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Railroad Newsline for Saturday, December 09, 2006

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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RAIL NEWS

AMTRAK TO BE FEATURED ON ABC NEWS, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 09

The railroad industry is known for its breathtaking views along its scenic routes; now Amtrak wants to make sure it's known for its fabulous meals as well.

In a story tentatively scheduled for Saturday, Dec09, at 18:00, CST, Amtrak will be featured on ABC News for a recent upgrade in their food and beverage menu. Amtrak is upgrading its First Class menu and meals service on its premier trains. The changes kicked off a major initiative by Amtrak to improve long-distance passengers' experience and improve Amtrak's financial performance.

Passengers will be treated to a new on-board experience as Amtrak's Empire Builder travels across eight states, from Chicago to Seattle and Portland. Passengers have a choice of freshly prepared hot entrees during breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner time. The new look will include refurbished rail cars, new on-board services and improved passenger amenities.

The Trails and Rails program will also be a great feature for sightseers. It is an innovative partnership between the National Park Service and Amtrak designed to encourage sightseers who are not traditional National Park visitors to explore the natural and cultural aspects of several regions of the country.

The ABC News crew had an opportunity to taste some of the new menu options as they rode Amtrak on BNSF Railway Company trackage to Whitefish, Montana from Minneapolis, Minnesota.

It was also noted that some of the recipes being used are from the menus originally offered by two famous BNSF predecessor passenger trains, the California Zephyr and Empire Builder. The California Zephyr was one of several famous Zephyr trains operated by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q) and the Empire Builder was the most famous passenger train operated by the Great Northern Railway. So Amtrak not only preserved the names of some of the most famous passenger trains of BNSF's predecessor railroads, it is also now using some of their best recipes.

To learn more about Amtrak's food upgrades, be sure to watch ABC News.

Please note: The news segment is tentatively scheduled to run Saturday, Dec09, at 18:00, CST, but may change due to scheduling conflicts. - BNSF Today

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TRUCKING GIANT J.B. HUNT LEAVES LEGACY

SPRINGDALE, AR -- Johnnie Bryan Hunt, 79, the founder of Lowell-based trucking company J.B. Hunt Transport Service, died Thursday from head injuries suffered in a Dec. 2 accident in Centerton. A spokesman for the family said the injuries were related to a fall on ice in a parking lot near his home.

Hunt is survived by his wife of 54 years, Johnelle, daughter Jane Hunt Hardin of Little Rock, son Bryan Hunt of Springdale and grandchildren.

Hunt is credited with leaving a legacy of hard work, family values, the importance of faith, the example of what determination can accomplish, an appreciation for philanthropy, and tons of memories, according to a news release from the company he founded in 1969.

Friends who knew him best describe the successful trucking icon as a father-figure and man of faith, and someone who was larger than life.

"His big boots may never be filled; he was a giant of a man. No one else I have ever known could walk into a room and fill it up so completely. He loved people and more importantly taught others to love," said Dave Gearhart, vice chancellor of the University of Arkansas for university advancement.

Jim Lindsey, CEO of Lindsey & Associates, called Hunt an all-time superstar and unbelievable person of goodwill and character.

Longtime friend and business associate Don Tyson, former chairman of Tyson Foods, described Hunt as an American original.

One common thread in the conversations following his death was the sense of awe when considering the enormous impact one man has had on so many lives, said Rogers Mayor Steve Womack.

"He put the trucking industry on the map," said Lane Kidd, president of the Arkansas Trucking Association. "It sounds a little hokey, but J.B. Hunt was to trucking what Colonel Sanders was to chicken."

Hunt History

Born Johnnie Bryan Hunt in 1927 to sharecropping parents Walter and Alma, he was reared in Cleburne County near Heber Springs during the Great Depression. Hunt was the third of seven children.

His business success has been noted by many as a unique American dream story based on hard work, ethics and faith. Hunt quit school after the seventh grade to work in his uncle's sawmill for a reported $1.50 a day. His lack of formal education was not an obstacle because he had a brilliant mind, Gearhart said.

Hunt often joked his lack of education was great for his business, because he was forced to hire the best and brightest people to compensate, according to the 1992 biography, "J.B. Hunt, The Long Haul To Success," written by Marvin Schwartz.

After two years in the Army, Hunt turned down Officer Training School and in 1947 returned to work in the mill. Hunt and his brothers loaded surplus lumber and peddled it to area building supply companies, according to the biography.

At 21, Hunt met Johnelle DeBusk at a time when Hunt said he was the poorest boy in the county. Johnelle was attending the Arkansas State Teachers College in Conway. They were married in January 1952, and a year later, Hunt began driving for Superior Forwarding Co. The couple had two children, Jane and Bryan.

Hunt often told young recruits training as drivers the secret to success was finding a good partner, like he had found in Johnelle.

As a driver for Superior, Hunt worked as salesman on the side for extra money, selling cement, flagstone and sod. During his Superior runs through eastern Arkansas, Hunt saw farmers burning rice hulls in their fields. Hunt knew the hulls could be used as poultry litter. The logistics of transporting the light material marked the first big example of Hunt's entrepreneurial ingenuity.

Rice Runner

In 1960, Hunt developed plans for a machine that could collect the hulls into a paper bag. A friend, former Arkansas Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller, helped finance the deal and shares of his company were sold to poultry-growing customers. By the end of 1960, J.B. Hunt Co. was the largest rice-hull dealer in the country. Trucking was merely a sideline to the rice-hull business.

In the late 1960s, Hunt bought five used tractors and seven refrigerated trailers to haul processed poultry. J.B. Hunt Transport Services was founded and Hunt made the switch to dry van hauling and slowly acquired operating authority to haul goods regulated by the Interstate Commerce Commission.

In 1980, after Congress deregulated the trucking industry, the biography notes Hunt maintained market share by keeping freight prices low.

A longtime friend of Hunt's, John Paul Hammerschmidt, said Hunt was generous with his time and money, but also knew how to save pennies.

"Way back when J.B. Hunt was just a growing truck line," Hammerschmidt said, Hunt picked up then-U.S. Sen. David Pryor and Hammerschmidt in Kansas City to take them to a ceremony in Springdale. Hammerschmidt said Hunt left the plane door ajar while the airplane taxied to the runway because the small, twin-engine plane did not have air-conditioning.

