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Railroad Newsline for Monday, December 18, 2006

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 – 2006

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RAIL NEWS

BNSF FREIGHT TRAIN DERAILS AT COON CREEK, MINNESOTA

COON RAPIDS, MN -- About 20 cars of BNSF Railway Company freight train S-TCECHI-13 derailed this morning at Coon Creek, Minnesota near Coon Rapids, MN, snarling vehicle traffic throughout the area. Coon Creek, MN is seven miles west of Minneapolis.

Hanson Boulevard in both directions was shut down and is expected to reopen this afternoon, according to Anoka County dispatch.

No one was hurt and the trains were not carrying any hazardous material.

The flatbed cars derailed in Coon Rapids, where Hanson crosses double railroad tracks. The dispatcher said that the derailed cars missed houses, power lines and wires in the area. "We were lucky on this one," she said.

There is no word on a cause and, at his time, no information on the anticipated impact to shipments and an estimate of track reopening. - Suzanne Ziegler, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune and BNSF Service Advisory

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ALASKA RAILROAD PUTS THE TORCH TO OLD DIESEL OIL SPILL

BIRD POINT, AK -- The Alaska Railroad burned a few hundred gallons of fuel Saturday in marshland near Bird Point, sending smoke that was visible from the Seward Highway north of Girdwood into the sky.

The diesel fuel was left over from a spill in early December caused when a locomotive collided with a boulder on the track, piercing its fuel tank, said Tim Thompson, Alaska Railroad spokesman.

The original spill was about 1,200 gallons, spread along a half-mile area of track. Most of the spill was cleaned up by removing rock and using absorbent pads, Thompson said.

Workers burned fuel Saturday that had leached into surrounding frozen wetlands between the tracks and Turnagain Arm. A barrier of land protected the ocean water from the spill, Thompson said.

The burn, lit with a propane torch, created vibrant 4-foot flames along a narrow, 100-foot-long area, he said. It burned half the day. - The Anchorage Daily News

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IOWA APPROVES SIX NEW RAILROAD PROJECTS

Six new railroad projects were approved for funding Friday morning including two projects geared toward State of Iowa ethanol plants.

The Iowa Railway Finance Authority will provide 1.6 million dollars to get the six projects off the ground. Two of the projects will help supply rail transport to bio-energy plants in Osceola and Ogden.

Twenty-six different projects applied for loans this year including 11 bio-energy plants.
The Iowa Railway Finance Authority is a loan and grant program run by the Department of Transportation. - WHO-TV13, Des Moines, IA

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CROWNING THE KING

SEATTLE, WA -- King Street Station breathes people.

One moment -- inhale -- the dingy lobby is crowded with jostling people either lining up to get on the train or just getting off. A few minutes later -- exhale -- the train pulls away, passengers pile into cars and taxis, and the lobby is almost empty.

One hundred years after it opened for business, the old depot's pulse is palpable with its comings and goings, hellos and goodbyes, beginnings and endings -- and the rituals of each.

Outside, Sound Transit boarded almost 1.2 million passengers in the first nine months of this year, juxtaposing the mundane function of commuting with the romance of train travel to points distant.

But as an entry to Seattle, a forward-looking city known for its beauty, sense of place and history, King Street Station is an embarrassment. Frankly, it's a dump, not at all befitting the multimodal transportation hub or the anchor for new development in the Pioneer Square and Sodo neighborhoods it has become.

The old depot is a shadow of its once glamorous self, smothered by a shroud of ill-conceived remodeling 40 years ago and not-so-benign neglect.

But that is about to change. Thanks to city of Seattle leadership, a long-stalled renovation is about to move forward. On Monday, the City Council voted to buy the building for $1 from BNSF Railway Company -- a contribution of between $10 million and $14 million in market value.

Seattle residents have stepped up, too, recently approving Proposition 1, which provides $10 million for the station.

Into the depot itself, the state is putting another $3.6 million; Sound Transit, $4.1 million; South Downtown (Sodo) Foundation, $250,000; and the federal government, $8.6 million.

Additionally, the state is spending another $15 million so the station can accommodate more and longer trains.

Related photos from The Seattle Times here:

[seattletimes.nwsource.com]

[seattletimes.nwsource.com]

That's all on top of about $10 million that Amtrak, which boarded 583,766 passengers at King Street in its last fiscal year, has spent and Sound Transit's $8.4 million investment in its platforms and access outside the depot. By the end of 2008, Sound Transit expects to add two more Everett-Seattle round trips and five more Seattle-Tacoma round trips.

Mayor Greg Nickels and council Transportation Committee Chairwoman Jan Drago are enthusiastic not only because of the depot's history, but also for its expanding role as the multimodal King Street Transportation Center.

"It should be the grand entry," says Drago, who lives in the neighborhood. "It is the biggest intermodal hub, not only in Seattle and King County, but in the whole Northwest."

She and others foresee adding capacity to accommodate a long-haul bus terminal, a bike station and maybe a revived trolley.

The renovated depot also will attract other investment, said Kevin Daniels, president of Nitze-Stagen. The firm is a partner in a planned $240 million project to build 1,000 condos and apartments on the large parking lot that sits between the station and Qwest Field. More density increases the need for better transit.

