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Railroad Newsline for Monday, April 30, 2007

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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RAIL NEWS

RAILROADS' CROSSING

Colton Crossing may sound like the California Inland Empire's latest shopping center.

But say the name to transportation experts as far away as Los Angeles and beyond, and they recognize it as a notorious freight-train bottleneck.

The Union Pacific Railroad and the BNSF Railway Company rail lines intersect just east of Mount Slover in what amounts to a four-way stop for trains.

The intersection holds up mile-long trains carrying goods from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to the rest of the nation, forcing them to sit idling while other trains cross.

Building a bridge to elevate one set of tracks and eliminate the crossing so trains can run freely in all directions will help both of the railroad companies speed freight shipments to their destinations.

So why are taxpayers being asked to dig into their pockets to build the project?

Because it will benefit local residents, too, by keeping halted trains from blocking traffic on surface streets and polluting the air with diesel fumes while they idle.

Earlier this month, the San Bernardino Associated Governments agreed to spend $2.2 million in state funding to begin engineering design and environmental study of the proposed rail line separation.

Over the several years the work is expected to take, transportation officials hope to hammer out an agreement with the two railroads on how much they will contribute to the estimated $150 million to $250 million cost of the project.

Spokespeople for Union Pacific and BNSF said the railroads expect to pay a share. But BNSF spokeswoman Lena Kent said it's way too early to start talking about dollar figures.

Local governmental agencies have no authority to require railroads to pay for projects like the rail separation, said Richard Little, director of USC's Keston Institute for Infrastructure.

Railroads were exempted from local control when laws governing them were enacted 150 years ago as the rail lines were being forged across the young nation.

The Colton Crossing has been slowing freight traffic for a long time, Little said. But he and other transportation experts say the railroads might have delayed fixing it themselves, figuring the state would step in when delays on surface streets became intolerable.

The initial design work is being paid for with state transportation funds dedicated to improving interregional rail transit, said Darren Kettle, SANBAG's freeway construction director.

Already, it has hit a snag. The California Transportation Commission agreed to pay $2.2 million for the design work, but the consultant selected as best qualified to do it estimates it will cost $3.5 million, Kettle said.

The increase resulted from transportation engineers' salaries spiraling in the 18 months or so since Caltrans estimated the design work's cost.

While the work is under way, SANBAG, Union Pacific and BNSF will negotiate the railroads' share of the cost of building the project, Kettle said. It could be as little as 15 percent, the railroad's share when Metrolink was built.

You'd think the savings from speeding freight deliveries would quickly repay the cost of building the bridge, if the railroads did it themselves without public help. But apparently they haven't deemed it worthwhile without taxpayer money. - Cassie MacDuff, The Riverside Press-Enterprise

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A TUNNEL BACK IN TIME

TACOMA, WA -- Robert Davidson bought the Blue Note Tavern in 1948. The saloon on Center Street had served hard drinks for Tacoma’s hardworking class since 1933 – and it came with a mysterious bonanza.

In a floorless back room, a seemingly bottomless shaftlike hole had opened in the ground, where the seller disposed of the tavern’s discarded cans and bottles.

Sure, rats used the shaft like an expressway to Cheeseland. But why mess with a good thing, Davidson figured. The mystery hole, a bit under 6 feet wide, saved Davidson a business expense he’d otherwise spend on city garbage service.

So he kept tossing the Blue Note’s empties into the darkness for another 12 years.

The origins of the Blue Note’s hole date to 1907. But the story of what lies under Tacoma disappeared in 1915 for more than a generation. It exploded back into Tacoma’s psyche and onto the front pages of its newspaper in 1959.

Then it quietly disappeared again -- until this month.

With all the fanfare it could muster, Tacoma Goodwill Industries unveiled in March a blessed, ambitious initiative to triple the unemployable people it trains and places in jobs.

To accomplish that means construction of an $18.7 million training center and headquarters.

BCRA, Tacoma’s largest architectural firm, built a model of the headquarters that showed how it would create a commanding presence as it wrapped the corner of Tacoma Avenue South and Center Street. Two old buildings would come down to clear the way for underground parking and the four-story building.

Goodwill CEO Terry Hayes recently visited City Hall to provide an early heads-up on the project. Afterward, a routine internal e-mail alert circulated among the city’s Building and Land Use Services team members.

Thank goodness for institutional memory. Senior team member Cap Pearson recalled a historic file rarely accessed. The file contained old newspaper articles, photographs, engineers’ drawings, letters, notes on interviews with old-timers – and a report chronicling the birth, the abandonment and the death of a Union Pacific railroad tunnel dating to 1909.

Did the tunnel run under the corner where Goodwill plans to build?

Except for an obscure reference in the mining section of the city’s Geographical Information System map database, the records routinely used by property developers don’t show a tunnel. A title report on Goodwill’s property turned up no mention of a railroad tunnel.

Then last Tuesday, a drilling crew from Redmond-based Geo Engineers Inc. bored its fourth test hole on a hunt for signs of a tunnel. Forty-eight feet below Goodwill’s planned headquarters site, the crew struck a void.

“We think we hit it dead on top,” said Scott Shaw, project architect for BCRA. “The tunnel does exist.”

Photos here:

[www.thenewstribune.com]

[www.thenewstribune.com]

[www.thenewstribune.com]

The revised Goodwill expansion plan now calls for shifting the future building north to the corner of South 27th Street and Tacoma Avenue, eliminating underground parking and paving above the tunnel for surface parking, Shaw said Wednesday.

“It was a surprise to us to find out about the tunnel. But it’s not going to change our plans,” Goodwill’s Hayes said.

Yet below part of Tacoma, according to the city’s historic file, lurks the ravage from an early 20th-century railroad war that poses a modern engineering challenge for future development.

By 1907, Tacoma had become a nexus of railroad competition. The Northern Pacific, Great Northern, Union Pacific and Southern Pacific railroads and their subsidiaries coveted a larger piece of the trade action through the City of Destiny.

But getting goods from ships at sea level and up and out of the geologic bowl surrounding the city posed a problem for the railroads. Union Pacific’s New York barons floated an idea that newspapers called the “Big Bore.”

A tunnel with an easy grade. More than 70 feet deep in places. A mile-and-a-half long. Punched through the hillside at South 24th Street and Jefferson Avenue, arcing south then west. With help from City Hall, the UP bought the sparsely populated swath.

Digging started from the north portal in April 1909 with more than 300 men working three eight-hour shifts.

