conductor, and John Autrey, reported the kids to a BNSF special agent. However, upon going to the scene, the special agent arrested a 26-year-old male who was spray painting a BNSF railcar. The man was also in possession of a handgun. Without the keen eyes of the train crew, these trespassers could have harmed a BNSF employee or themselves.

"This arrest would not have been possible had it not been for the alert train crew watching out for trespassers and unauthorized people on BNSF property," says Robert Boemio, superintendent, Operations, Spring, Texas.

Another train crew reported kids starting a fire under a bridge near the Alliance Yard in north Fort Worth. B.W. Jones, G.F. Fuller and J.P. Hamilton stopped their train, extinguished the fire and reported the kids to the local special agents. Their description of the kids enabled BNSF to continue an investigation.

All of these employees are examples of being On Guard for security violations and risks. Anyone who notices anything suspicious should call 1-800-832-5452. However, employees should never take action on their own if they spot a possible problem - they should always call their local Resource Protection agents. - BNSF Today

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CHEYENNE CITY COUNCIL CHIPS IN FOR HIGH-SPEED RAIL STUDY

CHEYENNE, WY -- The city that was built by the railroad is being asked to climb aboard the future of passenger service.

The Cheyenne City Council's Finance Committee unanimously agreed to recommend kicking in $50,000 for Cheyenne's share of a feasibility study for the Rocky Mountain High Speed Rail Corridor. The full council will have the final say on the resolution.

Already, the Wyoming Legislature has agreed to contribute $300,000 to the $5 million study; the city of Casper has pledged $50,000, according to the document.

Cheyenne's portion of the money would come from fifth-penny sales tax, said Tom Mason, director of the Metropolitan Planning Organization. It could either come from overages or the economic development portion of the tax.

The high-speed rail would stretch from Casper, Wyoming to Belen, New Mexico. The train is light years away from becoming a reality, but the feasibility study is essential to the West's winning the nation's 11th high-speed rail corridor. Congress will look at that once the study is complete, which could happen this summer.

Councilwoman Judy Case asked Mason how the Union Pacific and coal trains are going to fit in with this plan.

In Colorado, Mason said, there has been discussion that all freight tracks should be relocated to the eastern plains - in particular, away from Denver.

"There is a concern that you can't mix high-speed with freight," Mason said.

Right now they are only beginning to talk about a feasibility study, he added. The biggest pieces are yet to be determined.

Randy Bruns of Cheyenne LEADS said this study is an attempt to pull together everything that's known about funding and jurisdiction issues. The latter means it is going to involve cities, counties and states, he said.

Given the far-reaching effects into the future, "it's probably going to be the best $50,000 we ever spent," Councilman Jim Brown said. - Jodi Rogstad, The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle

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LOCAL LANDMARK LOCOMOTIVE TO GET RENEWED LIFE AS PART OF A GRAND CANYON TOURIST TRAIN

Photo here:

[wasteam.railfan.net]

BATTLE GROUND, WA -- Clark County's vintage steam locomotive hopped a railroad car Friday for a trip to Arizona.

Actually, it hopped two of them. A crane hoisted the cab and boiler section onto one flatcar, then lifted the steel-wheeled chassis onto another; the locomotive's coal tender wound up on a third car.

While it marked the end of the line for the SP&S 539's career as a local landmark, Friday's transition from engine to freight sets the stage for a bright future. The 90-year-old heirloom will get to be a steam locomotive again. The SP&S 539 is being acquired by the Grand Canyon Railway, which runs daily tourist excursions to the south rim of the Arizona canyon. "It was designed to run, and that's the only place to do it," owner Brian Fleming of Longview said Friday afternoon, standing near the railroad tracks running along Grace Avenue.

"It's the most successful tourist railroad in the United States, and the only tourist railroad with the capacity to run this size engine in scheduled service," Fleming said. "It has a brighter future now than it's ever had."

The locomotive was built in 1917 for the Northern Pacific Railroad and acquired by the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway in 1944. It logged some 174,378 miles with a record of never having been involved in a single major accident or derailment in its 40 years of service, according to an SP&S employee publication.

Four decades at Esther Short

It's immediate past has been spotty. It was retired to civic-monument status in Vancouver's Esther Short Park from 1957 to 1997, when it was moved to Battle Ground. It sat idle in Fairgrounds Park for almost a decade as train enthusiasts tried to figure out how to restore it to hauling tourists on a regional rail line.

The locomotive and its coal tender were moved again last summer to make way for a park project, and it found a home about 150 yards to the south, behind the Main Street bicycle shop run by Rick and Jan Lewis.

"It was already zoned as a truck parking lot, and we lease space to long-haul truckers," Jan Lewis said. "When Brian had to get it out of the park, he asked if he could put it on our property." "Why not?" she said, recreating that conversation: "Some people have pink flamingos; we'll have a train."

Fleming said he got more help this week when employees of Chelatchie Boiler Works helped take the locomotive apart. If things go according to schedule, the SP&S 539 will head south Monday. In exchange, Fleming will get two smaller locomotives that will be used on the Mount Hood Railroad's excursion train.