A few weeks ago, Amtrak station agent Marlene Koob found me standing against the south wall, trying to peek up behind the stained, 17-foot false ceiling that obscures the gloriously ornate original. Ten feet above the false ceiling, you can see where workmen 40 years ago gouged plaster from ornate medallions for sturdy hooks to suspend the ceiling. You kind of hope they felt guilty about what was described in a 1967 Seattle Times headline as a "facelift."

"Restrooms have been modernized and," the story reads, "marble walls have been overlaid with formica." That's right, marble walls overlaid with formica.

What were they thinking?

The King Street Station project's architect, Peter Watson of Otak Inc., describes the depot as having an Italian renaissance influence. The tower itself emulates the tower at the Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy.

But the building's managers over the years did what they could to hide its elaborate ornamentation. The building was old-fashioned for an industry trying to compete with the sleekly modern airlines.

The day I met Koob, I was picking up my mother arriving on Amtrak's Empire Builder from Spokane. Turns out Koob is a railroad brat, like me. My dad, a retired Burlington Northern roadmaster, moved into a third-floor corner office in King Street Station shortly before the Seattle Mariners' inaugural season in the then-new Kingdome. That was when the clock in the depot's 242-foot tower still worked and before BNSF vacated the offices for good in the late 1990s.

Koob's grandfather, Albert, started working in King Street Station in 1913, retiring 43 years later as milk agent. He coordinated fresh dairy shipments into the city. Her dad, Ernest, retired in 1974 after 38 years in baggage and ticketing.

The old station, almost as dingy now as it was in the late 1970s, still evokes the excitement of beginnings for me -- of a trip or a visit.

That is what has kept Koob reporting for work at the depot since 1972 -- it sure wasn't the scenery.

"You love to see families taking off on the vacation they planned for all year," says Koob. "You love to see the kids come down and welcome Grandma and Grandpa in."

Ron Sheck remembers being dazzled when he arrived at the station in 1959 and ate at the restaurant, a young man traveling from San Francisco to Victoria. "It was just glorious," he remembers. "The food was pretty good, too."

Now it might be the one place in all of Coffee City where you can't buy a cup -- not even out of a vending machine.

It's fitting that Sheck, someone who remembers the station's glory days, is the state Transportation Department's urban rail program manager coordinating the project. He also happens to be a published author and expert on depot restorations.

About $2.5 million worth of renovation has been done, courtesy of Amtrak. It gives a tantalizing sense of what the building can be again. In the compass room entry, large molds were made of existing ornamentation to replace what was ruined or missing. Mosaic tiles were carefully matched and restored. New light fixtures were made to resemble the originals. New wooden doors replaced the clunky metal ones. Restrooms in disturbing condition were remodeled, and new exterior canopies installed. In the larger lobby, large wood-cased windows that had been sheet-rocked over were restored, letting in more natural light to the lobby I remember as cave-like.

But that's just the start. The next phase will include a new roof with green glazed barrel tile manufactured by Ludiwici, the same Ohio company that supplied the tiles for the original roof in 1906. A 1950s addition that houses an immobile escalator will be excised and the grand staircase from Jackson Street will be restored. The tower will be fixed up and the once-again working clock will warn commuters how close they are cutting it. Work will be started to make the Jackson Street parking lot into a pedestrian plaza, a nice breather at an intersection flooded with traffic. My favorite part will be when that false lobby ceiling comes down.

Eventually, when there's more money, the depot's second and third floors might be habitable again for offices and retail space.

Won't that be something? The depot that has served this city for a century comes full circle, a restored historic building accommodating thoroughly modern and practical purposes, easing people in and out of the city.

It will be the old depot taking deeper breaths. - Kate Riley, The Seattle Times

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GRANT FOR TUCUMCARI'S TRAIN STATION IN WORKS

TUCUMCARI, NM -- The centerpiece of Tucumcari's downtown redevelopment will be its railroad station, which next month, will have $400,000 for improvements. The improvements of the Tucumcari Train Station will be working in tandem with the MainStreet project, said Pete Kampfer, director of the Greater Tucumcari Economic Development Corp.

Funding for the train station improvements are from a Department of Transportation grant to the city. One of the first projects will be asbestos abatement, which calls for sealing of the basement, and cleaning up lead paint on the building's exterior.

That work is estimated to cost $67,000, Kampfer said.
Already the train station is earmarked to be the home of the Eastern New Mexico ArtSpace.

ArtSpace was originally started with a $5,000 grant from the TEDC, and they conducted a major fundraiser with "Great Eggpectations" in spring 2006, said David Buchen, an advisor for ArtSpace.

In the future, ArtSpace hopes to establish a gallery and artist incubator program, he said.

"The train station is envisioned as an anchor for downtown MainStreet development project from which other small business projects can move outward," Buchen.

Several members of the ArtSpace board have started business in the downtown area. They include Ruth Nelson of Parajito Interiors and Doug and Sharon Quarles.

Kampfer discussed the train station project at a meeting of the MainStreet steering committee on Friday morning.

At the meeting, 11 members of the MainStreet steering committee agreed to be on the start-up committee to establish MainStreet. The group will establish working and fiscal guidelines and hire a MainStreet administrator to start.

Twenty-one members of the steering committee attended the meeting.

Earlier this year, the city of Tucumcari has also approved $20,000 for the work of the start-up committee.

