Railroad Newsline for Monday, November 20, 2006

Compiled by Larry W. Grant

In Memory of Rob Carlson, 1952 –2006

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Rail News

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Pyramid On The Prairie: Monument Marking Highest Point On The Railroad Was Surrounded By Money, A Scandal And Then Deserted

SHERMAN HILL, WY -- American Indians once said playful spirits flitted amongst the balancing rocks of Vedauwoo.

Today, a stodgy one is planted on the nearby plains in the ghost town of Sherman.

Viewed from atop Turtle Rock, the Ames Monument looks like a pinhead on the blond landscape with the smoky blue spread of the Rocky Mountains to the south and the Snowies off to the west.

Click here for photo:

[www.wyomingnews.com]

When Phil Roberts takes his history students to the landmark, the University of Wyoming students look up at this 60-foot ode to a pair of 19th-century shovel-fortune heirs from Massachusetts.

A historian and railroad expert, Roberts tells them the story about how the Ames brothers orchestrated the construction of the nation's first transcontinental railroad and later disgraced.

"Wow, I've never knew this was here," is the most common response, even among those who have lived in southeast Wyoming all their lives.

The state considers the monument that lies south of Vedauwoo and Interstate 80 a postcard stop.

Those who get curious after spying the brown sign drive up the long gravel road, park, get out, snap a photograph and point the car back to the highway.

On most days, the wind pushes hard, making picnicking unpleasant.
Roberts points out that when the pyramid was built by the Union Pacific in 1882, the people who lived in Wyoming were not really connected to it.

Marking the highest point on the railroad, it was something for travelers passing through Sherman to look at.

So people quickly forgot it when the town died after the railroad's board of directors was driven away in bankruptcy and its new leader relocated the track.

"I'd say it's Wyoming's monument to the Gilded Age," Roberts said recently.

In 1983, the Union Pacific donated it to the state of Wyoming, but today, the state does little to promote it. But if the Legislature approves a bill early next year, that could change.

"It's an absolute gem that we need to figure out how to do more with," said Todd Thibodeau, a planning consultant for the Department of State Parks and Historic Sites. "I don't know if there's anything like it in the whole country, to be honest with you." If funding is approved, the site will remain a postcard stop, but visitors will be able to hear the story of the great railroad that transformed the West, the two brothers who built it and the scandal that brought them down.

A captive audience

When Union Pacific board members picked Sherman for the Ames Monument, they had no grand visions that the town would one day become a breezy mountain metropolis like Denver.

The dinky town existed solely for the railroad, with its small populace of entrepreneurs and railroad workers and short row of buildings to house them.

Nonetheless, it was an important stop, standing at the line's highest point at 8,247 feet.

Trains had to fight gravity to get make it up the steep, steep grade to Sherman. To give the trains an extra push, railroad workers attached helper engines.

Between Laramie and Cheyenne, the journey was at least as hard on the engines as it was on the travelers' digestive systems.

Two miles from Sherman was the Dale Creek trestle. Standing on its tall, spindly iron legs that looked as sturdy as knitting needles, it was the highest and most dangerous crossing on the line. Engineers had to slow the train to 4 mph or a stiff Wyoming wind would push empty boxcars into the rocky gap.

"There's even accounts of travelers who would write in their journals that they were nervously anticipating the risky part of the rail and often wondered if they ought to get off and walk," Roberts said.

Once the train stopped in Sherman, passengers had a little time on their hands because the workers had to remove the helper engines at the roundhouse and send them home to either Cheyenne or Laramie.

The board saw they had a captive audience for their message: Oakes and Oliver Ames were great men. Union Pacific owned the land at a monumental stop.

"They were going to be able to control the site and what goes on around it," Roberts said. "They honored these guys with a monument in the middle of nowhere."

Mission to Mars

When discussion began about building the transcontinental railroad in the 1840s, Roberts said, it was today's equivalent of the mission to Mars: Big, expensive and impossible.

But Oakes and Oliver Ames got the credit for getting it done when the last track was laid in 1869.

Their reputations were tarnished after their methods of "creative financing" came to light, Roberts said, but it was far from unusual in those days.

Oliver Ames was president of the Union Pacific, and many of its board members also sat on the board of the railroad's own financing company, Credit Mobilier - so named to sound French and therefore sterling to potential investors.

"The federal government was underwriting a lot of the cost through bonding, loans and land grants," Roberts said. "And the money would be paid through up to Credit Mobilier.