"And (Hunt) knew just how much not having (air-conditioning) in the plane saved him," said the former 3rd District U.S. Rep. Hammerschmidt.

Going Public

But then the company became more than just a growing truck line. With money needed to support more growth, Hunt took the company public in 1983. It was the 80th-largest carrier in the nation at the time.

Just four years later, J.B. Hunt Transport was the second-largest U.S. freight carrier based on revenue, and the largest publicly held truckload carrier. (Shares of J.B. Hunt Transport closed Thursday at $22.06, up 62 cents.)

Many of Hunt's friends said he was a risk taker and that was never more evident than when Hunt shocked the industry by partnering with Sante Fe Railroad in 1989. The partnership was the first of its kind. The Quantum partnership linked the East and West coasts through an intermodal hub in Chicago. At the time, the move was equated to getting into bed with an enemy.

Today, Hunt's intermodal business accounts for roughly 40 percent of the company's projected $3.3 billion revenue for 2006.

Hunt has been characterized as an innovative, creative, fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants entrepreneur and one of the most dynamic figures in the trucking industry.

Anecdotes found in Hunt's biography tell the story of a man who loved life and tried to make a difference by loving all people -- a philosophy Hunt said he learned from Rockefeller.

Today, the company he built from five used trucks is consistently recognized as one of the most admired companies in America.

After Trucking

Hunt retired in 1995 from the daily trucking management. He served as senior chairman of the board until 2004. Through J.B. Hunt LLC, he remained the largest shareholder in the company, with more than 33 million shares.

Hunt's pursued investments in the real estate business after his retirement. In 1998, Hunt was a financier for a 300-lot housing development in Lowell for developer Tim Graham. Together with Graham, Hunt formed Central Redimix, a concrete supply company, in 2002.

Hunt actively served on several national transportation boards, and, with his wife, Johnelle, was inducted into the Arkansas Business Hall of Fall in 2001.

Hunt's visionary perspective was used to assemble area business leaders who would acquire several large parcels of land in the western portion of Rogers near Interstate 540 and Pinnacle Hills Parkway. Together with partners Bill Schwyhart and Tim Graham in 2001, the group built J.B. Hunt Tower, a 96,220-square-foot office building on Pinnacle Hills Parkway.
Today, with a fourth partner, Robert Thornton, the quartet is known as the Pinnacle Group and controls the 400-acre area known as Pinnacle Hills that is home to the Church at Pinnacle Hills, the John Q. Hammons Embassy Suites hotel and convention center, as well as several restaurants, a retail center and high-end residential subdivisions.

An additional 500-acre development includes the Mercy Health System hospital now under construction, a business and professional plaza and one million square feet of retail space known as the Pinnacle Promenade in Rogers. The group also owns Pinnacle Air, a charter jet service based in Springdale.

'Generous Soul'

Hunt's influence throughout the region will be felt for generations to come, Womack said.

"After 27 years of working with Mr. Hunt, he was my mentor, my partner and best friend. He was one of a kind with his daily encouragement, positive attitude and friendship. He had a constant stream of ideas and deals that made life exciting and challenging each and every day," Graham said.

Schwyhart said one of Hunt's favorite sayings was, "It's a great day to be alive." Being Hunt's partner and his friend was a "privilege," Schwyhart said.

Service is second nature to the Hunt family, Gearhart said.

Hunt was an original member of the Northwest Arkansas Council that formally began in 1990. He, along with Sam Walton, Don Tyson and Mark Simmons, worked to form the nonprofit group that took regional approaches and offered regional solutions to problems such as transportation, wastewater and economic development.

"J.B. Hunt was a driving force in getting the council off the ground in its earliest projects, regional highways and the airport. The important regional projects happening today across Northwest Arkansas all grew out of that visionary approach Hunt and the others launched 16 years ago," said Mike Malone, the council's executive director.

One important aspect that followed Hunt every day of his life was his strong faith.

"Just two weeks ago in a Sunday service, a new family got up to go forward and join the church. J.B. got up from his seat and walked the couple down the aisle. That's just the kind of person he was. He had tremendous faith and he loved everyone he met. It's truly a sad day. We have lost a giant far too soon," Womack said.

"The generous soul will be made rich," (Proverbs 11:25) is one of three verses displayed in the company headquarters in Lowell. Schwartz noted in the 1992 Hunt biography: "Some people might believe a conflict exists between the competitive world of big business and the spiritual and human ethics of religious values, J. B. and Johnelle Hunt have reconciled the two."

Source: John George, Spokesman For The Hunt Family - Kim Souza, The Springdale Morning News

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VOLUNTEERS LIGHT FIRE UNDER RAIL HISTORY

PORTLAND, OR -- Nobody would mistake them for elves, but a crew of grease-stained volunteers has been abustle readying Portland's two giant steam locomotives for the holidays.

How giant? Spokane, Portland and Seattle 700 weighs 437 tons complete with tender, and Southern Pacific 4449 -- world-famous as the U.S. Bicentennial's Freedom Train and an art-deco streamliner considered by many to be the world's most beautiful locomotive -- trails by a mere five tons. That places them among the five or six largest locos still running.

Starting this afternoon, parents can bundle up the kids and climb aboard a vintage railroad car as these magnificent old machines take turns pulling the Holiday Express from Oaks Park to the Ross Island Bridge and back.

"Other cities would kill to own locomotives like these," said John Frazee, a retired sound engineer who volunteers with the group that maintains SP&S 700. "I don't think that Portlanders realize what they have."

The 40-minute rail excursions raise money for the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation, which wants to build a permanent home and rail museum for Portland's steam engines. A third engine, the Oregon Railroad & Navigation 197, is being restored in temporary quarters at the Brooklyn railroad yard in Southeast Portland.

"The Oregon Pacific Railroad has been very supportive and donated the use of their line," Holiday Express chairman Dave Brown said of the short rail line that runs along the Springwater-Willamette section of the Springwater Corridor. He said that last year's event netted the foundation about $50,000 but that this year's expenses will likely be higher.

Last year's minor derailment is not in the 2006 schedule, however -- that was caused by an old steel rail with an internal fracture that wasn't discovered until one very heavy steam locomotive made it evident. The rail has since been replaced.