One Tacoma newspaper gushed over the tunnel as an omen of the city’s arrival as a metropolis:

“To realize that the city is rapidly building up by the increase in number of large institutions, by the development of new undertakings of moment calling for the expenditure of immense sums of money is the duty and should be the delight of the people. The Union Pacific tunnel, constructed at great cost, by contractors of large experience, employing the latest improved machinery and tools, will be the forerunner of numerous and fresh opportunities for labor, adding facilities in the matter of travel and other fields for commercial enterprise and great expansion in the growth and wealth of the city.”

Not so fast, mister.

By early June, two test holes bored near the south portal opened up 6-inch streams of water. By mid-July, the contractor confessed to “draining an immense underground lake” from the north portal that the foreman described as “an underground Lake Superior.” Despite pumping at full capacity through an 8-inch pipe, one shaft remained nearly full of water.

By the end of July, Union Pacific management sent word of its displeasure and impatience with the increasing costs of engineering delays caused by the water gusher. The newspaper headline read simply, “FRICTION.”

By early October, however, crews had tunneled more than a half-mile from the north portal. But there the flood of water blocked the power shovels.

By November, the digging stopped altogether. One estimate put the amount of water pouring from the tunnel at 15 million gallons a day at its peak, and Union Pacific didn’t run submarines.
Back in New York, UP caved to Mother Earth and paid to haul its trains on a competitor’s track.

By 1913, the abandoned tunnel began to collapse in so many places that the railroad and the city undertook a new public works project to fill it. First with dirt and rock, then with cordwood.
The railroad deeded the properties back to their original owners.

The Big Bore got wiped from official records and maps by 1915.

Until 1959.

Over that 44-year span, unexplained things happened. The hole appeared in the Blue Note Tavern.
A tenant at 2826 S. Yakima Avenue, while tilling his garden, opened a bottomless hole and lost his shovel in it. Overnight his house dropped into a 100-foot-wide depression and broke apart.

Then in 1959, Woodworth Construction started building the Yakima Avenue bridge over Center Street -- and encountered unstable ground when it dug for the north abutment.

The city hired local engineer John Petteys to lead an investigation. His research located the tunnel and filled the city’s historic file on the Union Pacific tunnel. To prevent collapse of the Yakima Avenue bridge in 1960, crews had to design and build a 280-foot-long barrel-shaped concrete-and-steel vault over the tunnel and set the north abutment on top of it.

Then Petteys’ report, and the story of the tunnel, went into the city’s file. For 47 years. - Dan Voelpel, The Tacoma News Tribune

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RED'S CHAIR: CONDUCTOR'S WIFE KEEPS CABOOSE SEAT THAT HE LOVED

CASEYVILLE, IL -- The last thing Vernon "Red" Skelton did on his last day of work was take home his chair.

Seems fitting the wooden chair with the worn arms was on a caboose -- the last car on the train.
Vernon, a railroad conductor, retired in 1992 and died of Lou Gehrig's disease in 2003. His wife, Lela, keeps the heavy piece made by Chicago's Colonial Chair Co. in her Caseyville, Illinois sunroom.

Photo here:

[media.belleville.com]

Caption reads: Lela Skelton keeps the wooden chair that belonged to her late husband, Vernon 'Red' Skelton, in her Caseyville sunroom.

"I can just see him sitting in that chair, smoking a cigar or reading," said the 85-year-old. "I just feel like he's right there with me when I sit out here in the morning and read my paper."

For much of his railroad career, Vernon rode the caboose.

"If the train would stop, the caboose man would have to go along and inspect the cars," said Lela. "When they took the caboose off, he would ride on the engine."

Vernon was usually on freight trains, mostly coal trains, but the time his wife went along, she rode on the engine of a passenger train from St. Louis to Carbondale.

"There were a lot of college kids. I can still here him say, 'All Aboard.' He was just the picture of a conductor, with his protruding belly and his conductor hat."

She described her husband as a friendly guy, who weighed about 250, and liked to wear bib overalls.

"He liked colors and loved colorful caps," she said. "He was a very likable person. Everybody liked my Vernon."

Although that's not what they called him on the railroad.

"Our last name was Skelton. They nicknamed him Red."

Red liked his job.

"He never complained in all of 30 years about going to work," said Lena. "He was liable to get called at 2 in the morning. Whether it was 100 degrees or 10, he was ready to go to work.

"Sometimes, he was gone two or three days. They'd go all the way to Cairo, lay over with the coal train till they got another load ready.

"He loved every facet of it. Anybody who gets stopped by a train might holler about it. He was glad to sit there and watch the train go by."

The light on the back of the caboose was called the Flashing Rear End Device.

"Anyone who worked on the railroad called it Fred," said Lela. "If we would be stopped for a train, Vernon would say, 'There goes Fred. Say good-bye to Fred.' He said that after they no longer had a caboose on the train."

Vernon was a construction worker before his railroad career.

"I didn't even know him then," said Lela. "I had just come out of a bad marriage. My girlfriend and I were out celebrating. It was in November, 1956 when I met Vernon. In January, we married. We were married 35 years.

"I had two boys (David and Eugene Templeman) when I married him. There were 10 years difference between the two. My boys, they both loved him. He bought each one of them their first car."

Vernon, a Boy Scout leader and VFW commander in Collinsville, took up stained glass after he retired in 1992. "He made stepping stones and pictures for windows. There's one of his birds up there," she said, pointing to a pale bird above the railroad chair. "He went to different craft shows with his stained glass."

Lela, who worked as a waitress at Famous-Barr for 34 years, got a job after Vernon died.

"The only thing I ever knew was waitress work. They were hiring people for cafeterias at schools in Collinsville. I figured they aren't going to hire anyone that old.

"He died in August. They hired me in September. That was a big help to me. I stayed with that three years, until a year ago. I loved working around those kids."

Lela quit when she got sick, but considered going back.

"My sons said, 'No way, Mom, stay home.'"

She does, for the most part, spending time in her sunroom, near the chair that rode the train.

"I like my yardwork. My roses are doing fine and peonies are looking real well.

"I get a nice railroad pension." - Maureen Houston, The Belleville News-Democrat

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TEXAS RAILROAD STATE PARK

Photos here:

[images.chron.com]

Jason Jaeger of Houston celebrated his 37th birthday with an unexpected train ride.

"I had no idea," Jaeger said. "My girlfriend was just driving me around on the day after my birthday and I didn't know where I was going to end up."

Heading north on Interstate 45, Tara Faulds drove past the George Bush Intercontinental Airport, Jaeger's first guess, but stopped short of Dallas, his second thought.