"You can see that if it's the same guys, there would be a tendency on the part of the Union Pacific folks to exaggerate the cost that Credit Mobilier was charging."

In the meantime, U.S. Rep. Oakes Ames was convincing his colleagues to support the fat subsidies by selling them discounted Credit Mobilier stock. One of the buyers was future President James Garfield.

After an investigation, Rep. Ames was censured and left his seat in a state of disgrace in 1873; he was dead by springtime.

Though not blameless, the brothers were scapegoats and fall-guys among many participants, Roberts said.

Friends and family of the brothers and the railroad's board of directors were dismayed that the Ames' great accomplishment was obscured by the black cloud of scandal.

After all, President Lincoln had told Oakes Ames that if he could get it built, he would be the most remembered man of the century.

To resuscitate their reputations, the board voted in 1875 to erect a grand monument.

"And I don't think that's all that unusual in American history at the time," Roberts said.

A famous example is Ulysses S. Grant. When he died, a splendid tomb went up in Manhattan to honor him.

"And I think it was built ... to remind people of his true greatness, which was as a Civil War general - certainly not as a president, because he was a horrible one," Roberts said.

The board hired the finest architect of the time, H.H. Richardson, who is known for the Richardson Romanesque style.

"You can see his influence in the Union Pacific depot in Cheyenne - the architect was an admirer of Richardson," Roberts said. "You can see the use of native stone, and that's the sort of thing he favored."

At the tip of the pyramid, the faces of the brothers are carved in stone by prominent sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens. One visage faces east and the other west, straight down the line of tracks.

"They're looking down from the high point of the railroad at each end of their enterprise, from Ogden to Omaha," Roberts said.

All in all, the project cost $65,000; adjusted for inflation, the cost would be $1.3 million in 2005, according to www.westegg.com/inflation/.

President Hayes came to its dedication ceremony, and for the next two decades, the trains came and went carrying passengers - well-heeled travelers, congressmen, entrepreneurs - many of whom probably ambled over to look at the pyramid.

But it was all over for Sherman and its guaranteed inflow of monument gazers after the railroad went bankrupt in the 1890s.

The Union Pacific's new leader, Edward Harriman, was all about efficiency and not sentimentality, Roberts said.

When the track was built between Cheyenne and Laramie 30 years earlier, it was the best route at the time. Thanks to improvements in technology, it was possible to reroute that stretch of track on a lower grade at the end of the 19th century.

This would be was easier on the engines, eliminate a stop and the journey over a terrifying bridge, and save the company money. And since Harriman likely didn't know the Ames brothers, he didn't care about their legacy. Moving the track was simply a good business decision.

So as abruptly as the monument rose, it was abandoned, Roberts said. In 1901, the last train rolled through Sherman, and the town dried up.

Without the railroad, there was no other reason for Sherman to exist.

"I think in the wintertime, it was a very unpleasant place to live, which is probably another reason why the town site didn't survive very long," Thibodeau said. "My guess is in the summer, it was a very nice place. The vistas are beautiful ... But in the winter, I think the combination of the snow and cold and wind would've made it a brutal place to try to live."

Stop and look

Since Sherman died, the monument has had its share of visitors.

The motorists came, first from the Lincoln Highway, then I-80.

History buffs also comb the grounds to look for the other remnants of the ghost town - which are now on someone's private property.

Walk 300 feet to the south and see the grade where the tracks lay and the foundations of several buildings; a quarter mile to the west are remnants of the town cemetery.

More recently, a TV commercial for the Nissan Pathfinder's "left turn" campaign shows a glimpse of the Ames Monument, Thibodeau said. The state was not notified they were going to film there, which they ought to do, he added.

Groups have used it as a destination for an outdoor treasure hunt called geocaching, he said; the state was never consulted for this activity either.

As a satellite of Curt Gowdy State Park, park employees check in from time to time, but because there are no restrooms to clean or wastebaskets to empty, there's little to do, Thibodeau said.

Like the Union Pacific more than a century ago, the Department of State Parks and Historic Sites hopes more people will stop and look at it.

This time, the message is slightly different. Instead of wanting to inspire a rush of reverence for the Ames brothers, the department hopes more people will simply enjoy it as a historic site by doing more to help visitors understand and appreciate what they are looking at.

The department is seeking $3.4 million from the state Legislature to beef up historic sites around the state to make them more visible and fun to visit.

What they have in mind for Ames Monument is installing a radio transmitter.