"We're the only city in the country that has operating engines like these," said Doyle McCormack, "because in the 1950s, as steam was being phased out, someone had the foresight to request display locomotives for the city from all three railroads serving Portland."

And volunteers have since donated tens of thousands of hours restoring and running them. McCormack is 4449's chief engineering officer, and he's tended to its every need since he led the team that pulled it from an Oaks Park siding on December 14, 1974, for restoration as the Freedom Train engine.

All-black 700 is not quite the movie star that 4449 is, but both are Northern class locomotives with eight huge driving wheels -- 4449's drivers are nearly 7 feet tall. They're impressive relics of a vanished world, hundred-foot-long giants that once hauled passengers and freight at speeds of 80 mph and more.

Like all operating steam engines, each demands countless hours of skilled maintenance.
Steaming up 700 for the weekend began mid-week -- a process requiring the boiler to be filled with hot water while a booster car piped in steam to slowly build pressure in the boiler.

"You don't just put the key in the ignition and start her up," said John Frazee, standing inside 700's cab.

"There's nothing automatic about this," said retired machinist Roy Jones, now 700's chief mechanical officer. "There's 25,000 parts and pieces on this thing, so something's always worn out or broken.

"You don't go to the hardware store or supply house for parts, either," he said. "You repair what you've got, or make new parts." - John Foyston, The Portland Oregonian

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BNSF TRAIN DERAILS AT CASEY, OKLAHOMA

At approximately 06:45 CT Friday, December 08, 2006, BNSF Railway Company train S LHTMEM4 05 derailed one locomotive and six cars blocking the single main track at Casey, OK. This location is approximately 40 miles west of Tulsa, OK.

The current estimate for returning the main track back to service is 12:00 CT Saturday, December 09, 2006.

Customers may experience delays up to 36 hours on traffic moving through this corridor. - BNSF Service Advisory

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TEXAS STATE RAILROAD EMPLOYEES STILL FACE UNCERTAIN JOB FUTURE

RUSK, TX -- Employees of the financially beleaguered Texas State Railroad have been on their own kind of ride in the last year - one more like a rollercoaster.

And it's not over yet.

While grateful that the railroad will continue running at least through August, employees of the state park who had been left unsettled about the short-term fate of their jobs until last week are still looking at an uncertain future.

Supporters of the railroad took time Thursday to thank the employees and offer words of encouragement.

"At a time when a lot of people would simply have folded, you hung in there, and you are still hanging in there," Dolores Bryson, vice president of the Friends of the Texas State Railroad group, told employees Thursday. "When your future should be secure ... it's not secure right now, and our hearts and our thoughts are with you."

The Friends group said "thank you" Thursday to the staff of the railroad with its first appreciation luncheon.

"You ask for so little, but all of you know we would give you the world if we could," Ms. Bryson said. "I'm saddened that we can't make all of your problems go away at this moment ... You're behind everything that the Friends do because if it weren't for you, there would be no Texas State Railroad."

At least one employee dabbed tears from her eyes after Ms. Bryson's message to the staff.

"Over the years, thousands and thousands of people have had their small burdens lifted because you provided them a ride on the Texas State Railroad," Ms. Bryson said. "... Here you are, working your hearts out to keep a train going to lift a few more burdens and to let kids know that everything doesn't run on a computer chip. We so appreciate you."

The Texas State Railroad was recently granted a short-term reprieve from what some consider a death sentence of becoming a static display.

The reprieve came last week in the form of an announcement of about $2.2 million in revenue that was unanticipated for Texas Parks and Wildlife, which operates the tourist train running between Rusk and Palestine. That amount includes a $1.2 million oil and gas lease bonus payment, a one-time source of revenue.

About $1.5 million of the $2.2 million will be used to hire the necessary seasonal staff to keep state parks running through the summer months, officials have said. What's left over is what will be used to help keep the railroad open through August.

Budget constraints on a state level resulted in the temporary shutdown of the Palestine-based operations of the railroad earlier this year. That came as part of a statewide cut to many state parks' hours, services and personnel.

Texas Parks and Wildlife officials had said earlier this year that without a change in funding, the costly railroad would have to be turned into a museum by the close of December.

Last week's announcement about the discovery of extra money couldn't have come sooner for employees waiting to find out whether they would still have jobs.

Mark Price, the railroad's operations superintendent, said, employees are thankful for the continued operation of the railroad, but they have "guarded optimism" about the future.

Roger Graham, an engineer at the railroad, likes his job. He's met famous actors while they were filming movies on the train. Children ask for his autograph. He's even been able to see children he pulled on the train years ago bring their own children to ride the train.

"This is something you grow to love after years and years," he said.

But after about 30 years of service to the railroad, he was laid off unexpectedly last December when the statewide cuts came down. Having the option to retire, he did so, but then was hired back when the Palestine runs were reinstated earlier this year.

"I have worked here all my life," he said Thursday. "This is all I know."

A cloud of uncertainty has been hanging over employees for years, he said.

"That's hard to live under because you don't know if the next day, are you going to make your retirement, are you going to have a job? We still don't. I wish they would make up their mind what they are going to do and do it," he said. "The waiting is kind of tough."

He hopes the people of Texas will put pressure on the Legislature to better fund state parks.

Carolyn Thompson, another railroad employee, said Thursday she enjoys her job working in the Maydelle depot of the railroad because of the "family" of co-workers and the people she meets who ride the train.

Ms. Thompson reaches retirement in late 2008. She hopes the railroad will still be chugging along then and for years to come.

"I look at it like this - God's going to take care of us," Ms. Thompson said. "I want to be there as long as God sees fit to leave me there. I'm hoping and praying that it will be his will to let it remain. It's just a wonderful place - a wonderful place to work." - Megan Middleton, The Tyler Morning Telegraph

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DERAILMENT CLEANED UP, LINE REOPENS

LAFAYETTE COUNTY, MO -- Union Pacific Railroad crews have finished cleaning up after a coal train derailment that closed down a main rail line. No injuries were reported.

Rail traffic was being routed around the spill near Dover.

Officials had the line repaired and reopened by Thursday evening. - The Kansas City Star

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CAPITOL CORRIDOR RAIL SERVICE CHUGS INTO SIXTEENTH YEAR

Rising from the ashes of early 1990s Amtrak cutbacks, the Capitol Corridor passenger rail service between the Sacramento and Bay Area celebrated its 15th birthday Thursday as the nation's third-busiest intercity service.