He never would've predicted, Jaeger said, that their destination was the Texas State Railroad, about 150 miles north of Houston on the edge of the Piney Woods.

The couple pulled into the driveway of Fig Tree Manor, a bed and breakfast in Palestine, to spend the night before riding the train between Palestine and Rusk state parks, which were developed in the 1970s to support the rail endeavor, also a state park.

"It was pretty neat," Jaeger said. "It was something that I hadn't experienced before, being a city boy and not traveling on a train. If I did it again, I would probably go the other way just to experience the steam engine."

Faulds said she couldn't have asked for a better weekend trip. "I wanted something that would be affordable and a good day trip from Houston," she said. "It was the best surprise."

Whether you're a novice or a veteran at train travel, something about the mode of transportation has a timeless appeal. But state parks funding cutbacks have threatened the Texas State Railroad. A landmark for more than a century, the attraction faces closure in August -- or privatization -- unless the state Legislature approves a pending request for new funding.

'Big fun in Palestine'

On a Sunday in March, we arrived at the Palestine station to claim our reserved tickets about an hour before the train's departure. Riders may carry coolers aboard or purchase food at either station for a picnic lunch at the destination park before returning to the point of origin.
Snacks also are sold on the trains.

One climate-controlled car is available on each train. Other cars are cooled the old-fashioned way -- by opening the windows to the spring breeze.

The train has been running for 125 years, first to haul iron ore from Rusk. The state wanted to employ inmates in the new Rusk prison to extract iron from nearby hills and manufacture implements for commercial sale, according to Steam in the Pines: A History of the Texas State Railroad by Jonathan K. Gerland. The first mixed-use train, carrying both passengers and freight, began running in 1909.

Our engine, a vintage diesel, was built in the '40s. A refurbished World War I steam engine was leading another train in the opposite direction. The trains' antique cars date from the '20s, but the railroad didn't become a state park until 1976.

The trip takes 90 minutes to reach the opposite station 25 miles away. Once visitors arrive, they have another 90 minutes in a park.

The trains look the part of historical artifact, and they have provided vintage ambience in more than two dozen films, including Oh Brother, Where Art Thou, A Woman of Independent Means and The Gambler IV as well as on the television show Walker, Texas Ranger and PBS documentaries.

When the train whistle first blows, kids of all ages gasp with anticipation. Our engine started moving with a big lurch, eliciting more "oohs" and "aahs."

But after a precipitous beginning, the train proceeded at a relaxed, if creaky, 25 mph, passing ranch houses, yellow wildflowers, junk vehicles and a huge Confederate flag. The railroad has right of way through crossings, so pickup trucks lined up to let us pass.

"This is big fun in Palestine," a passenger remarked.

Fun along the route

We spotted no wildlife, but there have been sightings of white-tail deer, coyote, rabbits, possums and armadillos.

In the spring, redbuds, dogwoods and wildflowers paint the landscape a kaleidoscope of colors.
Fall turns foliage vivid and brings out red dogwood berries. But even without these seasonal adornments, the ride through piney woods, hardwood creek bottoms and over bridges isn't boring. The early spring greenery lulled us into tranquility.

Halfway to Rusk, our train passed the steam engine running in the opposite direction. We leaned out windows to photograph the oncoming train and its waving passengers -- also clutching cameras -- going by in a dizzy blur.

At Rusk, we bought lunch at a snack bar operated by Eilenberger's Bakery. Choices included cold sandwiches on good, fresh-baked bread; microwaved hot dogs; and homemade cookies, and we headed for a picnic spot overlooking the picturesque, 15-acre lake.

Gift shops at both stations overflow with train-related and handcrafted items -- leather keychains with Texas map symbols, $10; railroad throws, $59.95; a Texas history tote bag, $32.50, a walking stick, $41.95, and mugs for $8.95 as well as T-shirts, refrigerator magnets and Thomas the Tank Engine books and toys.

Enticements on the lake at Rusk used to include rentable pedal boats. But lilypad overgrowth and a lack of staff to supervise water sports have resulted in the boats being moved elsewhere.
Still, campers and day-trippers can launch their own rowboats or canoes off the banks of the lake.

Uncertain future

Bill Langford, Rusk State Park's superintendent, said if funding doesn't materialize, the train will become a museum, a static exhibit, and both Rusk and Palestine state parks would be dramatically affected since the railroad is the main attraction.

"Anything that affects the train is going to affect us," Langford said.

Krysta Isayev, a cheerful, helpful clerk and reservationist for the campgrounds at Rusk, is constantly busy greeting RV-driving campers. Her office, though, is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays due to cutbacks that have slashed the park's staff by more than half.

"It's just a lot harder than it was," Langford said.

Most visitors come to the park to ride the train, perhaps combining an overnight stay in the campground.

One 70-year-old woman, whom Isayev met when she worked on the train, had been a passenger in the first grade when the rail line was more than a tourist attraction.

The train has deep roots, particularly within the families of local residents.

"Both my kids have ridden on it, and I'd like to have my grandkids continue the tradition," Isayev said.

PLANNING A TRIP

Map:

[images.chron.com]

Palestine State Park is in Anderson County, and Rusk State Park is in Cherokee County. The Texas State Railroad connects the parks about 150 miles north of Houston.

Official Park Map:

[www.tpwd.state.tx.us]

• Getting there: Take Interstate 45 north to Exit 178. Follow U.S. 79 toward Buffalo. Near Palestine, take Loop 256 east. Palestine State Park and its depot are about three miles east of Palestine on U.S. 84. Rusk State Park and its station are west of Rusk on U.S. 84.

• Hours: Palestine and Rusk state parks are open daily until 22:00 hours. The Texas State Railroad operation is seasonal: Trains leave Rusk and Palestine stations at 11:00 hours Saturdays and Sundays in April, May and August. In June and July, trains will operate Thursdays through Sundays. Check to see which way the steam train is running because this varies.

• Cost: Climate-controlled seating on the train costs $27 round-trip. Regular seating is $20 round-trip. Children's tickets cost $14-$20. Kids ride free June through August. One-way tickets are available. Palestine and Rusk state parks charge $2 per day for visitors ages 13 and older.

MORE INFORMATION

• Palestine and Rusk park information: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/
findadest/parks/rusk_and_palestine. 903-683-5126.

• Texas State Railroad: www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/
findadest/parks/texas_state_railroad. 800-442-8951.

• Area tourism information: 800-659-3484.

- Eileen McClelland, The Houston Chronicle

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CHASKA TRAINS MAY BE THING OF THE PAST

CHASKA, MN -- “There is a 90 percent certainty the railroad will never have a train (come through town) again,” City Administrator David Pokorney told the Chaska City Council at a work session recently.