"We would have a professional production talking about the Ames Monument with actors, sound effects and the whole bit," Thibodeau said.

Compact discs, podcasts and brochures at the state's visitors' centers also could emerge from this funding, he added.

Along I-80 alone, there are many historic sites to visit. Heritage tourism is growing fast and predicted to explode when the baby boomers, who will be the healthiest and most affluent retirees so far in U.S. history, retire, Thibodeau said.

So the goal is to get more heads on beds.

"Let's face it, if you drive straight through the state, it takes five-and-a-half, six hours," he said. "If you get them to stop two or three times, they're probably going to have to spend the night.

"We're here to benefit the citizens of Wyoming. If we can improve tourism dollars, we're all for that too." - Jody Rogstad, The Wyoming Tribune-Eagle

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Railroads Drop Effort To Reduce Crew Size

OMAHA, NE -- Railroads have dropped their effort to negotiate the issue of one-person train crews during the current round of contract bargaining with labor unions.

The National Carriers' Conference Committee sent a letter to railroad supervisors late this week informing them of the move. The committee handles labor negotiations for 30 railroads, including the Omaha-based Union Pacific.

The letter said debate on "this contentious issue was impeding the progress of negotiations on other important matters."

The committee wrote that it decided "to remove the obstacle" by telling the United Transportation Union and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, which is associated with the Teamsters, that it would not pursue one-person crews during the current round of bargaining, "thus paving the way to what we hope will be productive negotiations."

UTU spokesman Frank Wilner said the union wants to get to the negotiating table "tomorrow."
"We have no grudges with regard to what has happened in the past," he said. "Our objective is to make every attempt to reach a negotiated settlement."

Joanna Moorhead, general counsel for the carriers' committee, said, "Our goal continues to be getting voluntary agreements in this round of bargaining."

The move marked a change in the tenor of negotiations that union representatives and Wall Street analysts long have said seemed headed for a Presidential Emergency Board when railroad-friendly Republicans controlled Congress.

In April 2005, after railroads asked federal mediators to step into negotiations that had begun only six months before, James Valentine and Michael Manelli of Morgan Stanley wrote that railroads hoped to "reach the last step in the process, namely a Presidential Emergency Board, while there is still a Republican administration and Republican control of Congress."

The decision to drop the effort to negotiate one-person crews actually was made in October, well before the Nov. 7 election when Democrats won control of Congress, Moorhead said.

"The letter just happened to come after," she said. "In October, we told them we would be setting it aside."

Other events made one-person crews an increasingly difficult issue for railroads.

In January, the United Transportation Union and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers agreed to work together against one-person crews and to not sign individual agreements with the rail carriers' negotiating committee that would protect one union's jobs at the expense of the other.

Also, a judge ruled in March in a UTU lawsuit against the railroads that the union was not obligated to take part in national bargaining over the size of train crews.

The judge's ruling didn't end the one-person crews issue then because it left open the door to "voluntary" negotiations by the union, Moorhead said.

Wilner said the carriers' conference reserved the right to return to the issue of one-person crews, but the union is feeling stronger, thanks to the changes in Washington, DC.

"We feel confident that because of the change in congressional control we'll be back at the bargaining table, and their strategy of being able to rely on friends in high places has been diluted sufficiently and greater progress will be made," he said.

The carriers' conference letter to railroad supervisors gave strong indication of where negotiations will be headed. The letter says railroads have asked union negotiators to agree to changing health care plans to curb escalating costs.

The letter reads: "Major freight railroads will pay nearly $2 billion to provide health care benefits to employees, up from about $870 million in 1999 - an increase of 130 percent in just seven years."

The letter indicates that rail employees pay less of a share of their health care benefits than most Americans. In 2006, railroads will pay 89 percent of the total cost per employee for full family coverage, with the employee's share of premiums averaging about $1,487, compared to about 74 percent paid by the average employer, with a worker contributing $2,973.

Railroad health care benefits are better than most, Wilner said.

"Of course, the average American isn't required to be on call 30 days a month, work up to 12 hours and be called back within 10 hours and have shifts migrate randomly around the clock," he said. - Stacie Hamel, The Omaha World-Herald

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Well-Trained Engineer; Rail Officials Stress Safety At Crossings

ABOARD THE GEORGE H.W. BUSH LOCOMOTIVE -- Engineer Jim Pryor, 57, is keeping this train on the tracks.

The locomotive is painted in the same light blue and white colors of Air Force One, honoring the former President Bush.