Increasing service to reach a critical mass of available trains running from before dawn to well into the evening has lured riders, including many regular commuters, to the point where they took 1.26 million trips in 2005.

That's an increase of 272 percent in eight years since Caltrans ceded control of the line to transit agencies representing the eight counties served by the line.

And in August, a 52 percent increase in trips -- most significantly between Oakland and San Jose -- have further added to the rail service's allure, said Eugene Skoropowski, the Capitol Corridor's managing director.

But the celebration over stuffed salmon and prime rib at a restaurant in Oakland's Jack London Square was tempered by reminders that the line has significant problems that still need work.

"I think it's fair to say that none of us is satisfied," said Joe Deely, general superintendent of the Pacific division of Amtrak, which operates the trains and stations for the Joint Powers Authority. "It's a good service, but it could be a hell of a lot better."

Among the problems is chronic tardiness, with the Corridor's double-decker trains frequently stopping to let freight traffic pass.

An official of the freight railroad Union Pacific, which owns most of the track along the Capitol Corridor, warned that growth in demand to move both passengers and freight portends further conflict if the state and nation don't invest in more rail capacity.

"We don't want to create a false expectation," said Tom Mulligan, who heads Union Pacific's dealings with passenger trains. "It'll probably be more challenging than it is today." - Erik N. Nelson, The Oakland Tribune

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RESULTS OF POLLUTION STUDY EXPECTED NEXT YEAR

KALISPELL, MT -- The State of Montana hopes to begin removing a significant amount of underground contaminants from an Evergreen area during spring 2008.

The volume of pollutants, the method of removal and the cleanup costs will remain up in the air until roughly July.

That's when the Montana Department of Environmental Quality expects to finish studying the petroleum products and preservatives that have been soaking and oozing between Whitefish Stage Road and U.S. 2 for as long as 82 years. The lands are just north of the McElroy and Wilken Gravel Pit. It stretches east from Kalispell Pole and Timber Co. to the Office Max property on U.S. 2.

These lands have been listed as federal Superfund sites since the 1980s.

Montana officials briefed some Flathead County state legislators about the cleanup study Thursday.

The pollutants originated on parts of lands totaling almost 45 acres, which were the sites of the Yale Oil Refinery, Kalispell Pole and Timber, and Reliance Refinery.

The state Department of Environmental Quality identified seven entities that it is trying to hold responsible for the underground contamination, which occurred between 1924 and 1990. It filed a lawsuit in 2004 in state court, trying to make them help pay for the cleanup.

The seven are the state Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, Exxon Mobil, Swank Enterprises, Klingler Lumber Co., Montana Mokko, Kalispell Pole and Timber and the BNSF Railway Company.

In 2005, the Department of Environmental Quality began a $1.25 million study to determine how far the subterranean pollutants have spread, their underground densities and what methods should be used to clean the ground. Until this study is complete, the state won't know how much cleanup money it will seek from those seven entities.

The state is tracking the pollutants with 94 shallow and deep monitoring wells, several other wells and numerous soil samples.

Experts are focusing on pentachlorophenol, a wood preservative. This chemical is the fastest-traveling pollutant among the contaminants dripped and leaked into the area's soil - and is the advance wave of subterranean contamination.

The studies provide an incomplete picture of the horizontal and vertical spread of pentachlorophenol, said Moriah Bucy, a DEQ environmental specialist.

If the concentration of pentachlorophenol is greater than one part per 1 billion parts of water, it exceeds federal drinking standards.

The aquifer in this area typically ranges from 20 feet deep at the top to 120 feet deep at the bottom.

Samples show that the pentachlorophenol concentrations greatly exceed drinking standards at the top of the aquifer east of Flathead Drive, west of Klingler Lumber Co. and north of the gravel pit.

Groundwater plumes with safe drinking concentrations of pentachlorophenol stretch - at 20-foot depths - to the northeast into a small residential area and east across U.S. 2.

Bucy does not expect dangerous densities of pentachlorophenol to remain in the small residential area west of the railroad tracks before ground water fix-it measures have been tackled.

Although the top of the aquifer beneath Lucky Lil's Casino and the Lucky Logger Casino - just east of U.S. 2 - doesn't appear to hold pentachlorophenol, the same aquifer at that spot at 120 feet deep has a pentachlorophenol concentration of 40 parts per billion. - John Stang, The Kalispell Daily Inter Lake

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U.S. MARINES AND CPR READY TO MAKE CHRISTMAS A LITTLE MERRIER FOR CHILDREN WITH THE 2006 TOYS FOR TOTS TRAIN

The Toys for Tots Train by Canadian Pacific Railway and the Marines of Fox Co 2nd Battalion, 25th Marine Corps in New York State will again be delivering toys to needy children in New York State this weekend.

The Toys for Tots Train has been delivering toys as well as hats and mittens for less fortunate children since 1999. In the first seven years, more than 41,000 toys have been distributed. In 2005, it's estimated over 8,000 children received toys at stops in 12 communities.

"The Toys for Tots program has become an important source of pride and great joy for all employees in New York State," said Bill Neary, a CPR locomotive engineer and a long-time volunteer with the Toys for Tots Train. "We're also very proud to be teamed up with the dedicated United States Marines currently stationed in New York State who along with serving our country are taking time to make a child's holiday season a lot merrier."

In addition to handing out toys, Fox Co 2nd Battalion, 25th Marine Corps of New York State will be paying tribute to fallen Marines from New York who lost their lives while serving the United States in Iraq.

The 2006 Toys for Tots train is being dedicated to Captain John Mckenna and Lance Corporal Michael Glover. Both Marines were killed on 16 August 2006 during combat operations in Iraq.

On Saturday, December 9th, the specially-decorated train will be making stops in Binghamton, Sidney, Oneonta, Cobleskill and Delanson. On Sunday, December 10th, it will be spreading its cheer in Albany, Mechanicville, Saratoga Springs, Fort Edward, Whitehall, Port Henry and Plattsburgh.