When a Union Pacific railroad trestle collapsed in heavy Minnesota River floodwaters last month, Chaska city staff knew they had an opportunity on their hands.

Pokorney told the council that city staff had already been working with Union Pacific, which runs the line through downtown, and Twin Cities & Western, which runs a line through northern Chaska, for the last six to nine months on a concept that would create a transfer station in Chaska’s industrial park.

The transfer station would have the capabilities to unload bulk items, like sugar, from train onto trucks that could then be delivered to United Sugars on Stoughton Avenue.

That would solve United Sugars’ main problem. Since the railroad trestle collapsed, they have been unable to receive sugar and have been working with their existing supply.

“They are very interested in keeping Chaska open,” said Matt Podhradsky, assistant city administrator.

The concept would involve Twin Cities & Western building a transfer facility in northern Chaska. The city of Chaska would pay the railroad $850,000 to build the facility.

Pokorney said they have already talked with the Chaska company Quali Tech about arranging for an easement for the railroad to drive across its land to the station. In return, the railroad would upgrade Quali Tech’s road and parking.

Twin Cities & Western would also have to sign a long-term contract with United Sugars to provide trucking service to them. The railroad has said it believed it could provide the trucking service at a competitive price to train delivery, Pokorney said.

Union Pacific would then be expected to turn over their railroad right-of-way to the city at no cost. Because United Sugars and the city of Chaska (which once received a load of fuel oil) are the only customers on that Union Pacific line, they could make it easy for Union Pacific to legally abandon the railroad line.

Pokorney said he estimated the right-of-way in Chaska to be worth $500,000 to $600,000. That value would go toward the city’s funding of the transfer station.

Additional dollars would come from money set aside to upgrade the railroad crossing at Hickory Street (which would not be needed if the railroad were unused) as well as money from the Metropolitan Council, which would like to use the railroad land to extend the existing sewer line from Athletic Park to downtown Carver, Pokorney said.

The abandoned tracks could potentially create opportunities for trails, street connections and redevelopment, Pokorney said. - Mollee Francisco, The Shakopee Valley News

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$4.5 MILLION JURY AWARD FOR MAN HURT AT RAIL YARD CALLED RECORD

A railroad worker from Montana whose hand was crushed on the job in South Dakota was awarded $4.5 million Friday by a Hennepin County District Court jury. It was the largest amount in state history under a federal law, his lawyer said.

Steven Tennant of Helena, Montana claimed he lost the use of his right hand when a load of wood shifted and crushed it as he tried to push a piece of wood back onto a Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Corp. rail car in Rapid City, South Dakota. "The railroad lied at trial, and we caught them. The incredible injury and damages prove it," said Bill Jungbauer, who tried the case along with Don Aldrich.

But Brian Donahoe, a lawyer for the Sioux Falls, SD-based railroad, disputed the account and said the company intends to appeal. "We're saddened and disheartened that the legal system has let my client down in this situation, but we are quite confident that the misinformation -- or perhaps one could say the intentional misstatements of facts and law -- will be remedied," he said.

The jury issued its verdict in Judge George McGunnigle's courtroom after a nine-day trial that ended early Thursday. Although the incident occurred in another state, Jungbauer of Minneapolis said Tennant was allowed to sue under the federal Employer's Liability Act "anywhere the railroad lays track." The main issue in the case was whether the wood was sticking out on the rail car.

In Jungbauer's version, the wood was sticking out, but someone cut it off while his client was in the hospital. He said a company official saw the wood sticking out and remarked on it in the internal investigation but changed his story at trial.

"They lied, lied and told more lies," Jungbauer said.

The jury believed the story of Tennant, 48, who was given the multimillion-dollar award for pain, suffering and lost wages. Jungbauer said previous verdicts under the act have not been more than $1 million.

"Somebody's not telling the truth here perhaps, but it's not the railroad folks," Donahoe said.

Donahoe disputes Jungbauer's version of events, including that the wood was sticking out. Donahoe said Tennant was alone in the yard when the incident occurred May 21, 2004, and no one saw what happened.

"We think there were some very serious problems with the facts ... and a lot of the claims made by the plaintiffs were made by assumptions, speculation and innuendo," he said. - Rochelle Olson, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune

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JAMES J. HILL SAPPHIRE FETCHES BIG BUCKS

MINNEAPOLIS, MN -- One of the most valuable assets ever handed to the Minnesota Historical Society -- a sapphire purchased more than a century ago by the railroad magnate James J. Hill -- has fetched a cool $3 million.

The 22.66-carat sapphire got the largest sapphire bid in history Wednesday at an auction at Christie's New York, according to the auction house.

"I've never won the lottery, but I can imagine this felt something like that; people are in a state of shock around here," said Nina Archabal, the Historical Society's director. "If we'd seen $300,000, we would've been happy."

The money will go toward a historical society endowment to maintain the James J. Hill House on Summit Avenue in St. Paul.

Archabal said she had heard the sapphire might fetch $80,000 to $90,000. When the historical society turned over the sapphire to Christie's, the pre-sale estimate came in at $250,000 to $350,000.

Then, Rahul Kadakia, senior vice president and head of jewelry at Christie's America, upped his guess to $1 million when he finally laid eyes on the gem.

The final bid, $3.064 million, was made by an anonymous collector. The previous record for a sapphire bid was $3.038 million for the 2001 sale of the 62-carat Rockefeller Sapphire, according to Christie's.

Kadakia said the gem's age, family history, the fact it was unknown to the market -- and that the money was going to a good cause -- all made the sale "the perfect auction situation."

"It's one of the finest Kashmir sapphires I've seen," he said.

Sapphires mined from Kashmir are known for their "cornflower blue" color and velvety appearance; mining in the South Asian region stopped about 150 years ago.

The gem was the centerpiece of a $2,200 diamond- and sapphire-encrusted necklace bought by Hill on Dec. 24, 1886, from a vendor identified in Hill's receipts as Randel, Baremore Billings. Hill -- who built the Great Northern and Northern Pacific railways and became one of the wealthiest Americans of his century -- gave the necklace to his wife, Mary.

"Sounds like last-minute Christmas shopping to me," Archabal said.

Three years after Hill's death in 1916, the necklace's central stone and 36 smaller gems were divided among Hill's six surviving daughters. The sapphire was bequeathed to the historical society in 2006 by a descendent of the Hills, with the authorization to sell it.