Sam Lanter, chief mechanical officer of the Grand Canyon Railway, who was part of Friday's loading effort, said his group doesn't have a firm timetable for its new locomotive. "It's a size that meets our needs. We will rebuild it slowly, when there is time in our shop," the Williams, Ariz., resident said. "We have two steam locomotives now; they're coming up on their federally mandated inspections, and we want this one to be ready when we need it."

It'll be awhile before the SP&S 539 starts making the 130-mile round trip from Williams to the Grand Canyon and back, but it already has a few prospective customers. Battle Ground resident Mike Stewart was watching Friday's loading operation with sons Sam, 11 months, and 3-year-old Micah, who was holding onto a toy locomotive. They've been frequent visitors to the old locomotive and had been looking forward to seeing it running. If it means going to Arizona, well... Actually, Stewart added, his wife's family is from Arizona, so it's a trip they'd be making anyway. But he's looking forward to seeing the old locomotive again. "Absolutely," Stewart said. "We'll ride it." - Tom Vogt, The Colombian (Vancouver, WA), courtesy Marc Pearsall

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PULLMAN MEATH GETS A LIFT

GALESBURG, IL - A small crowd of onlookers, many of them Galesburg Railroad Museum board members, gathered Monday morning to watch Goodwin House Movers of Washington, Iowa, prepare to move the Pullman Meath car from Seminary and Mulberry streets.

The car will be moved today (Tuesday) to the area where the rolling stock is displayed near the museum in Colton Park. The Pullman car originally was put into place in 1982. It was the museum until the depot-style building now used was built in 2004.

Michael Godsil, president of the Galesburg Railroad Museum Board of Directors, said volunteers already have disconnected parts of the car so the moving company can lift it off its wheels.
Godsil said the Burlington Northern Railroad placed the Pullman car in 1982.

As retired railroaders recalled enough memories to fill a freight train, an employee of Goodwin's used a Case bulldozer to pick up a pile of wood held together with a chain. A chain was connected to the bulldozer and another employee walked along as the wood was moved, helping steady the load. The wood was for what are called "cribs," which are temporary structures put together so the moving company can jack up the Pullman car off its wheels.

Rick Goodwin, owner of the company moving the Pullman car, said they will use two cribs in the back and one toward the front of the car. He said three points are always used.

"Once we get it up, the truck will be one point and the dollies two points," Goodwin said.

The dollies are made of metal, with wheels in a configuration similar to a semitrailer.

"We'll pull it up close to the intersection (of Mulberry and Chambers streets). We'll have to turn it around so we can steer the dollies and position them however we want when we back it up," Goodwin said.

He expected the move to begin around 9 a.m. Tuesday.

"It will take most of the day," he said.

Mulberry Street and the southbound lane of Chambers Street from Main to Chambers streets will be closed all day today.

Goodwin said they have moved many different things over the years, but the Pullman car, "it's not something you do every day."

While residents of Galesburg, a railroad city, know a Pullman car is a sleeper named after George Pullman, trying to pin down the origin of the other name, Meath, is like trying to grab the steam from a locomotive.

Asked about the name's origin, Godsil said, "We have been trying to find that out. It's logged in the roster as Meath, but who he was" is not known. "Unless he was a district superintendent somewhere."

Richard "Red" Adams retired from the railroad in June 1985 after more than 34 years of service. At one time he was regional superintendent for Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin and Nebraska.

"I was in charge of all the locomotives," Adams said.

As the Goodwin people prepared to jack up the Pullman car, the railroad men joked with each other.

"The old-timers don't talk to you unless you worked for the railroad for 50 years," Adams said, in mock indignation. He said 50-year employees received a gold pass that allowed them to ride the California Zephyr.

"They'd say you can't get into heaven without a gold pass," Adams laughed.

"OK, Red. Which end do you want to lift up," Don Kinyon Sr. yelled from across Seminary Street.

Kinyon is a member of the museum board, although he never worked a day for the railroad.

" 'Your grandfather, Edward B. Allen, was a conductor for 38 years,' " Kinyon said he was told as to how he qualified.

Kinyon retired from the Air Force and Maytag. - John R. Pulliam, The Galesburg Register-Mail

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RAILROAD HALL OF FAME NEEDS A SIDEWALK

GALESBURG, IL -- For want of a sidewalk, the Galesburg, Illinois City Council failed to approve the preliminary final plat of the Kiwanis Park subdivision, a step toward finalizing the site of the National Railroad Hall of Fame.

Instead, the motion was tabled Monday night when Ald. Bill Kendall, Ward 2, said he would not approve it without a sidewalk built to the east from Wisconsin Street to the bridge over Interstate 74.

"I will not support this without sidewalks," Kendall said. "We require people to put sidewalks in when they do subdivisions and I think the city should, also."

The motion before the council included the city manager's recommendation that no sidewalk be put in along the south side of the park because of a sudden and steep slope along the street.

Larry Cox, director of the Public Works Department, said the sidewalk would require a great amount of fill to even the area with the street.

"Without a survey being done, I can't tell you how much fill would be needed," he told the council.

The National Railroad Hall of Fame is a $60 million project the city wants to put on the north part of Kiwanis Park. It would be visible from the interstate highway and, supporters hope, would bring train buffs from around the country to Galesburg.

The Plan Commission had approved the final plat last month on a unanimous vote with the sidewalk waiver intact.