About the 2nd Battalion, 25th U.S. Marines

The 25th Marine Regiment is a command that stretches across most of the Northeastern United States. Regimental headquarters is located in Worcester, Massachusetts, and its battalions are located throughout the region. First Battalion is located at Camp Edwards, Massachusetts; Second Battalion is headquartered in Garden City, New York; and Third Battalion in Brookpark, Ohio.
The 2nd Battalion, 25th Marines also stretches across a vast area. Headquarters & Service Company and Weapons Company are situated in Garden City, New York; Echo Company is located in Harrisburg, Pa; Fox Company is located in Albany, NY; Golf Company is located in Dover, New Jersey.

The Marines of the 25th Marine Regiment have distinguished themselves since their activation on May 1, 1943. The 25th fought in the battles of Saipan, Tinian, Kwajalein Atoll, and Iwo Jima. In 1945 the Regiment was deactivated. World War II had ended. On July 1, 1962 the 25th was reactivated as a Marine Corps Reserve Unit. This proud Regiment has continued to train in "every clime and place" for its important role in the defense of the United States of America.

For complete history and information, please visit:

www.mfr.usmc.mil/4thmardiv/25thMar/3dBn/default.htm

- Ed Greenberg, CPR and Sergeant Richard Rosa, United States Marine Corps Joint News Release

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SEASON BRINGS NOSTALGIA FOR TRAINS LARGE AND SMALL

CINCINNATI, OH -- What is it about trains at Christmas?

Anytime I leave my office and open the door into the Cincinnati History Museum at Union Terminal this time of the year, I am certain to encounter several families on their way to Holiday Junction, our annual train exhibit. And after 60 years, the CG&E train exhibit may pull more families downtown during the holiday season than the department stores.

Clearly, it's primarily about nostalgia. Like lots of baby boomers, I recall that my father turned the basement ping-pong table into a year-around train display. With a steam engine that smoked, a powerful diesel engine, a plaster tunnel and a host of little houses, barns, horses and cows that could be rearranged endlessly, Christmas vacation and playing with model trains are synonymous.

I never rode on a real train until 1991 when I visited the Soviet Union for a two-week stay in Kharkiv, our sister city in Ukraine. We took overnight trains from Moscow to Kharkiv, and Kharkiv to Kiev.

The relationship of trains and Christmas runs across American society, but in Cincinnati it does raise some interesting questions. A truism that has become embedded in local popular wisdom is that the reason Cincinnati "declined" in the second half of the 19th century was that we ignored the potential of railroads because we were too enamored with steamboats.

That example is now cited to explain almost any development in which another city has embraced a new technology or trend (e.g., light rail, city-county government, etc.) that gives them an advantage over Cincinnati.

In 1828, when the first railroad appeared in the United States, the assumption (grounded in millennia of human experience) was that water transportation was always more efficient, effective and superior to land transportation. Oceans, rivers and great lakes were the "natural arteries" and would remain dominant.

At the time, Ohio and other western states were in the midst of investing in a system of canals to supplement the rivers. The first leg of the Miami Erie Canal opened in Cincinnati in 1827.

Developers of the earliest railroads in the 1830s and '40s, often spoke of them as "artificial arteries" or "artificial rivers" that would complement, but not replace, the inland river and canal systems. And since the railroads appeared so quickly on the heels of the canal craze, states on occasion insisted on including clauses in railroad charters that provided for compensation to the state for any loss of canal revenues.

Unlike in the case of roads and canal, states refused to invest public funds in steam railroads, and Ohio adopted a new constitution in 1851 making such investments illegal.

Such actions, however, failed to discourage private investments in railroads in Ohio. During the decade of the 1850s, investors sunk more than $100 million in Ohio rail ventures. Track mileage increased from 575 to 2,946 miles, giving Ohio the most track of any state in the country.

Cincinnatians were prominent investors in these ventures, both in Ohio and beyond, even though three-quarters of Ohio's railroads in 1860 were insolvent and paid no dividends.

The assumption that railroads complemented the water transportation dictated the path of many early railroads in the region. In Ohio, the first lines ran north-south between the River and the Great Lakes, mimicking the canals.

In Kentucky a line connected Lexington to Louisville, while in Indiana, an early railroad connected Indianapolis to the Ohio River at Madison. Both of these ventures undermined the traditional dominance of Cincinnati. But it was not long until railroads demonstrated an ability to run in all weather, at lighting speeds (20 mph vs. 3 mph for canal boats), and their ability to cut transportation costs, meant that developers began to laying track with no regard to the river systems, connecting the developed East with the beckoning West.

In the 1850s Cincinnatians invested in many of these new railroads, including ones that offered profits but did not run into or through Cincinnati. By that time, the local economy had matured to the point that people thought of it more as a manufacturing center than as a transportation center.

As Illinois presidential candidate Stephen Douglas observed in 1859, "There is no better place than Cincinnati for manufacturers, and no better place to distribute than Chicago."

Cincinnati did not stop growing, although its absolute and relative rates of growth slowed. In 1860, Cincinnati was seventh largest city in the nation with a population of 161,044. By 1900 the population grew to 325,902, and the city had fallen to 10th largest.

Faced with stiffer competition, Cincinnatians responded creatively and aggressively. When the Louisville & Nashville Railroad cut into the Queen City's dominance in the southern markets and diverted traffic to the Kentucky hub, local leaders convinced the Cincinnati city government to finance and lead the construction of the Cincinnati Southern Railroad to Chattanooga between 1873 and 1880 to tap the valuable Appalachian coal fields. It remains the only city-owned railroad in the nation.

Heavy investment, and a unique experiment in municipal ownership undermines the charge the Cincinnatians in the 19th century were asleep at the switch. - Dan Hurley, The Cincinnati Post (Dan Hurley is the assistant vice president for history and research at the Cincinnati Museum Center. He is also the staff historian for Channel 12 News and the executive producer of Local 12 Newsmakers. Reach him at dhurley@cincymuseum.org.)

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TRANSIT NEWS

SOUND TRANSIT CAR-TAB TAX CAN STAY, HIGH COURT RULES

OLYMPIA, WA -- Sound Transit the passage of tax-cutting Initiative 776, the state Supreme Court ruled this morning.

The statewide initiative, sponsored by Tim Eyman and approved in November 2002, sought to slash motor vehicle excise taxes to a flat $30 per year.

However, Sound Transit sold its first series of construction bonds in 1999 -- and the bond agreements promised investors the car tax will be collected through 2028.