As a financial asset, the sapphire was not entered into the society's collection. Archabal said because the necklace was split up, the stone was not considered to have great historical value. - The Associated Press, WCCO-TV4, Minneapolis, MN

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RAILWAY KEEPS MILTON ON TRACK

MILTON, WI -- Milton, Wisconsin is depending on rail to help fill its industrial parks.

Without the railroad, city officials say, Milton wouldn't have attracted United Ethanol, Cargill or New England Extrusion to its Eastside Industrial Park.

The railroad also is vital for Farm City Elevator and Tomah Products on the west side of the city.

"If we did not have rail access, we would not have landed the developments," said city Administrator Todd Schmidt. "Rail-served industrial sites are a commodity for two reasons. One reason is that there are industries that rely heavily on rail, and cannot survive without it. A second reason is that vacant rail-served industrial sites are hard to come by.

"So, because the city's industrial parks are situated with access to rail, they are attractive to a greater number of potential developments who are looking for an array of transportation options," Schmidt said.

The city has a long history with the railroad. Trains whistles have echoed across Milton for 155 years.

Joseph Goodrich, the city's founder, was instrumental in bringing the railroad to Milton in 1852. He mortgaged his farm to help raise $250,000 to extend the rails from Waukesha to Milton, according to stories in Milton Historical Society archives.

At a meeting in 1850 with Milwaukee & Mississippi Road executives Goodrich said he could raise $3,000 on the farm by traveling back to his eastern roots to find investors.

Before the meeting ended, Goodrich also encouraged the 300 other farmers in attendance to invest in the city's future by bringing the railroad here.

The rails were built on a vision, but it was the railroad that brought prosperity to the community.

In the past, local farmers depended on the iron horse to transport crops to markets in Madison, Milwaukee and Chicago. In addition to regularly scheduled freight trains, the community was served daily by more than a dozen passenger trains.

The passenger trains are gone, but the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad short line rail service has become a major player in Milton's economy.

Wisconsin & Southern was created in 1980 as a regional service operating in the southern half of Wisconsin and northeastern Illinois. It travels more than 600 miles of branch and mainline track through 20 counties on both sides of the state line.

In Milton, trains make regular deliveries of corn meal to Cargill and raw plastic resin to New England Extrusion.

"A high amount of our raw material comes by rail," said Christopher Brissette, shipping and receiving manager at New England Extrusion.

The railroad was a key factor in the Massachusetts company building in Milton, Brissette said.

At United Ethanol, rail tankers line a spur in front of the building. The cars will leave the plant with their ethanol cargo destined for national markets, said Ken Lucht, Wisconsin & Southern community development spokesman.

Milton has actively pursued new residents for its industrial parks, Lucht said.

The railroad was one of the primary reasons Tomah Products located to the city in the early 1970s, said Greg Linder, area site manager with Air Products.

"The company wouldn't be here without the railroad," Linder said.

Rail cars deliver raw materials to the Milton company and transport about a dozen products to a diverse and national market, Linder said.

"In Milton, we rally around our railway heritage," Schmidt said. "It's a big part of what Milton is and will be." - Carla McCann, The Janesville Gazette

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HEAR THE TRAIN A-COMIN'? MANTECA LOOKS TO QUIET RAILROAD CROSSINGS

MANTECA, CA -- Joann Biermann brought a purple boom-box to a recent City Council meeting, armed with the sounds of "Last Train Home," by Pat Metheny Group to let city leaders know something needs to be done about train noise.

Ironically, her stereo didn't work -- which may have proved her point more effectively than the song as the room was left in a calm silence.

Biermann is concerned about the many Manteca residents -- especially those with young children -- who live along the railroad tracks that cut diagonally through town and have to deal with constant blaring horns from freight trains.

"My concern is for those who are awakened by train horns in the middle of the night and can't get their rest, those with children and who travel long distances," she said. "It can adversely affect them and their children."

She is not alone. Several complaints from residents prompted city officials to investigate whether it would be worth it to implement a system to mitigate train noise.

Train engineers are required by law to blow their horns when approaching an intersection, said James Barnes, a spokesman for Union Pacific Railroad, the owner of the track that runs through Manteca.

"It's a safety issue, engineers don't blow whistles loud on purpose," he said.

In 2005, the Federal Railroad Administration published a guideline for horns, requiring locomotive horns be sounded at all public grade crossings 15 to 20 seconds, but not more than a quarter mile before entering a crossing.

With the city's nine railroad crossings, the sound of train whistles reverberates for miles and for several minutes.

The City Council concurred with resident pleas, asking staff to retrieve information on ways to reduce train noise.

The solution may be simple, though costly. The federal government allows communities to coordinate with railroads to create "quiet zones" at railroad crossings. The quiet zones are actually automated track-side horns that sound warnings toward oncoming traffic, rather than loud train whistles announcing their presence.

Other communities, such as Roseville, say the track-side horns have been overwhelmingly positive. Jason Shykowski -- a senior civil engineer in Roseville -- said that the quiet zones were installed at the city's two major crossings sometime in 2000 or 2001, after an extensive process through the state Legislature.

"The guidelines that are in place now with the FRA weren't there back then, so there was a lot that went into it," he said. "It was something that a lot of local citizens wanted."

Transportation Analyst David Vickers took a side trip to Roseville last weekend, saying he was impressed with the quiet zones implemented there.

"You really do notice a difference," he said, adding that he noticed warning was given to drivers as trains roared through town without a peep.

Installation of the devices are considered a city responsibility, thus costs for all installation and maintenance issues would fall on Manteca. While the project likely would not qualify for Federal grant funding, the City Council did ask staff to see if the San Joaquin Council of Governments would chip in with help.

As far as compatibility, Union Pacific's network supports use of the devices, Barnes said.

City officials estimate that the quiet zones could cost as much as $1.6 million -- or $125,000 to $175,000 per crossing, based on an estimate given by a potential installer, Public Works Director Michael Brinton said.

Costs for the systems vary. The projected price tag for a basic active warning system at an intersection -- including flashing lights and gates, constant warning time, and power-out indicator -- ranges from $185,000 to $400,000, according to Union Pacific.

If approved, the project would be put to bid by the city.

The question of loud train horns has been echoed in Lathrop recently, while Stockton officials are looking at putting quiet zones near residential areas.

A proposal on the quiet zones will be brought before the Council sometime in May, Vickers said. - Paul Burgarino, The Tri-Valley Herald

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UU MYTHBUSTERS INVESTIGATE LINCOLN TRAIN

Photo here:

[www.urbanacitizen.com]

URBANA, OH -- On April 29, 1865, thousands turned out to pay their last respects to a fallen president as Abraham Lincoln's funeral train passed through Champaign County.