The council members were set to vote when Kendall expressed his concerns. He was soon joined by Lomac Payton, Ward 4, who said, "There should be a sidewalk. It's a safety issue as I see it."
City Manager Dane Bragg suggested the city wait until more information was available about the construction of a sidewalk.

"Why don't we try to get you a cost," he said, shortly before the decision was made to table the item. - Ron Jensen, The Galesburg Register-Mail

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CN, CP FACING LABOR TROUBLE

Labor strife threatens to roil both of the country's major railways as Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd.'s track maintenance workers move closer to a walkout and striking Canadian National Railway Co. conductors choose between a tentative one-year contract and a return to the picket lines.

Photo here:

[www.thestar.com]

Caption reads: Sparks fly from a grinding machine as CN employee Barry Hill, pictured here in April 2, smooths down a weld on a track just west of the Brockville railway station. (Darcy Creek/CP File Photo)

The union representing track maintenance workers at CP warned yesterday that some 3,000 employees could be on strike by April 25 after mediated talks with the railway broke down last Friday. The workers inspect and maintain CP's tracks and bridges, and have been without a contract since Dec. 31, according to the Maintenance of Way Employees Division of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference.

Meanwhile, at CN, if a contract vote next week is negative, it could threaten CN-operated GO Transit trains running in Toronto.

At CP, while spokesman Mark Seland said the railway would be able to maintain "close to 100 per cent capacity" by replacing striking workers with managers, union leaders noted that rival CN made similar promises on the eve of a crippling two-week walkout by conductors in February.

"We're coming into wash-out season," said William Brehl, the president of the union division representing CP's track maintenance workers. "There are 50 trains backed up right now in Vancouver because of all the [mud] slides and derailments they've been having in B.C."

"We're the guys and the women who go out there and protect that track, making it safe for those trains to run."

However, David Newman, an analyst at National Bank Financial, said he wasn't too worried about the situation at CP, arguing the track maintenance workers are not as critical to the railway's short-term operations as other employee groups. "It's not the engineers or the conductors," he said. "It probably won't impede the running of the railroad that dramatically."

At CN, meanwhile, the union representing about 2,800 striking conductors and yard service employees is scheduled to release the results of a ratification vote on a proposed one-year pact on April 10. Employees walked off the job in early February after contract negotiations became bogged down over productivity measures, but returned to work later in the month in order to avoid federal back-to-work legislation that was tabled in the House of Commons.

The United Transportation Union is recommending the tentative deal be approved, but union infighting has created mixed messages for employees and has made it difficult to predict the vote's outcome.

If the tentative pact is voted down, the UTU has told workers to once again walk off the job, creating the possibility of a another round of rail service disruptions for chemical companies, miners, wheat exporters and forestry firms across the country.

CN warned last week its first-quarter earnings would be impacted by the February strike to the tune of 5 to 10 per cent. A CN spokesman said yesterday the company hopes the tentative deal will be ratified, but is prepared for another walkout.

Although a second UTU walkout would likely be short-lived - Ottawa's previously tabled back-to-work legislation could be called up when the House reconvenes from its Easter break on April 16 - the union is warning things could be more disruptive this time around, particularly for Toronto residents.

Frank Wilner, a UTU spokesman, said a so-called "gentlemen's agreement" that kept CN-operated GO Transit trains running in Toronto during the first walkout is no longer in place, meaning thousands of commuters in the Greater Toronto Area could be without service next week if a strike occurs.

Commuter rail users in Montreal would also be affected. - Chris Sorensen, The Toronto Star

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A DRAGON SKULL REVEALED?

TEHACHAPI, CA -- The drive from Tehachapi down the hill to Bakersfield, both on the backroads and on Highway 58, is a pleasure to me because there are so many landmarks to observe. Having made the trip thousands of times, I recognize scores of both natural and human-made features of the landscape and I look for them on each trip. One of these is the Dragon Skull.

This unusual formation is located 2.5 miles down Highway 58 west of Tehachapi. It is embedded in a railroad cut in the hillside just above the tracks. If you look west from the highway, you can clearly discern the skull of a dragon tilted upward, its massive top teeth still firmly lodged in the upper jaw of the giant skull.

If you peer closer, of course, you can determine that this is actually a rock formation exposed when the railroad was being built in the 1870s. Erosion from an unused old dirt road above has further revealed what can (with some imagination) look like a dragon's skull or the fossil of a Tyranosaurus rex dinosaur's fearsome head.

Photos here:

[www.tehachapinews.com]

The Dragon Skull is one part of an interesting little stretch of scenery. Adjacent to the skull (south) is a pale expanse of ground that erosion has sculpted into curtain pleats, like the eroded tuff cliffs of ancient volcanic detritus at Red Rock Canyon State Park. Plainly visible from Highway 58, this corrugated hillside is called Curtain Cliffs.

The Dragon Skull formation is located a few hundred yards away from Tunnel 17, the last tunnel that trains pass through as they labor up the grade from Bakersfield to Tehachapi. Between the skull and the tunnel opening, set back in the curve of the hillside, is an unusual outcropping of limestone that is also plainly visible from the highway.

Right next to Highway 58 in the same vicinity is an upright green culvert with a conical roof - the stilling well of the Tehachapi Creek Streamflow Gauge, which keeps a continuous record of the volume of water flowing down Tehachapi Creek. It was installed following the disastrous 1932 flood that killed dozens of people at Keene.