MainStreet's boundaries are Railroad Avenue on the north, Fourth Street on the west, High Avenue on the south and Monroe Street on the east.

Kampfer said these boundaries were used by the city to apply for acceptance to New Mexico MainStreet, but could be changed by the local group.

Tucumcari's MainStreet was officially recognized Dec. 7 as a New Mexico Main Street project by Rick Homans, the state's secretary of economic development. - Chelle Delaney, The Quay County Sun

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RAILROAD CONCERNS CROSS STATE LINES

A train situation in two towns that straddle Texas and New Mexico is at a standstill, in more ways than one.

Texas has set aside funding for an overpass that would save border residents from daily traffic delays caused by trains, but New Mexico hasn’t.

The Texas Department of Transportation has earmarked about $7 million for the design and construction of an overpass, according to Steve Perez, an area engineer for the Texas Department of Transportation. Yet, New Mexico Department of Transportation officials have their mind on other projects.

“It’s not a priority to us at this point. We have other major (road) needs,” said NMDOT spokesperson S.U. Mahesh.

Every day, about 90 BNSF Railway trains rumble through a railroad crossing on U.S. 84 that divides Farwell and Texico, according to BNSF Railway Company spokeswoman Lena Kent.

In many ways, life in the rural towns has been shaped around the railway.

Drivers are used to delays at the crossings, where gas stations and curio shops are clustered.

Ambulances, too, are occasionally put on hold at the crossings on the way to Lubbock, according to Texico Fire Chief Lewis Cooper.

“It makes you feel bad when that happens,” Cooper said.

Farwell residents are caught at crossings more often than Texico residents, Cooper said. Transits from Texico to Clovis are not impacted by trains, but transits from Farwell to Clovis or Lubbock are, he said.

Cooper feels chance rules at the crossings.

“I can go by half a dozen times in one day and never get caught. The next day I get caught once or twice,” he said. “Basically, it’s a way of life. It’s status quo.”

Wayne Gruben, a Farwell city councilor and a chief deputy at the Parmer County Sheriff’s Office, doubts the overpass will ever happen in his lifetime.

“There is no place here to make a detour,” Gruben said. “It is out of our hands. We will have to wait until the town and states can get together and make arrangements to go forward with this problem.”

Others in Texico and Farwell just want a good night’s sleep. A small group of residents are lobbying to silence train horns that blare day and night.

“An overpass will take years to build. ... We are trying to get some sleep next month,” said Donald Gunter, one of those Farwell residents.

Train-honking has been more noticeable since July 2005. That’s when a federal regulation was passed that requires locomotive horns be sounded as a warning to highway users at public highway-railway crossings, Kent previously told the Clovis News Journal. The regulation mandates train engineers blow their whistles for at least 15 seconds as they approach highway-railway crossings, unless communities near tracks establish quiet zones through the Federal Railroad Administration.

To establish quiet zones — in which a stretch of track is exempt from horn blowing, except in emergencies — communities must implement safety measures such as gates or lights near crossings and get approval from government entities, Kent said.
Texico city councilors expressed support for a quiet zone in a city meeting, according to Gunter, who plans to approach Farwell councilors with the idea next week.

Solutions to Farwell and Texico train woes may not be imminent, however.
Gruben and other Farwell city councilors said they are reticent to establish a quiet zone for fear the city would be liable for any accident at the crossing. - Marlena Hartz, The Portales News-Tribune

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PLANNER: FORT SMITH, ARKANSAS AREA EYED FOR RAIL CENTER

WASHINGTON, DC -- A federal tax break for railroad construction may be just enough incentive for companies to invest in a transportation center in the Fort Smith, Arkansas area, a regional planner said Friday.

Congress is expected to consider legislation next year providing a 25 percent tax break to entities building any sort of railroad infrastructure, such as new tracks or off-loading facilities.

Ken O'Donnell, deputy director of the Western Arkansas Planning and Development District, said the tax credits may spur construction of a transportation hub in Van Buren. Talks about an intermodal facility on the Arkansas River have been going on for more than a decade.

"People who are now reluctant and have a little investment constraint will see this as a major, major incentive," O'Donnell said.

An intermodal facility like the one considered for the region would allow transfer of goods among trains, barges and trucks.

O'Donnell said the tax credit could prompt a rail line to construct a railroad spur or siding at the site.

Fort Smith is studying the possibility of an intermodal port on the Sebastian County side of the river, O'Donnell said. But those plans aren't as far along as Van Buren's.

The Van Buren project "would open up distribution centers and specialized warehousing with freezer operations where railcars could be blast-frozen in huge facilities," he said.

He said a study commissioned by the planning district in the 1990s indicated at least 200,000 containers would be transferred among railcars, barges and trains in any year.

The consultants did not include possible shipping traffic that could be brought on by Tyson Foods or Wal-Mart out of fear the numbers would not be believable, O'Donnell added.

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., proposed the tax break bill in July, but the Senate did not act before adjourning for the year.

A Lott spokeswoman said the senator plans to introduce the bill again when Congress reconvenes. He hopes discussion this year laid the groundwork for its passage, she said.

The legislation would be an incentive for companies nationwide to build more track and thereby increase railroad hauling capacity.

Proponents argue the public would benefit from an expanded freight rail infrastructure because it would reduce trucking.