A much smaller group will be on hand Sunday to catch a glimpse of a "ghost train" that followed in Lincoln's wake, if it exists.

"My (History) 205 class is taking on an endeavor to investigate a long-held myth in Urbana," explained Julieanne Phillips, an assistant professor of American History at Urbana University. "My students and I plan to go to the depot site on Miami Street ... and be witnesses to either support the myth or debunk it."

Phillips said some Web sites dedicated to self-styled ghost hunters, such as www.shadowseekers.com, contribute to the spread of the story.

"Inside the train, a crew of skeletons can be spotted. Halfway back the train is Lincoln's coffin, surrounded by a crew of blue-coated skeletons. It is also said that all the clocks in the area stop while the train passes by," according to one page at the Shadow Seekers site. "Residents of both Urbana and Piqua have reported seeing a ghostly locomotive on the tracks in their area, and unexplained train whistles and smoke (plumes) have been reported."

The Indiana and Ohio Railway acquired the former Conrail line between Springfield and Bellefontaine in 1994, and it's the last active rail line to go through the city of Urbana.

While an I&O spokesperson was unavailable to comment for this story, the records department of the Urbana Police Division confirmed there have been at least six reports of malfunctioning crossing gates at the Miami Street crossing since December of 2006, including one on April 26 and one on April 11.

Is it simply an equipment error, or are those gate sensors being tripped by a paranormal presence?

Ask an expert

A local author, Scott D. Trostel of Fletcher, has written a historical account of the 1,654-mile journey. "The Lincoln Funeral Train: The Final Journey and National Funeral for Abraham Lincoln" was published in 2002.

"I have to consider him the expert," said Champaign County Historical Society volunteer Dick Virts. "Scott's forgotten more about the subject than I'll ever know."

Trostel said Virts assisted him with the research for the funeral train book. He has written 34 other volumes on trains and railroad history, and he's a federal track inspector. Trostel said the ghost stories surrounding the funeral train are the work of people with "vivid and fertile imaginations."

"Those stories started in the Hudson River Valley in New York just a few years after the train came through," he said. "I have read better than 20 Lincoln ghost train stories and people keep encouraging me to write another book about them, but I'm a historian, not a fantasizer."

As for the Miami Street crossing bars and their erratic behavior, Trostel said the cause is more likely simple rather than supernatural.

"Crossing gates don't just go up and down by themselves," he said. "It can be anything, like condensation in the sensors, that causes it to malfunction."

Historical facts

Trostel said the Lincoln funeral train did stop in Urbana for about 20 minutes en route to Lincoln's burial site in Illinois, a fact which is well-documented despite the lack of photographic evidence.

However, it didn't stop at the depot on Miami Street.

"Many people assume there was only one station, but that's not the case," Trostel said. "Lincoln's funeral train actually stopped at the station on North Main Street at 22:40 hours. At that point in time, flash photos could not be taken (at night), so there is very little photographic evidence of the trip through western Ohio."

The rail line, now abandoned, that carried the train through Urbana was the Columbus and Indianapolis Central Railway, and it did cross Miami Street on its westward path.

"They had a big arch wreath with flowers on it constructed over the tracks, but there was a train preceding Lincoln's that wouldn't fit through it, so they had to take it down, and Lincoln's train was about three to five miles behind the other train," Virts said. "It wasn't a very long stop at all, just enough time for people to lay a wreath to show their respect."

Trostel said it was a "fluke" that the funeral train traveled through Champaign County, because the rail line that went through Dayton was better at the time, and the tracks between Westville and Piqua had the second steepest grade in the state, requiring two locomotives to pull trains.

""The better railroad was through Dayton, but because of the Copperheads (anti-war Democrats) in Cincinnati, security was worried about that route and chose to take it north," he said. "The section of track between Greenville and Richmond, Indiana, was only six weeks old when the train came through."

Trostel said the engineer who operated the train through western Ohio was James Gormley of Columbus, an Irish immigrant who had worked for the railroad since he was about 12 years old.

"They also had an undertaker and an embalmer on board, whose only job was to keep (Lincoln) looking good," he said. "When they started out ... they picked him and packed him in ice."

Since Lincoln was not embalmed, the train began making more frequent stops in smaller locales to allow six individuals on board at a time to lay "fragrant floral" wreaths on the casket to mask the smell of decomposition, Trostel said.

"The (funeral train) was actually done over Mary Todd Lincoln's objections," Trostel added. "They had no idea the crowds were going to turn out the way they did. Almost one-third of settled America's population at the time came trackside."

Train route

The train originally departed from Washington, DC on April 21, 1865. In addition to Lincoln's body and an honor guard, it carried 300 mourners to the site of his burial, along with the coffin of his son, Willie Lincoln. The younger Lincoln died in 1862 at age 11 and was disinterred to be reburied with his father in Springfield, Illinois.

The train traveled up the eastern seaboard to Philadelphia and New York City, then back across New York and Pennsylvania to Cleveland and then Columbus, where it stopped at 07:30 hours on April 29, 1865. Lincoln's coffin was transported to the state capitol and Lincoln lay in-state in the rotunda about 12 hours while almost 50,000 people came to say goodbye to the man many considered a national hero.

The train departed Columbus at 20:00 hours and moved on through western Ohio, with several stops in places with names since swallowed by time on the now-abandoned railroad.

Pleasant Valley, now known as Plain City, was one of several pauses in Union County at 20:45 hours, then it was on to Unionville and Milford Center before the train crossed into Champaign County and stopped at Woodstock.

Tiny northeast villages like Fountain Park, Brush Lake, Cable and Hagenbaugh greeted the train before it stopped in Urbana, and it continued through Rice, Westville, and St. Paris before moving on to Miami County, passing through Lena, Conover, Fletcher, Spring Creek and Jordan. When the funeral train arrived in Piqua around 00:30 hours on Sunday, April 30, a crowd of 10,000 was waiting.

Further along the route, the train passed through Indianapolis and Chicago before arriving in Springfield, Illinois, on May 3, 1865. Lincoln's funeral service was held the next day and by the time of his burial, the nation had been in mourning for 20 days since his death on April 15, 1865. While most of the mourners gathered at the train stops to pay their last respects, thousands more lined the train tracks in rural areas as it passed through on its way to Lincoln's final destination. - Breanne Parcels, The Urbana Daily Citizen

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THE MEN WHO MADE GOING ABOARD A TRAIN INTO 'A STATELY PROCESSION'

BOOK REVIEW

CONQUERING GOTHAM, A GILDED AGE EPIC: THE CONSTRUCTION OF PENN STATION AND ITS TUNNELS, BY JILL JONES

Viking Books/368 pages/$27.95

In 1901, only one railroad came directly into Manhattan. The jewel in the crown of the Vanderbilt family, the New York Central ran along the Hudson, then crossed the Harlem River into the financial capital of the world. Ten other railroads ended their runs in New Jersey, then ferried passengers and packages into midtown.