These are just a few of the many familiar sights that I look for as I travel between here and Bakersfield. For the observant, it is a quick and interesting trip. At least until you reach Towerline Road.... - Jon Hammond, The Tehachapi News

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KATY TRAIL BOOSTERS APPEAL BOONVILLE RAILROAD BRIDGE CASE

COLUMBIA, MO -- Appellate court judges are scheduled to hear arguments in Columbia this week in the latest chapter of the fight over Boonville's old railroad bridge.

Ken Midkiff of Columbia, conservation chairman of the Ozark Chapter Sierra Club, joined two St. Louis men and sued in November 2005 as MKT Trail users, claiming removal of the bridge would jeopardize the trail.

The lawsuit sought to block Union Pacific Railroad from dismantling the bridge and prevent the state from relinquishing the state's interest in the bridge. It mirrors concerns raised in a separate lawsuit filed by Attorney General Jay Nixon.

The railroad wants to use the bridge's parts for a new rail bridge over the Osage River. Nixon said the bridge was a part of the original agreement between the railroad and the state that created the cross-state trail.

Some community members want to restore the bridge and use it for the trail. Trail users currently cross the Missouri River using a highway bridge.

The defendants listed in Midkiff's lawsuit are the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, DNR Director Doyle Childers and the railroad.

Cole County Circuit Judge Byron Kinder dismissed the lawsuit in July, ruling the group had no legal right to sue and did not raise any different legal questions than Nixon's suit, which had already been ruled in DNR's favor.

A three-judge panel from the Western District of the Missouri Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear attorney arguments Thursday in Columbia. The court will convene at 09:30 in Hulston Hall on the University of Missouri-Columbia campus and will hear arguments in the Midkiff case as well as two other cases from Saline and Cooper counties.

Arguments for the appeal in Nixon's case are scheduled for April 19 in Kansas City.

The court occasionally convenes outside of Kansas City in order to give citizens a chance to witness the appellate proceedings, a news release from the court said.

Kurt Schaefer, DNR deputy director and general counsel, said Kinder's decision was correct and should be upheld.

"Just because you're a trail user, you can't just file a lawsuit over the Boonville bridge," Schaefer said. "The trail has never, ever gone over the bridge."

Midkiff said that is not the legal question at hand. "The fact still remains that in the contract, the Boonville bridge must stay in place for the Katy Trail to stay in place," Midkiff said. "It's an integral part of the Katy Trail corridor." - Joe Meyer, The Columbia Tribune

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UWGB STUDENTS TO HELP NATIONAL RAILROAD MUSEUM RIDE INTO FUTURE

GREEN BAY, WI -- They may study history, but a group of University of Wisconsin-Green Bay students has turned its focus to the future by writing the next chapter for the National Railroad Museum.

The students, history majors from Andrew Kersten's history seminar course, are creating an educational strategic plan for the museum.

Their collaboration is the brainchild of longtime friends Kersten and museum director Michael Telzrow. The pair hope the students' work can help take the museum in a new, more user-friendly direction.

Telzrow, director of the Ashwaubenon museum since July 2006, said the need for that new direction was apparent when he started.

"One of the first things that struck me was that we did not have an established education program," he said. "We really did not have a relationship with the schools or any of the school districts. Schools would come out here occasionally, but we really didn't have an established program."

Enter Kersten and his students, most of whom are UWGB seniors. Instead of spending their seminar semester writing a research paper, the 22 students are studying subjects such as visitors and best practices to come up with a new direction for the museum.

Normally, the history seminar is split into two different assignments - one for history students with education minors and one for non-education students minoring in a variety of other disciplines, Kersten said. But this semester's class is different.

"This project that Michael and I are doing together has allowed me to unite the class," Kersten said. "How do we help the museum take the next step? . They're so excited about being able to shape something about history in their community right now."

Kersten's students don't seem to mind their not-so-average assignment. Megan Leist, 22, is a history major who will graduate in May. She hopes her seminar experience will boost her career prospects, she said.

"It's better than writing a paper, that's for sure, but I was a little . leery because I didn't know what to expect," Leist said. "Now it's actually fun."

Leist is part of the best practices seminar group. She and her cohorts have been studying topics like creating better flow between exhibits and making the museum's Web site more appealing, she said.

Kersten plans to present his class' ideas to the museum board this summer. Telzrow is optimistic about the direction they will take, he said, and hopes the plan will improve the museum's educational reach. - Kelly McBride, The Green Bay Press-Gazette

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DOCTORS BATTLED TO KEEP TRUCKEE HEALTHY

TRUCKEE, CA -- Throughout Truckee's growing years, and well in the 1900s, medical care was a much needed, but often hard to find, necessity of life. Injuries, disease, unsanitary conditions, and alcohol all led to lifestyles that shortened people's lives.

From birth, life in a pioneer mountain town was a struggle. Infant mortality was very high, and children died during childhood at an alarming rate. Doctors were often unable to do little more than treat the symptoms.

Dangerous childhood diseases such as mumps, measles, whooping cough, scarlet fever, chicken pox, and diphtheria were quite frequent, and epidemics of colds and flu ran rampant through the schools every winter.