The agency has argued that its bond contract trumps I-776.

Sound Transit has continued to fund its light rail line from Westlake Center to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, and plan for future lines, as if it would keep collecting the car-tax.

Critics have said the agency should have paid off the investors through its other sales-tax proceeds, then reduced its overall spending.

The vehicle tax amounts to about one-fifth of the agency's local money in Snohomish, King and Pierce Counties.

Justices siding with Sound Transit were Barbara Madsen, Gerry Alexander, Charles Johnson, Bobbe Bridge, Tom Chambers, Susan Owens, Mary Fairhurst and justice Pro Tem John Schultheis.

Madsen's opinion said that to alter a bond contract "would imperil the ability of state and local governments to finance essential public works projects such as elementary schools, fire stations, highways, and bridges, by casting considerable doubt on the reliability of pledged funding sources."

Dissenting was Richard Sanders. He called the expected revenue from car taxes illegal, and said Sound Transit could easily comply with the public's tax-cutting vote, and still pay off its bonds using an estimated $6.3 billion in sales taxes.

In a statement issued today, Eyman said he has spent nine years working for "taxpayer protection," and in 36 of 39 counties, vehicle owners pay just $30 a year to license their cars.

He said voters can hold Sound Transit accountable next year when they are asked to raise the sales tax to finance new transit projects. "Will voters validate and reward Sound Transit and give more money for more of the same?" Eyman said. "That's up to them. But we're hopeful they'll consider Sound Transit's bulging multi-billion dollar bank account before they give them more." - Mike Lindblom, The Seattle Times, courtesy Dick Seelye

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COMMUTER RAIL FANS: ALL HANDS ON DECK

RACINE, WI -- Commuter rail needs to build up a head of steam in the next six months, or the federal funding train will bypass southeastern Wisconsin.

That was the overarching message delivered to a receptive audience of about 80 people at the Racine Metro Transit Center on State Street Thursday evening.

Commuter rail advocates also showed the latest cost-benefit numbers for KRM, the proposed rail extension from Kenosha to Milwaukee through Racine County.

"The next six months are critical for this project," said Rosemary Potter, executive director of the nonprofit group Transit Now. "If we don't make the federal deadlines and communicate our support for commuter rail, we won't have a chance.

"The federal government really is counting every single person who is supporting commuter rail," she said.

Among the needed actions will be formal endorsement of the Transit-Oriented Development plan by every county board and common council in the corridor. That plan estimates commuter rail's impact, over 35 years, on the Milwaukee-Chicago corridor.

As examples:

- The present 914,000 jobs would grow by about 71,000;

- The region would add 21,000 residential units near the stations;

- Retail sales would grow by $750 million in those areas; and

- Assessed valuation would grow by $7.8 billion.

The latest estimates raised KRM's capital cost from about $150 million to $237 million. Half would be federal Transit Administration money.

But estimated annual operating costs, outside of fares, have dropped by 45 percent. That's because the chosen version would use double-decker diesel trains, with riders changing trains at Kenosha or Waukegan, Ill. The plan is to run 14, instead of the previous seven, trips daily.

Local operating costs would be $1.1 million split between the three counties. The Regional Transit Authority will soon choose a local funding mechanism.

"I just hope there's enough local political courage to bring this forward," said Michael Frontier, president of San Juan Diego Middle School. He said commuter rail would enhance the neighborhood, which includes that school, by giving residents wider job choices.

Bill Fervoy, a retired pharmacist in West Racine, favors KRM.

"I just saw what it was like in West Racine with the North Shore (Railroad)," he said. "There were dozens of people who lived in West Racine and worked in Chicago."

Russ Kortendick, 88, started a regional chain of hardware stores with a store at 1518 State St., near the transit center. "Years ago you took the train, and there were very few cars," he said.
"Now we have all kinds of cars and no train - too many cars."

Economic development tool

Gordy Kacala, executive director of Racine County Economic Development Corp., said commuter rail is one of Racine County's top priorities.

In the 1980s, the critical project was building the marina, he said. Next was extending sewer and water to Interstate 94.

"Now, it's this (commuter rail)," Kacala said.

If people want to help lift the area's economic fortunes, he said, they can go to bat for commuter rail because it links people with jobs.

"Think of what that would mean to someone in Racine who is not employed and doesn't have a car," Potter said.

She said commuter rail would help create a regional economy that would attract businesses, employees, cultural amenities and corporate talent.

St. Catherine's High School teacher Melissa Warner said she's committed to commuter rail as an economic driver for the region.

"As a Caledonia resident, I see that it would fit very nicely into the land-use plan."

Potter said the biggest misunderstanding is that commuter rail is a "done deal. Absolutely it is not. This is the time for all hands on deck." - Michael Burke, The Racine Journal Times

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STUDY SAYS LIGHT RAIL SERVICE FEASIBLE IN EASTERN IOWA

A year of study has produced a report unveiled this week on the prospects for passenger-train service between Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, and the Amanas. Josh Shamberger is head of the Iowa City - Coralville Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Shamberger says the report found light-rail service is feasible, and would be a good opportunity for the southern half of the region studied, the Johnson County half. A couple of years ago railroad enthusiasts and others arranged for an 11-car passenger train to shuttle football fans from the Coralville Mall to games at the University of Iowa's Kinnick Stadium, and Shamberger says expanding that "Hawkeye Express" could be part of the plan for a regional light-rail system.

The report says there's enough demand to start up special excursion trips and "vintage excursion service," renting equipment like the Hawkeye Express cars and using them to shuttle passengers to and from events going on along the rail corridor. Shamberger says it can be done and would be "pretty affordable." But regional light-rail wouldn't have to depend on special events for its survival.

The study finds enough demand now to justify planning daily commuter-rail service between North Liberty and Iowa City, from the University of Iowa campus through Coralville and into Iowa City. He says that service could offer a 20-minute nonstop ride to commuters that would be very competitive with other forms of transportation, even though the trains would be limited to going about 30 miles an hour.

The report says it's not currently feasible to run high-speed commuter rail service between Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, however, as it would require about 70-Million dollars to fix up the rail beds and buy train equipment. Shamberger says while there's not enough demand for that right now, there may be in the future." He says while 70-Million would be a big investment, it would cost about 400-Million dollars to add one more lane to Interstate-380 in the same area.