Enter Alexander Cassatt, the seventh president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the largest transportation corporation in the world. A "safe man, deliberate in considering, slow of judgment, patient in decision," according to the journalist Frank Spearman, Cassatt was capable "when action must come -- of a tremendous initiative and follow-through." After considering a bridge across the Hudson, from Hoboken to West 23rd Street, Cassatt decided to build a system of tunnels connecting Manhattan to New Jersey and Long Island -- and a massive terminal, grander than the Gare d'Orsay in Paris. Even if it took 10 years, cost $100 million and depressed the price of the company's stock. Even if he had to work through or run over Republican bosses and Tammany tigers to do it.

In Conquering Gotham, Jill Jonnes, a free-lance writer, draws on the voluminous records of the Pennsylvania Railroad to relate the "epic history" of Penn Station and its tunnels. She frames the narrative -- in lush and lovely prose -- as a classic conflict between the enlightened and the benighted, rational reformers and rogues. This approach is well-suited to the monumental feats of the project's engineers, led by Charles Jacobs, and architect Charles Follen McKim. But it distorts the politics of Penn Station.

Jonnes follows the "sandhogs" as they blasted their way through 16 miles of tunnels, coated iron tubes with two-foot thick inner walls of reinforced concrete, rushed to escape when structures flooded and, all too often, collapsed from "the bends" soon after they returned to the apparent safety of the sidewalks of New York. In 1908, all the tunnels were completed -- and the engineers celebrated at a classy Manhattan restaurant, with jokes about a Tunnel Bowling League and a silly song, "The Pennsy Tunnels." But, Jonnes has discovered, as they toasted one another, the engineers knew that the tunnels were moving, rising and falling with the tides of the Hudson. It was an engineering gamble that paid off.

The design of Penn Station was far less dramatic, but no less impressive. Modeled on the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, with majestic Doric columns adorning its facade, Penn Station covered 7-1/2 acres. A city unto itself, the terminal had shops, offices, a medical clinic, a police station with a two-cell jail, waiting rooms for funeral parties, a grand stairway, 158 fountains and a breathtaking General Waiting Room. Charles McKim, the art historian Hilary Ballon suggests, had translated "the mundane business of boarding trains into a stately procession."

The construction of Penn Station and its tunnels, Jonnes believes, is a drama of civic redemption. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with President Theodore Roosevelt, a heroic Alexander Cassatt enlisted "in an ongoing war over whether the United States will be an honorable republic or a corrupt plutocracy." "Utterly determined to proceed honorably," Cassatt granted pensions to Pennsylvania Railroad employees and gave workers earning less than $200 two 10 percent increases. While Tammanyites disdained constructive uses of government, "except as it might augment influence, patronage or boodle," Cassatt refused to pay bribes or make secret deals. And he prevailed: The Pennsylvania Railroad got its franchise from a once recalcitrant New York's Board of Aldermen and "paid no boodle."

Jonnes' Cassatt is too good to be true. Pensions and pay raises were not bestowed. They were wrung from management by employees with work stoppages and strikes. Nor did Cassatt grant an eight-hour day or prevailing wages to his workers in New York. And there is reason to believe that Cassatt greased some palms to persuade aldermen to reverse themselves. He hired the son of Republican boss Thomas Platt as counsel, at $10,000 a year. He granted the biggest excavation project in America to Isaac Hopper, the lowest bidder, then blinked as Charles Murphy, the chief sachem of Tammany Hall, got the job.

Cassatt had a fatal heart attack Dec. 28, 1906. And so he was present, but only as a bronze statue, more than three years later, when Penn Station opened. He's been bronzed as well in Conquering Gotham, though Jonnes is surely right that but for his foresight and courage -- and the hard work of so many sandhogs -- no train ever would have left the Pennsylvania Station. - Glenn C. Altschuler, The Baltimore Sun (Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University.)

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TRANSIT NEWS

EVERETT EXAMINES BRINGING STREETCARS BACK TO THE CITY

EVERETT, WA -- Electric trolleys first appeared on Everett streets in 1893, eventually linking all of the young city's bayside and riverfront neighborhoods with the commerce of Broadway and downtown.

Now the city is studying the wisdom -- and affordability -- of creating a new streetcar system to connect major economic and employment centers throughout the greater downtown area.

"We need some way of tying together the biggest economic development the city has seen since the days of Charles Colby and Henry Hewitt," said City Councilman Mark Olson.

Colby and Hewitt avenues, named for those civic founders, are among the major routes under study by the city's San Francisco-based consulting firm, Nelson\Nygaard.

As in the city's early days, the major changes are happening along the water, with a pair of planned public-private developments each worth an estimated $400 million. It would take nearly nine miles of streetcar rail to link them.

The city's saltwater bayside at the foot of 13th Street will sprout the Port Gardner Wharf project, which is to include restaurants, condos, retail and office space. A similar mix of developments is to be built along a two-mile stretch of the Snohomish River, centered around 41st Street.

Nelson\Nygaard is expected to report back to the City Council in June or July with results from the second phase of its $112,700 contract, this time focusing on system costs and funding options.

In addition to the waterfront links, the consultant is looking at a possible streetcar line running between downtown and Everett Community College, along a Colby route that also would serve Providence Everett Medical Center.

Portland kicked off a national streetcar craze with a system credited with reviving its trendy Pearl District neighborhood. Billions of dollars have been invested in redevelopment projects along that streetcar line, said Tom Brennan, a principal of Nelson\Nygaard.

"When they first built the streetcar, it literally was chugging through vacant rail yards ... in the middle of nowhere," he said. "If you ride the line today, it's 20- and 30-story buildings."

Nearly 50 cities -- including Boston, Atlanta and Detroit -- are studying or building streetcar projects, he said. Seattle modeled its Lake Union streetcar after Portland's as well. That 1.3-mile line between the lake's south end and Westlake Center is expected to be finished by fall.

"It's kind of exciting stuff," said Drew Nielsen, an Everett councilman. "We don't know whether it's financially feasible at this point, but we're certainly interested."