The Congressional Budget Office has not researched how much the tax credit would affect the U.S. treasury.

Third District Rep. John Boozman, R-Rogers, said he would support the legislation, saying freight railroads are at capacity. Boozman is a member of the House Transportation Committee.

"I think looking at the rail infrastructure is something we need to do," Boozman said.

Boozman backs an intermodal facility in the Fort Smith area. It's a prime spot because of its position in the center of the country, at the confluence of the Arkansas River, Interstate 40 and the future Interstate 49.

"It makes all the sense in the world," Boozman said. "Besides that, the Fort Smith area being our manufacturing hub, so much of that area is dependent on timely rail delivery." - Aaron Sadler, The Springdale Morning News

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A BAREFACED BATTLE FOR RAIL RIGHTS

Snaking its way north through the high desert of Central Oregon, the Deschutes River has long beckoned adventurous souls with its monumental landscape and voracious rapids. A century ago, however, the ancient fragrance of sagebrush and juniper was joined by an ominous new scent -- the tang of gunpowder.

In "The Deschutes River Railroad War," Leon Speroff recounts the astonishing story of two rival railroads that fought their way from The Dalles to Bend with pickax, spike and gavel.

On one side was the Oregon Trunk Railway, bankrolled by railroad mogul James J. Hill, who owned the Great Northern and Northern Pacific and dominated access to Seattle and Spokane.
Sniffing profits to be reaped from transporting lumber and grain from Central Oregon, and hungry for trunk lines to generate traffic for his transcontinental link, Hill bought up options on the west bank of the Deschutes.

Hill's move was a barefaced challenge to his great rival, Wall Street tycoon Edward H. Harriman, whose Union Pacific line and its various offshoots held a stranglehold on Oregon rail. Not to be outdone, Harriman snapped up rights to the east bank of the Deschutes. By the summer of 1909, it became clear that neither man was going to back down. "It looks like war," opined the Bend Bulletin. "And we hope it is."

The two lines hired hordes of workers, more than 9,000 altogether, and proceeded to race up the canyon, grading beds, building trestles, blasting tunnels and laying track. It was dirty, brutal work, made more perilous by the dastardly tricks they played on one another. Workers set grass fires near their rivals' camps, stampeded their cattle, stole their gunpowder and freed their mules. At night, they consoled themselves with bootleg whiskey or flocked to the come-hither twinkle of such boomtowns as Shaniko and Madras.

After Herculean efforts -- among them a spectacular truss bridge constructed 320 feet above the Crooked River -- Hill's crew reached Bend first. On Oct. 5, 1911, before a jubilant crowd, Hill drove home the golden spike. It was the end of the race and also, in a way, the end of an era: The contest along the Deschutes was the last great railroad war of the Old West, before the rise of the automobile forever changed the economics of rail. Today, only Hill's track survives. Sections of Harriman's line have been turned into roads or trails -- the rest has been abandoned to the dust and the rattlesnakes.

This is a fascinating and handsome book -- lucidly written, meticulously researched and profusely illustrated. Its only flaw is that Speroff has organized his material in such a way that the narrative is almost stifled by the maddening preliminaries of geology, economics and engineering. But this is a minor quibble. When Speroff finally grants himself permission to tell the story, the book is as deep and hypnotic as the river itself. - Chris Lydgate, The Portland Oregonian

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PUEBLO EXPRESS GETS HOLIDAYS ON RIGHT TRACK

PUEBLO, CO -- The Pueblo Express left the Union Depot Saturday, headed into an antique era of locomotives, rickety rails and the youthful imagination of Christmas.

Santa Claus sat in the back of a parked caboose, constantly writing the names of the naughty and nice on a scroll with a feather pen.

Kassaundra Quijas, 7, asked for a trampoline.

"A trampoline?" asked old St. Nick. "You must have a really big tree at home to put that trampoline under. Trampolines are a little dangerous, but we'll get with the elves and see about getting you a trampoline this year."

Santa (played by volunteer Robert Dandurand) handed Kassaundra a small bundle of candy with a bell - a symbol of the popular Christmas book and movie "The Polar Express."

She and her grandparents, Raul and Tess Lira, and 11-year-old Francisco Arrendo, left to enjoy the 20-plus railcars and locomotives, many well lit and decorated for the holidays by the Pueblo Railway Museum.

There was also story time in a dining car with folks from the Pueblo City-County Library District, where refreshments were located.

Pueblo, and America, owes a lot to the railroad, according to William Byers.

"This is an important part of Pueblo's history and the West," the spokesman for the museum said, standing in the chilly afternoon air. "Trains built the West. We're just trying to keep some history . . . and let the kids come meet the man in the red suit."

Then along came the Pueblo Express, and demanded everyone's attention with its powerful horn.
Though small in length, the train was led by an orange-and-white, 1951 Colorado & Wyoming GP7, an early generation diesel-powered locomotive.

Behind it followed a red Missouri Pacific caboose that many Puebloans would recognize from its old resting place in the corner of the parking lot at the North Side K-Mart. Behind it followed a yellow-and-silver Rio Grande caboose.

This was the second week the museum offered rides. The final rides are scheduled from 16:00 to 19"00 Friday and 14:00 to 19:00 Saturday. It costs $3 to ride in a caboose and $10 in the locomotive.