Once a boy went to work, which was often as young as 12, but more often 16 after 1900, the threat of injury on the job was incredibly high. If you worked on the railroad, there were hundreds of ways a body could be injured on the moving steel and wood of the trains.

As tracks were being laid in June of 1868 a man was crushed between two moving cars, requiring extensive medical care. In 1869 a conductor had his legs mangled so badly in an accident in the Truckee yards that amputation was the only alternative to save his life.

The doctors of the 1870s, such as Dr. Weed, Dr. Jones, Dr. Goss, and Dr. Curless, had just learned a variety of new surgery and antiseptic techniques in the recently completed Civil War. From then on through the early '20s, it seemed as if the railroad was at war on human bodies, mostly its own workers.

It was so bad that in 1873 the Central Pacific studied moving its Sacramento hospital up to Truckee. At least once a railroader was injured he could count on decent medical care. The Central Pacific contracted with private doctors such as Dr. William Curless in Truckee to provide quick and competent care.

Employee benefits were unheard of in the lumber industry. The forests were full of danger from falling 200-foot-tall trees, to moving five-foot diameter logs that could crush a man in a blink of an eye. The sawmills were no better; it was common to see a man with a missing finger or two and losing an eye was a frequent occurrence.

For those who worked outside in the winter such as icemen, loggers or railroaders, the danger of frostbite or freezing to death required constant prevention. Snow sports, mostly children flying down icy hills on sleds and toboggans, contributed to the winter medical caseload.

A tough practice

Dr. Goss had a rough time in December of 1874 when a Prosser Creek man went on a drunken bender, got beaten up in several fights, then bit Dr. Goss severely when he tried to treat his injuries. A week later, Dr. Goss was bitten by an unknown insect that laid him out for two weeks. He ended up being a patient of Dr. Curless's for a week.

Alcohol flowed freely in Truckee's saloons, and that often led to fights and violence. Mostly the doctors sewed injured flesh up with a few dozen stitches, but often enough, bullet wounds required more than basic surgery.

Truckee wouldn't get its own hospital until 1906, and that only lasted for four years. For follow-up private medical care, patients could go to Reno, Auburn, Sacramento or San Francisco.

Hobart Mills, the large company-owned lumber town north of Truckee, had a small hospital after 1900, but it was used mostly by the lumber company employees. Floriston, the site of the large paper mill down the river, also had its own hospital and doctor.

For those unable to afford care, the Nevada County Hospital provided treatment at taxpayer expense. Often those who were taken to the County Hospital in Nevada City never returned, usually a victim of a rough lifestyle.

Truckee's doctors preferred treating patients at their offices, but often enough they had to go to the patients to stabilize them and prepare them for transporting. Night or day, summer or winter, the hurried knock on the door would send the doctors on their missions. Dr. Curless often made trips to Boca, Lake Tahoe, Donner Summit, or out into the isolated woods' camps to treat patients.

Searching for the cure

With the hard work required to sustain a life and family in the mountains, rheumatism was common in older people. The cure was to journey to one of the popular hot springs resorts at Sierraville, Genoa, Richardson's Hot Springs near Chico, or Tuscany Hot Springs near Red Bluff. A week of soaking in hot mineral water went a long way to relieving an aching body.

The one health-sustaining staple that Truckee always had was drug stores, as many as three at one time. These so- called pharmacies were often owned by the doctors themselves. In Dr. Curless's case, his brother George ran the drug store for several decades in the 1870s to 1890s. You didn't need a prescription for most drugs.

Dr. Weed's store was the first drug store in Truckee in 1868, and as with our modern drug stores, you could buy much more than just drugs. The medicines available were mostly based on natural remedies and herbal medicine, but many were from dubious sources at best. You could buy Drake's, Hostetter's, Walker's, Huffland's, bitters and other "medicines required to make a sick man well, an old man young, and renew the Bloom of Youth."

Hall's sarsaparilla, yellow dock and iodine of potassium were touted to cure neuralgia, scrofula, boils, gout, female weaknesses, cancers, rheumatic and mercurial pains, and all diseases arising from a disordered state of the blood or liver. George Curless stocked barrels of sulphur, bluestone, and chloride of lime to treat patient's ills.

From 1887 to 1906, Dr. Zimmer of Reno operated a leprosy sanatorium and research facility along the Truckee River east of Truckee. Zimmer worked with sagebrush and other herbal cures, over the years with moderate success.

A town full of disease

Conditions in Truckee seemed to be fairly healthy for the first two decades, based on the somewhat biased local newspaper accounts. However by the 1890s, disease had replaced injuries as the top priority for the medical community. Scarlet fever, smallpox, typhoid, and chronic dysentery would break out in local epidemics, with little that doctors could do but treat the symptoms and let things run their course.

Residents of an entire household might be quarantined inside for weeks at a time until the contagious diseases had run their courses. At times, there was a pest house on the edge of town, where contagious patients were housed.

Severe colds that lasted for months during the winter led to many Truckee merchants and wealthier citizens taking long winter vacations in warmer climates. These colds could turn into fatal pneumonia in the elderly, as indeed it was the cause of many deaths during the 1800s.

Epidemics of the flu, then known as lagrippe, spread rapidly with effects that could last several weeks. Even the doctors came down with it, and suffered with their patients.