The Cedar Iowa River Rail Transit Project study began a year ago, as one of the "Fifteen in Five" community-planning items announced a year and-a-half ago. - Stella Shaffer, RadioIowa

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DOT: BAR CARS WILL REMAIN ON NEW HAVEN LINE

STAMFORD, CT -- State Department of Transportation officials say they intend to keep the New Haven Line's bar car stocked and in service for the foreseeable future, despite a proposal in New York state banning liquor sales on Long Island and Metro-North railroads.

Because of the state's agreement with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the New York-based agency that runs Metro-North, the New Haven Line, which is mainly subsidized by Connecticut, would not be affected by any legislation coming out of the Empire State, said Eugene Colonese, rail administrator for DOT's rail bureau.

"We recognize how important the bar car is and we plan to continue running it," Colonese said in a telephone interview with The Advocate Friday.

If any liquor ban was authorized by the MTA, the state would "have to talk to Metro-North about any legal issues" in selling alcohol on the New Haven Line on New York property, but "under our agreements with Metro-North there are ways to resolve these type of issues," Colonese added.

Earlier this week, Mitchell Pally, an MTA board member from Long Island, made the recommendation to ban liquor sales on Metro-North and LIRR properties.

The suggestion came four months after an 18-year-old woman was hit by a LIRR train when she fell through the gap between the platform and the train at the Woodside, NY station.

The New York Public Transportation Safety Board cleared the railroad of any blame in the incident, but the woman's blood-alcohol level was .23 percent, which may have contributed to her fall and eventual death, the report said. The MTA executive board will review Pally's proposal at its monthly meeting next week. Connecticut does not have a seat on the MTA board.

The New Haven Line is one of the last commuter lines in the country to have an on-board bar service serving drinks and snacks.

Metro-North eliminated the bar cars on their New York Hudson and Harlem lines to free up seats for commuters, but they have remained popular in Connecticut, even getting a Web site dedicated to its following, [www.barcar.com]. The state currently operates 10 bar cars and plans to get new, upgraded ones when it starts receiving new rail cars as part of its $881 million contract with Kawasaki Rail Cars Inc. of Yonkers, NY.

Customers can view which New Haven Line cars offer bar car service by checking the timetable, which prints a martini glass icon next to the scheduled train.

In addition to the New Haven Line's bar cars, Metro-North has bar service counters on many of its platforms in Grand Central Terminal. These carts could be affected by the New York legislation.

Bar car enthusiasts were pleased that the New Haven Line will continue to offer bar service on trains regardless of any legislation, but found the MTA proposal disconcerting.

"We don't want this to affect us in Connecticut and this (proposal) made me stop and think of what could happen in the future," said Terri Cronin, a Norwalk commuter who is a co-vice chairman for the Connecticut Rail Commuter Council.

Most people who are intoxicated on the bar car were likely drinking before they got to the train, said Cronin, who, through the commuter council is spearheading an effort to get new bar cars for the New Haven Line. And because commuters are only in the bar car for their hour-long ride, the law would do little to change people's drinking behavior, she added. - Mark Ginocchio, The Stamford Advocate

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

PRECIOUS METAL: THIEVES MOTIVATED BY THE HIGH PRICE OF COPPER ARE TAKING BRAZEN RISKS TO GET IT

NEW ORLEANS, LA -- These days, it seems copper is more valuable than gold.

Authorities have reported more and more thieves are stealing and, in some cases, ripping out copper piping and wiring from homes, businesses and schools in the New Orleans area.

Law enforcement and scrap industry officials agree that the local spike in copper thefts has been fueled by a triple threat: the increase of copper prices internationally, the vast tracts of vacant and therefore unwatched homes and apartment complexes since Hurricane Katrina, and an influx of unlicensed nomadic scrap dealers who ask few questions and pay cash.

As Stanley Hurlee, co-owner of Airline Salvage scrap yard in Metairie puts it: "Copper's the thing right now."

Police reports across the area prove that point.

There's been a rash of arrests in the past two weeks. Three people were arrested by Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office officials for filching $800 worth of copper gutters from an Old Metairie home. In a separate case, a woman, her 16-year-old son and her husband were arrested after they were caught removing copper pipes and tubes from a vacant Metairie apartment complex. And Thursday, authorities arrested two men they say spent the past several months stripping copper out of 58 homes in Chalmette.

In New Orleans, dozens of nearly vacant neighborhoods are filled with homes and businesses loaded with copper. Since January, New Orleans police officers have opened investigations into more than 80 cases of copper theft, according to Sgt. Jeffrey Johnson. These types of burglaries occurred before the storm, but in small numbers, he said. They've surged since Katrina.

Hot metal

At Airline Salvage, Hurlee said he gets plenty of aluminum and brass salvaged from ruined homes. But it's copper that has become a hot commodity, attracting the attention of both legitimate and illegitimate opportunists, he said last week as he walked his 5-acre scrap compound.

Copper is an essential building material used to make plumbing pipes, electrical wiring, gutters and certain type of roofs. At the current local prices of $1.80 to $2.50 a pound, depending on the grade and condition of copper, the typical two- or three-bedroom home could yield about $600 worth of scrap copper from the walls alone, according to Vincent Costanza, co-owner of All Scrap Metals LLC in Kenner.

But copper can also be harvested from air-conditioning units and almost every electrical device, including printers, copying machines and calculators, Hurlee said.

Global supply and demand has doubled the price of copper over the past year, according to Bryan McGannon, spokesman for the Institute of Scrap Recycling Inc., a Washington, DC, trade group. The increases came courtesy of the recently expired U.S. housing spurt, the still-kicking construction boom in Asia and supply disruptions during a copper mine strike in South America.

"Typically, we see a correlation between the price of copper and an increase in thefts," McGannon said.

Tempted by payoff

Copper's new price tag was definitely the motivation behind Chris Porter's attempt to steal the gutters from an Old Metairie home on Nassau Drive, he said. Porter, Nicole St. Romain and John Couste were arrested Nov. 24 after a neighbor overheard the trio trying to load a pile of used copper gutters into a van, a Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office report said.

An experienced roofer, Porter said he'd worked around scrap metal but never considered stealing anything, let alone copper, until the price recently became right. He said the gutters would have fetched about $1.80 a pound, compared to only $1 a pound about a year ago.