But conductors and passengers were not alone on the trip. Stowaways, "bums" or "hobos," as they are more affectionately known, showed up for the event.

The Gibbons brothers - Tim, 23, Joe, 21 and Ben, 19 - hail from Calhan and act for Flashback Productions. They have portrayed bank robbers here for Depot Days and were back as warm-hearted, dirty, singing transients.

The Pueblo Express left Union Depot headed to the trio's campsite - also known as "Hobo Junction" - about a mile away at an old boxcar sitting behind the Aquila power plant, near the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk of Pueblo.

The train traveled only 6 mph because the railway - once occupied by Denver and Rio Grande, Atchinson, Colorado & Southern, Missouri Pacific, Rock Island, Topeka and Santa Fe lines - is old and worn.

"This is a glorified Chevrolet," engineer Ron Roach said of the locomotive, pointing to a General Motors label on the controls. "We call it a Camaro on steroids."

Outside, folks gathered to hear the hobos sing around a fire. The trio did their best to take requests and always aimed to please. (Hint: They enjoy singing "White Christmas.")

Last stop: Union Depot, where passengers coming and going always had smiles and looks of excitement on their faces. - Nick Bonham, The Pueblo Chieftain

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CONGRESS SHOULD PUSH RAILROADS

MANKATO, MN -- While much of the political pressure from Sen. Norm Coleman and Sen. Mark Dayton on the controversial Dakota Minnesota & Eastern Railroad issue has been focused on routing coal trains around Rochester, getting the railroad to agree on a more sensible route through Mankato has not garnered as much attention.

Yet, it may be just as crucial a decision as the Rochester push to route the railroad around the city.

DM&E was approved by the federal government to use either an in-city route in Mankato or a southern bypass route. City and county officials have long favored the in-city route simply because it would make use of the already existing Union Pacific right of way through Mankato.

If DM&E were allowed to come through Mankato, the thinking suggests that railroad and Union Pacific might be motivated to provide more safety improvements than would otherwise be required by federal law.

City and county leaders also argue correctly that pushing DM&E to the southern bypass route would only double Mankato’s railroad inconveniences. The Union Pacific would continue to use the in-city route, while the DM&E would use the southern route. That would hamper Mankato’s development to the south and likely sully recreational areas in the Blue Earth River Valley and places like Mt. Kato.

The political pressure from Washington needs to focus on current DM&E and UP negotiations.
There is some legal precedent regarding one shipper getting access to another’s right of way for competitive reasons. Of course, like any case law, there are gray areas. Both railroads can benefit from an upgraded in-city route. Both railroads will likely be hauling coal no matter what the outcome.

And Union Pacific would more than likely be able to charge DM&E for use of the UP right-of-way.

Union Pacific may be hesitant to provide a competitor access to a right-of-way, when that competitor already will have a more direct and shorter route to carry that coal from the Wyoming coal fields. But Union Pacific also may get some of the DM&E business when DM&E gets to Mankato. Union Pacific has the tracks that lead to Twin Cities coal-fired power plants. So Union Pacific may be getting more coal business even if it works out a deal with the DM&E.

Ultimately, the Mankato region will be best served by a UP/DM&E agreement to use existing right of way through Mankato. That’s the reason Coleman, Dayton and in a few weeks, Sen.-elect Amy Klobuchar and Rep.-elect Tim Walz should push the two railroad companies to negotiate. A sensible agreement can be a win-win for both railroads.

The congressional delegation has significant leverage in this area. As Sen. Coleman has said, Congress can attempt to stop or put conditions on the $2.3 billion loan DM&E is seeking from the federal government. If DM&E isn’t providing the public with some benefit for use of public money, the barriers to the loan could be significant.

It’s in both railroads’ interests to be good neighbors in Mankato. - Editorial Opinion, The Mankato Free Press

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SEASON TO WORK ON THE RAILROAD SET

For more than a century now, model railroading has entranced children and relaxed adults while introducing adolescents to lifelong careers in engineering.

Model railroading is more than toy-train collecting or assembling kits. The hobby means building and operating a miniature railroad that resembles prototype ones.

Southbound motorists descending the long hill onto Route 3 in Braintree, MA sometimes notice the MBTA Old Colony railroad signal facing north. When the Greenbush line opens, more signals will punctuate Braintree Junction.

Motorists find them cryptic, but model railroaders not only understand what MBTA experts call aspects and indications, they also duplicate them in small scale at home. Model railroading means knowing a bit of civil, mechanical, and electrical engineering, and now and then fragments of chemical engineering. For modelers determined to float tug boats and barges beneath operating drawbridges, it involves hydraulic engineering, too.

Remote control governs model railroads: From some location on the floor, at a corner of the plywood sheet on which nailed-down tracks curve and loop, or at a command stand precisely placed in a basement center surrounded by hundreds of feet of main line snaked among water heater, furnace, and laundry machines, operators young and old make trains start, speed up, slow, and switch tracks. Little girls and elderly men play at engineer, pausing trains at stations, following signals changing colors as locomotives pass, and braking when trains roll down grade. Since 1900, advertisers have emphasized the child or adult engineer controlling miniature trains, but the deeper significance lies in what model railroading teaches about the engineering demands.