Economically, Brennan said, the most feasible first phase would be laying rail between the Everett Station and downtown -- perhaps ending at the key intersection of Colby and Hewitt. That route would pass by the Everett Events Center, itself a major redevelopment force, and could later be extended south along Smith Avenue to the riverfront project.

Brennan also likes the idea of linking downtown with Everett Community College and the hospital, because developers of future downtown apartments and condos could tout ease of access to jobs and the campus.

The bayside segment would be the most expensive, he said. It would run along the industrial Marine View Drive, which currently lacks many points of interest.

Cost estimates are not ready for the Everett options, he said, but Portland's costs have averaged about $14 million per mile. If two sets of tracks are needed, for two-way traffic, then it doubles to $28 million.

Funding options include creating a local improvement district, which would tax property owners, or pursuing grants through the Federal Transit Administration, which awards up to $75 million for streetcar projects.

But pursuing -- and spending -- federal funds can add years to the development process, warned both Brennan and Tom Hingson, Everett's transportation-services director.

If the city decides to pursue a streetcar system, the next steps would include choosing its image and appearance.

Portland opted for a sleek, modern look, while other cities prefer a historic image. San Francisco, for instance, has been buying and restoring old trolleys from around the world, Brennan said.

Councilman Olson has a soft spot for that Bay Area cable-car system.

"It's a more charming, romantic way of getting around town. I thoroughly enjoy riding the streetcars in San Francisco, and usually find a way to do so even if I don't have a particular need to," he said. "It's more Disney than standardized mass transit." - Diane Brooks, The Seattle Times, courtesy Dick Seelye

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SOUND TRANSIT PROPOSES EXTENDED LIGHT-RAIL PACKAGE

SEATTLE, WA -- A proposed extension that would take Sound Transit's light rail service farther north and lengthen a planned streetcar line in Seattle could be put before voters in November.

The proposal approved by Sound Transit's governing board is for 50 miles of new light rail, in addition to the 16 miles currently under construction, as well as a 3-mile-long tunnel to Husky Stadium.

In 1996, voters approved a 16-mile light rail system connecting downtown Seattle to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

The board on Thursday approved a proposal to extend light rail north to Ash Way and 164th Street Southwest in Snohomish County. The line also would be extended from its original final stop at the Port of Tacoma on to the Tacoma Dome. An extension to Bellevue and Overlake also would be included.

The agency also voted to extend a proposed Seattle streetcar route another six blocks to Aloha Street, running it from the International District to First Hill and Capitol Hill. An earlier plan suggested ending the line near Broadway and John Street.

The revised package also includes four new parking garages, a new Bothell transit center for buses and two new Sounder rail stations.

The plan is expected to cost $23 billion, about $6 billion more than originally estimated. Completion is expected in 2027.

It would cost individual households no more than $125 per year, the agency said.

The board still must vote on whether to send the new proposal to voters in the fall. - The Associated Press, KMOM-TV4, Seattle, WA

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OVERNIGHT LIGHT RAIL TEST SUCCESSFUL

Photo here:

[www.kpho.com]

PHOENIX, AZ -- Valley Metro engineers said Thursday night's high speed test of light rail overnight near 50th and Washington streets was successful.

"Things went great. The train performed the way it was designed to perform and that's all good," said Joe Murie with Valley Metro.

"We had a very safe operation. We worked very, very well with Phoenix PD to secure intersections to make sure we were really safe," Murie said. "We're checking the propulsion, how the train accelerates, how it breaks, how it decelerates and everything went really, really well."

Metro engineers fired the train up to 55 mph. It was the first train tested, with 49 others to follow.

Murie said the testing will continue. "Tonight was just the first train 101 we call it. We have to run that train for many, many, many months before we will accept the train from the manufacturer. This is part of the qualification testing."

The first 20 miles of light rail will be fully operational by late 2008. - KPHO-TV5, Phoenix, AZ

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RAIL PLAN MUST NOT WAIT FOR TROLLEYS

MADISON, WI -- The mayor needs to drop his silly plan to tie his trolley idea to the long-studied and ready-to-move-ahead plans to bring commuter rail to Dane County.

His streetcar ideas face enough hurdles that it would be nothing less than foolhardy for the folks who have been diligently and painstakingly working on commuter rail to wait for the mayor to get his act together.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz wants Transport 2020, which has been a coordinated effort among Dane County, Madison and other municipalities to address our long-term transportation problems, to stop in its tracks and wait for his streetcar proposal to catch up. The commuter rail recommendations, which got their final touches this week, have been in the making for 10 years now.

The plan is a simple one that would begin with trains running from Middleton on the west side to out near Sun Prairie on the east. There would be stops at all the high-traffic places -- Monona Terrace, the Kohl Center, Camp Randall -- to shuttle people from the suburbs to workplaces downtown and at the university.

Football and basketball fans could park in Middleton or at East Towne and grab the train to and from the games.

The aim, of course, is to reduce the reliance on the automobile by making transportation quick and easy. Some argue that buses would do as well, but remember: Trains don't stop at stoplights and contribute to traffic congestion, while buses do.

Cieslewicz believes the trolleys could tie in with commuter rail. True, they can, but that doesn't mean we should stop the rail initiative and wait for what promises to be a tough road ahead before a final trolley decision is reached.

Plus, our congresswoman, Tammy Baldwin, has reportedly told local representatives that the time to ask for federal money is now. We could lose out if we wait too long to ask for federal assistance.

If the city decides that trolleys are a way to go, they can always be linked to commuter rail at some later date. - Commentary, Dave Zweifel, The Madison Capital Times

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LIGHT RAIL SECURITY GUARD HOSPITALIZED AFTER BEATING

SACRAMENTO, CA -- A security guard working on a Regional Transit light rail train remained hospitalized on Friday after he was attacked by three young men earlier this week, police said.

Authorities said Robert Root, 68, was seriously beaten at about 02:15 hours Wednesday.

Early Friday, Casanova Williamson, 19, was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and robbery in connection with the attack. Police said they are still searching for two other alleged attackers.

Officials said Root approached a group of young men who were being loud and profane on the train. He asked them to be quiet.

The men persisted in being loud. Police said Root approached the men again, only to be attacked and beaten.

Police said the attackers jumped off the train at the Alkali Flat station. The train continued to the 13th Street station, where it was met by police and an ambulance.

Root remains in intensive care at Sutter General Hospital. His daughter said Root's injuries include a broken jaw, broken cheekbone and broken nose.

Root is an employee of Wackenhut Security, which provides security to RT on trains and at some stations. - KCRA-TV3, Sacramento, CA, courtesy Coleman Randall, Jr

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THE END