Much of the problem came from unsanitary water supplies, which is why you didn't drink untreated Truckee water, but you could safely drink the processed beer, whiskey, tea or coffee using boiled water. Outhouses were everywhere, breeding flies that would bring disease on the wing. So when you got ill from one of these agonizing diseases you suffered from many other conditions as well. In many cases an illness today that would be over in a few days might keep the patient bedridden several weeks or a month or two.

Animals were in yards everywhere: horses, dairy cows, chickens, dogs, and a few hogs to eat the garbage added to the stench that pervaded Truckee at times. Garbage was thrown outside in piles all winter, and only when the roads out of town opened could the garbage be taken out and dumped.

It was a wonder that everyone in town wasn't sick with all of the unsanitary conditions that people were living in. But the solution was coming. Next time -- Truckee flushes the outhouse. - Gordon Richards, The Truckee Sierra Sun

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TRUCKEE TOWN COUNCIL TO REVISIT RAILYARD MAKEOVER

TRUCKEE, CA -- One of Truckee's major planned developments, the Railyard project will be up for review at Thursday's town council meeting.

Located just east of downtown Truckee, the 62-acre site that once contained a lumber mill has been targeted for development as part of a public-private partnership between the town and Holliday Development.

Designed as an extension of the downtown core, the project could include a movie theater, residential units, retail space and a boutique hotel, according to the Truckee Railyard Draft Master Plan.

Development on the site will require relocation of the railroad's "balloon track," a large rail loop used for turning snowplow trains around, as well as re-alignments of Donner Pass Road, Glenshire Drive and Trout Creek.

Town Council will consider authorizing an agreement to complete planning for the Railyard, review the project, and consider supporting the development in its application for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building neighborhood development rating, according to staff reports.

The rating would include principles of smart growth, urbanism and eco-friendly building, and is unique in its consideration of an entire neighborhood instead of a single building. - Greyson Howard, The Truckee Sierra Sun

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RAILROAD REPLICA PROJECT ROLLING ALONG

JAMESTOWN, CA -- Darryl Bramlette's construction of a garden railroad is a hobby that taxes all his skills.

Still, the miniature 60-car train modeled after the Yosemite Valley Railroad is an engineering challenge Bramlette enjoys. The construction also puts he and wife, Linda, outdoors -- where they prefer to spend time.

Linda Bramlette, the primary landscaper for the railroad's rights-of-way, hopes the project will eventually be a stop on the Tuolumne County Master Gardeners Home Tour.

Photo here:

[www.uniondemocrat.com]

Caption reads: Darryl Bramlette removes a weed from the track of the model train set that circles his Jamestown Home. (Amy Alonzo/Union Democrat)

Darryl Bramlette's interest in trains began at age 5 when he and his grandfather stopped at a railroad-track intersection.

A couple years later, his grandfather, who worked on the Sierra Railroad, took Bramlette to the Railtown blacksmith shop in Jamestown. There, the youngster operated the blacksmith's bellows and learned about the railroad.

Bramlette and his wife call their endeavor Darryl & Linda's Garden Railroad. When finished in 2008, the train will have engines and passenger cars, some of which had already run outdoors for 14 years at the couple's previous home in Morgan Hill.

Since moving to Jamestown in 2005, and launching their new railroad project, the Bramlettes have encountered several changes, including the climate. At Morgan Hill, temperatures were mild and the backyard shady. In Jamestown, it's hotter and shade is scarce.

Darryl Bramlette said the biggest climate challenge has been replacing aluminum rails with rails made of nickel silver and stainless steel, which expand less and conduct electricity better.

"That's the engineering part. This is not one of those hobbies where you buy it, lay it down and it works," said Bramlette, who faced another challenge when he hit a quartz vein, which turned out to be part of an old mine. In turn, he learned more about the mine and rerouted track around it.

The garden railroad's main line will be 800 feet long. The entire railroad makes a horseshoe shape, instead of a full circle.

The train and track are powered by electricity and controlled by remote radio frequency. The model also has a sound system, which includes sounds of real locomotives and even a cow that moos every 30 seconds.

Bramlette said he wants to add the sounds of an ore crusher, sawmill, a honky-tonk bar and familiar "town" noises.

The Bramlettes started making plans to build the "G" scale in 2002, with an estimated "start construction" date in 2006, after retirement.

Darryl Bramlette retired from United Technology in San Jose as chief engineer on solid rocket boosters for certain space programs. He still does consulting work.

The Bramlettes started construction in July after some prep work, which included importing 37 tons of rock and pouring 12 yards of concrete to build a 230-foot wall and walkway along the backside of the house.

Next, they removed three poplar trees, then cut into the hillside for a 12-foot tunnel.

"The railroad is not complete by any stretch of anybody's imagination," Darryl Bramlette said.

When complete, the little railroad will serve as an educational and history-lesson stop for students and anyone else who wants to see it, the couple said. Fees will not be charged, but donations are welcome and will go to Make-A-Wish Foundation.

"It will be a showable feature -- something that will benefit the community," Darryl Bramlette said.

The actual Yosemite Valley Railroad stopped operating in the late 1940s.

"The evidence is no longer there, but if you see something -- a replica -- it stimulates the mind," said Darryl Bramlette, who also fuels his love of railroads by volunteering on weekends as a docent at Railtown 1897 State Historic Park in Jamestown.