Just after 1900 , Joshua Lionel Cowen built a simple toy train to demonstrate the motive power of electricity. As a downtown storefront eye -catcher, the motorized unit towing a single open-top car around a circle of track enabled merchants to stop passersby. Children, boys especially, thronged the display, and Cowen soon began selling train sets, mostly to acquaint young people with electricity.

As the nation prospered after World War I and as parents worried that public schools did too little to educate boys for careers in a technology-driven society, Lionel Trains prospered, along with competitors, especially Ives, American Flyer, and Marx. By 1925, a train set became the dream Christmas toy for boys, following only a bicycle in popularity, and it remained so until the early 1960s television era.

Electric-train sets provided a transformer to reduce household current voltage, curved and straight sections of track that fitted into an oval, and a locomotive, several freight cars, and a caboose, or three passenger cars representing some famous luxury limited. A young child often needed help to assemble the track sections and connect the power wires, but soon had the train running.

Manufacturers early on realized that one train chasing itself endlessly around an oval would soon bore, so they produced a plethora of accessories, beginning with track switches, which provided alternate routing (and required more track).

Each year, a few weeks before Christmas, they would introduce new stations, cars, signals, tunnels, bridges, and of course new locomotives. While the Depression slowed innovation, and World War II temporarily stopped it (one manufacturer produced lithographed cardboard structures to keep interest alive), after V-J Day , manufacturing surged.

Locomotives debuted featuring whistles that blew when boys pushed buttons next to power transformers, or that uncoupled and coupled automatically from cars when youngsters switched cars in freight yards.

Lionel produced remote-control coaling stations that filled hopper cars and dumpers that emptied them, a milk car that magnetically unloaded tiny steel milk cans, and a crossing shanty from which a gateman sprang to wave his lantern when a train approached. Competition and intense interest in electro-mechanical innovation drove an ever-more powerful industry that parents saw as both fun and career-shaping.

In 1950, a mid-price Lionel train set cost about a week's net pay for a skilled blue-collar worker. Parents sacrificed to buy a train set simply because the set came complete but might grow into a system with life-shaping potential.

Boys and fathers often built basement layouts. Beginning with the carpentry that produced tables and sometimes shelves that snaked along walls, making a set into a model railroad involved learning many skills.

Wiring for remote control meant visits to hardware or auto-parts stores to acquire doorbell wire, small bulbs, push and toggle switches, and other low-voltage components of doorbell systems.

Elevating stretches of track to pass over other routes meant calculating gradients. The steep grades on either side of the Neponset River MBTA bridges reflect about the maximum passenger trains can manage. Creating a 2 percent grade over 10 curving feet meant not only using schoolroom math but also hand-sawing block after block of wood, each slightly higher than the others, to produce a smooth grade.

Television might have doomed model railroading in the 1960s, had grown men not rediscovered it as something producing enduring pleasure and continuous challenges. In club buildings in Hingham and elsewhere, and in countless home basements, men build scale-model empires, sometimes duplicating precisely particular sections of real railroads.

Nowadays often a husband-and-wife hobby, the moving trains make their own simple magic. Model railroading long ago rolled through the television and video era, pleasing people who need to do more than merely watch. - John Stilgoe, The Boston Globe(Norwell, MA resident John Stilgoe is Orchard Professor in the History of Landscape at Harvard University.)

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TRANSIT NEWS

RAIL RUNNER: TRACKS OF CONTENTION

SANTA FE, NM -- Two years from now, passengers will be able to board a diesel-electric train in Santa Fe and be in Albuquerque 85 minutes later, leaving behind the frustration of heavy traffic on the interstate and the high cost of driving.

Still to be answered, however, is the question of whether the trains will come up the median of Interstate 25 or travel through mostly undeveloped land in Santa Fe County. Officials who are planning the Santa Fe leg of the New Mexico Rail Runner Express are nearing a decision on where to build new tracks south of the city.

The first phase of the ambitious commuter-rail project is more or less on track. The made-to-order cars that travel at speeds of up to 80 mph began shuttling customers between Albuquerque and Bernalillo in July. And last week, a new station opened in Los Lunas abut 20 miles south of Albuquerque. More than 200 people rode the first two trains out of town.

The southernmost station in Belen is slated to open early next year, and the Rail Runner is scheduled to roll into Santa Fe by the end of 2008.

Engineers determined the intra-city commuter trains could effectively use some of the existing tracks and railroad alignments in and around Albuquerque and Santa Fe. But in order to make good time between the two cities, they decided a new rail line would be needed between the Santa Fe County line and the city limits.

Although the public comment period for the two ideas on the table officially ended last month, the state Department of Transportation is still several weeks to months from picking one over the other, according to project manager Chris Blewett, who works for the Mid-Region Council of Governments on contract with the state.

Studies that assess the impact of each route on wildlife, plants and cultural resources are nearly complete and will weigh into the decision. But even with that data and the engineering and market analysis that has already wrapped up, Blewett said it might not be time to make a firm commitment.

"We're going to look at all other things that we know up to this point. And then I think the question is: Do we have enough information to make a decision? If not, what other things do we need to do before that can happen? ... These are important decisions," he said.

Both proposed alignments would branch off the state-owned tracks near the Santa Fe County line and follow the same route for several miles as the trains climb to the top of La Bajada -- about a 3 percent slope -- and cross Waldo Canyon Road.