"We just got a wild hair," he said, "and now I'm paying for it."

Porter and his friends targeted a vacant home under renovation after being damaged by Katrina, as did the unknown thieves who stole $5,000 worth of copper pipes and wiring from an apartment complex in the 100 block of Walter Scott Street in Jefferson on Nov. 18, the fourth such theft at that address, according to Sheriff's Office reports. Owner Danna Doucet said Friday that he's now replacing the piping at the apartment with a cheaper plastic substitute.

But copper looters don't always strike at night when no one is looking. On Nov. 16, Harbor Police caught three men posing as FEMA employees trying to steal 300 pounds of copper from a building at the Port of New Orleans about 10:45 a.m. Schools and even churches have been targeted.

"Since the storm, the areas have become so deserted," said Johnson, the New Orleans Police Department sergeant. "They can just go inside of a school and retrieve the copper. They'd look like contractors or like they're doing demolition."

Unauthorized dealers

Local copper thieves have found an easier time exchanging their plunder for cash by frequenting rogue scrap dealers, some of whom came from out of town and set up shop temporarily after the storm, according to Hurlee and Costanza. These dealers usually have no occupational license, and they do not have the state-mandated permits to operate a scale for weighing the metal.

They park on the side of the road advertising to buy copper, require no driver's license or identification from the seller, keep shoddy records, and more than likely cheat people out of their money, Hurlee said. He said he knows several people who were duped into taking $1,000 for $5,000 worth of copper.

Todd Thompson, an official at the Division of Weights and Measures, which is part of the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, said he's received several complaints about illegal scrap dealers in the area. His office hands out the annual certifications state law requires for scales and the people who operate them.

Anyone making a living off an unregistered scale is breaking the law, Thompson said, as is anyone selling commodities based on weight without a scale.

Airline Salvage and All Scrap require customers to show legal identification. They videotape the customers, and their transactions are recorded into a computerized record-keeping system.

Aside from the chance that stolen copper could go through their hands, nomadic dealers and those who are fracturing the laws hurt the economy by denying tax income to communities, Thompson said. They cheat the local residents and their customers.

To combat the thefts, Johnson said, his officers have asked scrap yards to check identification. And he said residents should keep an eye out for anyone suspicious in their neighborhoods. If something doesn't seem right, call the police, he said. - Michelle Hunter, The News Orleans Times Picayune

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I'VE BEEN WORKING ON MY RAILROAD

PITTSBURGH, PA -- As if on cue, the weather has turned decidedly Christmassy this weekend -- cold, blustery and punctuated with snow showers. But as you read this, I'm likely sweating in my suburban Pittsburgh garage. For a self-imposed and quite critical deadline looms.

This is the day that the train platform is supposed to go up. "Supposed to" is the operative phrase; I'm not quite "there."

Next to the Christmas tree, to be trimmed today, and the familial Nativity display, carefully placed on the fireplace mantel last weekend, train platforms hold an iconic place in McNickle family lore.

Three separate platforms dominated my youth (and living rooms) in rural Ohio. There were two large HO layouts. The first, a fixture until the early 1960s, featured a real lake, a pair of trestles, a coal tipple and a powerhouse.

The second, an L-shaped monster whose last run was 1968, featured a fully functional roundhouse and an exquisite rubber-wheeled bus that was powered, via pantograph, from electrified lines above.

The third was a smaller N-gauge platform, built largely by my eldest brother Scott. In its original 1969 incarnation it featured, in addition to three rail lines, a golf course and a real babbling brook that fed into a lake. A small railyard was added later.

That platform sits in my garage these days, weathered and debilitated, propped against the wall. A few of its salvageable features -- among them, hand-cut wood track ties used to replace plastic ones lost in the rail joinery process -- have been incorporated into my platform. Consider it an ode to past masters.

By the way, the same passenger cars and some of the original '69 engines run on my platform 37 years later; some of the same structures also have found platform places of honor.

My platform comes out of wraps from the basement to the garage every September. Up on the sawhorses it goes and reviewed is the "to-do" wish list taped to the side the previous winter.
It's a combination of things undone leading up to the previous "running season" and things thought up during the hours of watching the platform in action each year.

Last year, I concluded that my list was so long and the changes so extensive that it would be best to start anew -- new benchwork, new track configurations, new scenes and new landscaping.

Needless to say, the guys and gals at the hobby shops loved me.

The end result was a six-line platform, also in an L-shape, and with two passenger lines, three freight lines and a trolley line. There's also a small community, a real lake and a rather intricate trestle bridge designed to be the focal point.

But once in my living room last Christmastime, I wasn't very satisfied with two decidedly uninteresting interior lines. I started my "to-do" list early.

The initial "re-do" work this year went smoothly: Those interior short lines became two longer lines, both now traversing a set of new hills under the big trestle. And that presented an opportunity to expand the lake. Real water, though, has be replaced with "modeler's water"; Andy the Cat had too much fun sitting on the shores of the real lake, batting at the miniature row boat tied to the pier.

Then I got greedy. It was just Nov. 1 and six was such an even number. I decided to extend one side of the L-shaped platform to accommodate a longer, seventh line.

And build from scratch an imitation-concrete arch bridge, a smaller but longer and curved trestle bridge and a very detailed, double-arched, double-track bridge.

My balsa wood bill will rival this month's Christmas-light-fueled electricity bill.

And, oh, yes, it's time to scrap the stainless steel sawhorses (they matched nothing in the living room) and build some permanent, detachable legs to match the motif of the platform itself.

The seventh line is done. It's a long-haul freight line. And the finishing touches are being applied as you read this to the big, double bridge.

The trees still have to be "planted"; wayward paint, plaster and other modeling materials still have to be cleaned from the rails. A few more wires have to be routed and soldered. And I still have to run some final engine tests on all the tracks.

I expect Christmas cards, if not an invitation to Christmas dinner, from the hobby shop guys and gals this year.

And there on the garage floor still sits a pile of southern yellow pine 1 X 4's, staring at me -- pining to be fashioned into five legs.

The fashioner still is not sure how he's going to "buy" half an inch off the platform's perimeter dimensions in order for this son of a gun to actually fit in the living room space it's designed for.

But the last time I checked, this day won't end until 23:59:59. And Christmas comes but once a year. - Colin McNickle, The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

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THE END