And what will he do when his garden railroad project is finished?

"The only thing left is sit down and enjoy it," he quickly replied. - Christi Wilheim, The Union Democrat (Sonora, CA)

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TRANSIT NEWS

LIGHT RAIL IS WORKING.... IN OTHER CITIES

MILWAUKEE, WI -- If I had shared it out loud, a recent shock I had experienced probably would've been laughed out of the room at last Saturday's joint conference of the Midwest High-Speed Rail Association (MHSRA) and the National Association of Rail Passengers (NARP) in Chicago.

Ten days earlier, I had driven to an interview in Rockford that took less than 90 minutes one way but more than three hours round trip because of the afternoon rush. Because I may make that drive fairly often, I looked up the train schedule to Rockford for times when inclement weather, fatigue or boredom might contraindicate driving in the future.

What's the joke? There's no train to Rockford (at least for passengers). However, if I was a ton of lettuce, 20,000 lumps of coal or 5,000 gallons of milk, I'd be all set.

"Welcome to the shrinking world of passenger rail," NARP president George Chilson would say.

I realized that this is what rail passengers and aficionados have been enduring arguably for the 36 years since Amtrak kicked in back in 1971. Chilson reported that new Amtrak president Alex Kummant phoned him on his first day on the job.

Chilson also cited the need for private-public partnerships, much greater involvement at the state level and tax-credit bonds to help support and expand ridership.

Fortunately, this model may find real-world support since the trend of shrinking passenger routes has been reversed. Still, any futuristic visions of bullet trains or other high-speed rail systems will have to wait on the back burner a while longer. In essence, we're still functioning on centuries-old technologies and millennia-old standards: the old saw about railroad tracks being "as wide as a Roman horse" is still accurate and true.

Alderman Robert Bauman of Milwaukee, who is a staunch advocate of advanced rail systems, provided an encouraging report regarding that city's progress. He added, "We should be building a seamlessly connected intermodal transportation system based on public service rather than profitability."

Bauman said Milwaukee has been studying and restudying light rail transit since the early 1990s.

"Ironically, during this time, over a dozen new light rail systems have been studied and built in other mid-sized cities," Bauman said. "The study process seems destined to continue for at least several more months as another alternatives analysis - known as the 'downtown transit connector study' - is about to be completed."

According to Bauman, this study proposes the expenditure of significant sums of public money and recommends transportation technologies that may or may not be in the public interest.

For example, there's a rather absurd concept called the guided bus. Bauman said, "Suffice it to say that guided buses are not a cheap form of light rail but a very expensive version of a bus service."

Fortunately, that concept has been abandoned in favor of several light rail and standard passenger rail routes.

These include commuter routes along the Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee (KRM) corridor and into downtown Milwaukee, a vision to expand throughout southeast Wisconsin into northeastern Illinois and even a line linking Milwaukee to state capitol Madison. Also, the downtown Milwaukee train station's $15 million renovation will be completed later in 2007.

Throughout the Midwest, passenger train ridership is on the increase, and it appears that the number of runs and lines will continue to expand within the foreseeable future. This is good news for all types of businesses throughout the Midwest, where the greatest resurgence appears to be happening.

This repeated message kept the 200-plus attendees at last Saturday's conference enthused, engaged and hopeful. Reports from Chilson, MHSRA executive director Rick Harnish and Anne Canby (president of a national initiative called the Surface Transportation Policy Project) detailed acknowledgment by governments and civilians alike that "trains aren't such a bad idea."

Some of the main factors contributing to the return of passenger rail include unstable gasoline prices, increasingly unbearable lines and security procedures at airports, the gridlock-level congestion on our highways and the worsening environmental effects of greenhouse gasses and corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards.

Chicagoans have been able to boast one of the best transportation systems in the United States.
Of course, there are high-speed trains in Europe and Asia that put Amtrak's predictably late-running systems to shame. It's no secret that the CTA's crumbling infrastructure is barely able to carry its burgeoning ridership.

The fact is there's no magic wand when we're looking at modernizing a system that's 100 years old in a very dense urban environment.

"We call this 'the year of decision,'" said Stephen Schlickman, executive director of the RTA. "The choice is between a world-class transit system and an economic downturn that . a hobbled transit system would most likely bring about."

Midwest cities are playing catch up to Chicago when it comes to developing a rapid-transit system. For example, when Minneapolis finally launched its Hiawatha Line light-rail transit (LRT) system two years ago, officials expected 10,000 riders on the first day. There were 15,000.

Speaking strictly in terms of speed and convenience, most folks are willing to put up with the risk of delays and accidents if they can count on a public transportation system that predictably runs on time. Chicago Amtrak media relations manager Marc Magliari used a PowerPoint presentation to review several encouraging trends including an uptick in ridership just in the four months from late last Oct. 6 through Feb. 7:

· Five Chicago-St. Louis round trips (up from three) saw an increase in ridership of 62,309 passengers.

· Three Chicago-Carbondale round trips saw an increase of 40,604 passengers.

· Two Chicago-Quincy round trips (up from one) saw an increase of 47,437.
Overall ridership growth so far this year, according to Magliari, totals 150,350.