Alternative 1 would then enter the empty interstate median via a tunnel or an overpass, while Alternative 5 would head south of and parallel to the interstate, then veer farther east as it approaches the city. The routes have comparable travel time and cost, according to planners. So what will drive the decision?

Distinguishing features

This fall, the Mid-Region Council of Governments narrowed a list of five routes to the two that are currently under consideration. At the same time, the group commissioned an engineering firm to undertake a market survey identifying the potential local ridership for the service.

Santa Fe trains are initially expected to make only a few stops in order to maximize commuter travel times, but planners have said "milk routes" serving smaller areas could complement express routes in the future.

The market analysis showed stops along Alternative 1 would serve more people and businesses -- both immediately and in the future. Based on estimated growth for the Santa Fe County Community College District, Alternative 5 could have greater ridership potential down the road but would still serve only half the number of riders that would be served by Alternative 1.

The estimated construction cost for either route is about $120 million, but right-of-way acquisition is still an unknown and could change the cost by $5 to $10 million, according to Blewett. Designs for the routes also are expected to cost about 6 percent of the construction budget.

Major differences between the two routes include land acquisition and required structures such as over- and underpasses. Alternative 1 calls for several bridges or tunnels to negotiate intersections, which cost more than laying track over the agricultural land of Alternative 5.

Conversely, buying the right of way for the 100-foot railroad easement across private land could drive up the cost of Alternative 5. While earlier suggestions for a non-interstate route included crossing as many as 27 parcels, the route under consideration now would only involve right-of-way purchases from two large private landowners, Bonanza Creek Ranch and Rancho Viejo Partners, and a few small holdings near Arroyo Hondo, as well as some kind of deal with the State Land Office, Blewett said.

Consultants used the current assessed value of the land plus an adjustment for market conditions to estimate the cost of acquisition.

If landowners and the state don't agree, the Transportation Department could use a court-ordered condemnation process, he said.

Planners have not yet determined the location of the Rail Runner stations.

In whose backyard?

People who own land or live near Alternative 5 have been actively speaking out against that alignment, arguing that the train would ruin the country quiet. At the same time, others question the long-term vision and safety of using the existing transportation corridor for the new rail.

Eldorado resident Brett Frauneglass said he favors Alternative 5 because it makes the most sense for an area that is expected to grow the most in coming years. He said train planners seem to have fixated on Alternative 1 because fewer people complain about it than the other choice.

"The way I see it, Route 1 is the path of least resistance, and Route 5 would be the best for the county of Santa Fe, for greater Santa Fe," said Frauneglass, an architect who also owns land near Cerrillos. "My position is that development, for better or worse, is inevitable out in that part of town, and Alternative 5 at least allows some possibilities for connections out there that I don't think the other alternative will serve in any way."

County long-range plans identify the area around Santa Fe Community College that Alternative 5 will bisect as a growth-priority area and call for enhanced public transportation.

Santa Fe Southern Railroad President Carol Raymond said that is one reason she would like to see new tracks somewhere other than the highway.

"This is our chance at commuter rail, not just for the express commuter service, but because later you will want to add different lines, different runs that are more local," Raymond said. "You preclude that by going up the interstate."

Raymond said she's also skeptical of the interstate route because it would mean many of the ways to get out of the city in the event of a security or disaster situation would be along the same corridor.

"If there is a problem on that corridor and that is one of the few ways out, I just don't think that is farsighted," she said.

Imogene Hughes said she thinks the department's planning has been thorough and thoughtful. Several early proposals for the Rail Runner route were near the movie sets on her family's Bonanza Creek Ranch. But the current proposed route, which avoids the parts of her land used for movie production, is much more doable, she said.

"If that's the route they come, we could live with it," Hughes said. She's accepted that the train is a reality, and she isn't too concerned about compensation for the part of her ranch the tracks might cross.

"It's coming. We know it's coming. ... I think it will be worked out, and I think in the end both parties ... will be happy about the results of it," she said.

Residents in the Rancho Viejo subdivisions are less complacent about the choice. Alternative 5 would pass within a half-mile of some homes on the eastern side of those developments.
Neighbors have organized letter-writing campaigns and community meetings that have raised awareness of the project.

Ike Pino, the general manager of the Rancho Viejo development, said he personally prefers the I-25 alternative because "it would be less intrusive on anyone's neighborhood, not just Rancho Viejo."

If the state chooses Alternative 5, it will be Rancho Viejo Partners, the owner of the ranch, who negotiate the right-of-way purchase and not the developer of the property for whom Pino works.

Windmill Ridge resident Barbara Aran knocked on doors to spread her concerns about increased car traffic if a Rail Runner stop is built near her Rancho Viejo neighborhood and encourage others to write letters.

As a result of that effort and others, comments to the department that favor Alternative 1 over other ideas outnumbered other opinions by a large margin.

Lawrence Rael, director of the Mid-Region Council of Governments, told state lawmakers Friday that the abundance of public comment in favor of Alternative 1 is writing on the wall.

"We received over 200 comments from Rancho Viejo, and 185 say, 'Please choose Route 1.' There are about five people who favor Alternative 5, so we sort of know where things might go," Rael told the Legislative Finance Committee.