Amtrak is now undergoing its first funding reauthorization hearings since 1997. More than simple budgetary legislation, serious updates to the system (including the development of a state corridor system), demands for on-time performance, strengthening of long-distance routes and serious labor contracts (the last ones having expired in 2000) are on the table.

The event's greatest call to arms, however, came from Seattle-based author Alfred Runte, who calls himself a "consulting environmental historian." A former candidate for mayor of Seattle and ex-professor at the University of Washington, Runte called for a return to Theodore Roosevelt-styled progressivism by echoing alderman Bauman's call for "public service rather than profitability" as the guidepost for rebuilding our nation's railroads.

The coolest new transportation technology at the moment currently appears to be our revived rail system, which will be playing catch up for the next five to 10 years using existing tracks before we see any true, new approaches. Environmentally, in terms of recycling and reuse, this makes more sense than starting from scratch any way. - Commentary, John Katsantonis, The Milwaukee Small Business Times (John Katsantonis is senior vice president of the technology practice at Northstar Counselors, the Minneapolis-based founding member of Pinnacle Worldwide. He also is the principal of The Katsantonis Group.)

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STUDY FOR FINAL FASTRACKS CORRIDOR TO BEGIN

DENVER, CO -- RTD is about to get started with the environmental study for its final FasTracks corridor, 2 1/2 years behind schedule, but the agency says it can catch up.

This month, RTD will solicit proposals from consultants to conduct the study for the proposed 10.5-mile light-rail line along Interstate 225 in Aurora.

If all goes according to a stepped-up hiring schedule, the work could begin in August. It is expected to take 27 months and be done by fall 2009.

Under the original FasTracks plan, the I-225 study was supposed to begin in late 2005. Much of the holdup was the result of an impasse with the Colorado Department of Transportation over the scope of the study. CDOT had planned to expand I-225 with toll lanes, a proposal that Aurora opposes.

But with a change in administration at CDOT, negotiations speeded up. Now, CDOT's principal condition for RTD is that the light rail must leave enough room for an eventual widening of I-225 to eight lanes, whether they are toll lanes or not.

The $441.9 million rail line, according to a study approved by local communities, would use the median of I-225 from the existing Nine Mile Station north to Exposition Avenue, and the east shoulder of the highway for about a mile and a half south of Colfax Avenue.

It detours off the highway into the Aurora City Center area and the Fitzsimons complex, where it connects with the FasTracks line to Denver International Airport.

RTD's project manager for the job is Larry Warner, who was in charge of T-REX until he became a consultant.

Warner told RTD board members on Monday that, given the prior community approval of the early plans, a more limited environmental study may be completed faster. - Kevin Flynn, The Rocky Mountain News

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SAFETY ISSUES BRING TROLLEY TO STOP

CHARLOTTE, NC -- A historic trolley that got $180,000 of taxpayer-financed improvements to anchor the city's trolley system will not be used because of safety concerns, officials said.

The Charlotte Area Transit System planned to have the No. 85 streetcar run on the same tracks as a new light-rail train, but federal officials said that the 80-year-old car wouldn't withstand a collision with the heavier and faster light-rail trains.

"It doesn't have the structural strength if it was hit," transit system chief Ron Tober said. "It would be very dangerous for anyone inside."

Transit officials didn't anticipate the risk before renovating the trolley because historic streetcars rarely share tracks with newer trains, Tober said. The streetcar will be used only on special occasions, he said.

Built in 1927, the No. 85 is the last original Charlotte trolley. It was retired in 1938 and was later used as office space and an apartment before the Charlotte Mecklenburg Historic Properties bought the car in 1988.

Preservationists spent $250,000 to renovate the streetcar, and it was returned to service along a short rail spur in 1996. The city's trolley service was suspended during light-rail construction last year. - The Associated Press, The Winston-Salem Journal

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LIRR OFFERS TICKET REFUNDS

Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North commuters stood in long lines Monday morning, unable to buy monthly and weekly tickets because the railroads' ticket machines were not accepting credit or debit cards, the LIRR said.

Railroad officials said that Chase Banking Services, the bank that processes those transactions, had technical problems. A Chase spokeswoman did not return calls for comment.

Many riders buy their monthly and weekly passes from ticket machines on the first Monday of the month. But Monday, as the machines worked intermittently between 06:30 and 10:00 hours, many were forced to pay cash for one-way tickets.

"I would have needed 65 dollars to buy the weekly ," said Frank Marcinek, 45, of Levittown, who arrived early at the Hicksville station yesterday to buy his pass. "I didn't have that kind of money on me."

Marcinek used a 10-trip ticket he keeps for emergencies.

Both railroads said they would compensate riders by accepting March monthly tickets until 10:00 Tuesday. They also pledged to refund the difference between the station fare and the on-board price for passengers who were forced to buy a ticket on the train. LIRR tickets bought on the train can cost between $4.75 and $5.50 more than tickets bought before boarding.

The LIRR also said it would give a credit or refunds for passengers who were forced to buy a one-way ticket.

And one passenger said a ticket machine charged her credit card $203 for a monthly ticket that never appeared.

"I came in to work, logged onto my [bank Web site], found out that my $203 was debited from my account," said Marianne Kiernan, of Levittown.

LIRR refunds can be submitted to: LIRR Refund Department, P.O. Box 350383, Jamaica, NY 11435. - Jennifer Maloney, Newsday

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THE END