What other leaders are saying

State lawmakers including Rep. Rhonda King and Sen. Phil Griego also have advocated for Alternative 1 at the urging of constituents, but some local elected officials don't feel like they have much of a say in the train project.

County Commissioner Jack Sullivan has publicly criticized the planning process because he says the state hasn't provided detailed analysis to the county or to the joint city/county Metropolitan Planning Organization. Rail Runner managers have briefed the governing bodies and even redrew an early alignment idea at the county's suggestion, Blewett said. But that doesn't satisfy Sullivan.

"It is not appropriate for us to sit there at a meeting and look at some lines on a map and say, 'Oh yeah. We like that one.' It does not work that way," he said. "It's quite clear that this decision will be made by the governor's office and by the Department of Transportation."

Sullivan said he still wonders about the role of local government and whether it's worthwhile to make recommendations to train planners.

The City Council doesn't appear poised to weigh in on the route suggestions either. Blewett made a presentation At Wednesday's council meeting and plans to approach the joint city/county Metropolitan Planning Organization about its preference this week.

Councilor Matthew Ortiz said he wants more details about station locations and route engineering before the Metropolitan Planning Organization or any other local body makes a recommendation.

Mayor David Coss said last week that he wasn't aware of any plans for the City Council to act right now on a preferred route, although he was leaning toward Alternative 1.

Meanwhile, others are grilling the Transportation Department about the long-term sustainability of the project. State-issued bonds are committed to pay an expected $400 million in capital costs, and federal funds will pay operating costs for the next three years. But it's unclear who will pay the more than $10 million annual cost for operations and maintenance in subsequent years.

"We need some innovative ideas because I don't think this administration or this Legislature is being responsible to future generations," said Sen. John Arthur Smith, D-Deming, a member of the Legislative Finance Committee. "We are literally, pardon the pun, heading for a train wreck on funding for this."

Transportation Secretary Rhonda Faught said she and the governor are working on a strategy to provide sustainable sources of money to operate the train. - Julie Ann Grimm, The Santa Fe New Mexican

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CANDID CAMERAS FOR TRAINS

CHICAGO, IL -- The video taken from a Metra train cab is unnerving: In one scene, a woman, oblivious to the 130-ton engine bearing down on her, gingerly steps across the railroad tracks. In another, a youth clowning on a station platform suddenly darts in front of the train at the last moment in a deadly game of "chicken."

See video at this link:

[video.chicagotribune.com]

In February, the transit agency will begin installing digital video cameras on all its trains, enabling it to document the oblivious pedestrians, the taunting youths and the motorists who, for whatever reason, feel compelled to drive around lowered gates and flashing lights, sometimes to their deaths.

The use of cameras on trains is a growing trend in the railroad industry, experts say, coming on the heels of improved digital technology and the need for railroads to protect themselves in the event of accidents.

Metra has been planning to install the cameras for many months.

Officials say the devices will provide valuable evidence after incidents such as the one Dec. 8 in which a Milwaukee District West Line train crushed a mini-van, killing two women and an infant. Authorities say the mini-van carrying eight people went around lowered gates at an Elgin grade crossing.

The driver, Epifania Alvarez-Navarrette, 25, has been charged with reckless homicide, driving without a license and other offenses.

So far this year, 18 people have been killed when Metra trains have hit vehicles or pedestrians.

In test videos, Metra has demonstrated that the kind of cameras to be installed next year record clearly the operation of gates and lights as trains approach crossings.

The cameras are intended as a tool in accident investigation as well as in identifying trespassing, security and vandalism problems along rail lines, said Richard Soukup, the agency's chief mechanical officer.

The videos also may be useful in educating the public against taking chances when dealing with trains and working with municipalities to keep people from trespassing on railroad rights-of-way.

Liability concerns first prompted freight railroads to begin using cameras to provide a stronger defense in expensive grade-crossing accident lawsuits, experts said.

"Clearly, Metra's law department are the ones the most interested in this," said Ian Savage, a professor of economics and transportation at Northwestern University.

Makers of train-camera technology have promoted actively their products at railroad industry conferences.

Metra plans to install more than 500 cameras on its engines and cab cars in 2007, at a cost of about $3.5 million.

The color cameras with sound will store about five days' worth of video and will be strong enough to withstand shock and vibration, Soukup said. They will be synchronized with the "black box" event data recorders already aboard trains.

There will be two cameras on each train, which will activate any time the trains are moving.

They will record not only the scene in front of a train, but also the scene behind, because Metra trains run in both directions in the course of the day.

The cameras will be able to capture a collision but the video may not be as graphic as one might imagine, because the cameras are placed high up on the engine.

"You will see if you hit somebody but you won't see the actual impact because of the height," Soukup said.

In its test along the Rock Island Line, Metra's cameras captured events that engineers witness every day but that would shock many people, especially parents, officials said.

Efforts such as the international Operation Lifesaver program attempt to educate people about taking risks at rail crossings, but the videos captured by the cameras may be more effective. Footage of youths trespassing on tracks might help pinpoint areas near playgrounds or schools.

They also may put pressure on police to better enforce laws against pedestrians and vehicles ignoring gates and signals, he said.

"We're going to be able to go to the municipalities and say, `Look, you're going to have to do better on your gate enforcement and your crossings. We have people [on tape] going around your gates.'" - Richard Wronski, The Chicago Tribune

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