There's no steering wheel, but there's a big horn, one which Pryor presses through every crossing, no matter how small.

On a beautiful clear day, his job looks fun, not all that difficult as he sits on a soft seat in the air-conditioned locomotive. Pryor wears the traditional blue overalls and the light blue shirt and a cap, though it's not the familiar striped cap.

The job is anything but pressure free, though.

The way he performs determines whether hazardous material makes it to a designated site or not.

If he takes a curved rail too fast, he can derail the train. If he brakes too hard to avoid a collision, he can also derail the train.

Pryor goes nowhere until some people in Spring, Texas (near Houston) look at the lights on their map. They know exactly where his train, and every train on every track, is at every moment. They have to be perfect, or it all falls apart and trains can collide.

The first fatality Pryor says he had to watch was when a 76-year-old woman followed another car through a gate. The first car made it. Hers didn't.

Another disaster that haunts him is of a deputy sheriff who was on his way to meet his wife.

"She was waiting for him on the other side of the track," Pryor remembers. "I still see him looking up at me" (just before the collision).

Union Pacific public relations spokesman Joe Arbona says engineers like Pryor are victims themselves because of such tragedies.

"The last thing in the world they want to do is kill somebody," he said. "They have to live with it."

Another official on the train said fatalities "are up to God." All they can do is try to prevent the collisions from happening in the first place.

Members of the media and public officials from several East Texas communities are on board, as are several officials from the Houston Service Unit of Union Pacific.

They want to educate the media about trains as the holiday season approaches, hoping to avoid family tragedies.

Not that people wait for the holidays to exercise bad judgment at the crossings.

"There's an incident once every two hours between a train and a car, or a pedestrian," says Doug Wood, manager of engineering and public projects for Union Pacific.

"Think of a car running over a can of Coca-Cola," Wood says. The impact, he says, is the same as a car hitting a locomotive.

Somewhat bewildering to train officials is the fact that 21 percent of vehicle-train collisions occur when the driver of the vehicle runs into the train.

Warning lights and gates can help, but 50 percent of collisions come at these sights, railroad officials say. Two-thirds of the crossings in this country don't have flashing lights, bells and gates.

There are 280,000 grade crossings, too, an average of two crossings per mile. Of the 33,000 gates maintained by Union Pacific on 38,000 miles of track, all west of the Mississippi, 10,000 of them had to be replaced last year, say officials.

Public relations spokesman Joe Arbona says Union Pacific is often blamed for things beyond its control.

"Don't get me wrong," he said. "We're a company made up of human beings. We make mistakes."

He said the public doesn't realize that railroad companies move hazardous materials because they're required to by the government.

"We don't really want to move the stuff, but we have to," says Arbona.

Wood, who works with communities and city and county governments, wants to see far fewer crossings. In Melbourne, Florida, nine crossings are within one-sixth of a mile, officials say.

"Each crossing is another opportunity for a collision," Wood says.

He wants communities to consolidate their crossings, and he's willing to work with them and offer some financial support, if they're willing to re-route some of their traffic.

Fewer, and better-equipped crossings, he says, will cut down on car-train disasters. But he know it's a hard sell. - Art Lawler, The Longview (TX) News-Journal

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Texas State Railroad Is A Metaphor For Parks System

During the interim after the general election adrenaline fades and before the beginning of the 2007 Texas Legislature, the Texas State Railroad State Park is at a financial crossroads.

This signature state park of East Texas can’t wait for the deliberations of the 80th Legislature to rescue it.

The Texas State Railroad (TSRR) looks to the leadership of the current legislature to make a down payment on its avowed support for state parks.

The TSRR needs an appropriation of $650,000 on an emergency basis to literally keep the wheels of the steam train turning after Dec. 31. That is the date when the train reaches its last stop and mutates into a “static exhibit.” A static exhibit is best described as a mothballed locomotive.

Texas does not need another still-life train exhibit. There are plenty of those on the outskirts of many a small town – poorly visited and little appreciated.

That is precisely the future of the TSRR and of the twin East Texas state parks of Rusk and Palestine that are the bookends of the railroad’s route. Their namesake communities of Rusk and Palestine in Anderson and Cherokee Counties will suffer as surely as the railroad.

More than 56,000 thousand riders per year translates into about $5.9 million in direct expenditures by visitors originating outside the two home counties. Family outings to ride the train – especially since the kids ride for free – translate into income for local households. Consider that the impact on local personal income is over $5.3 million and the impact on sales is over $8.0 million.

Yet the TSRR State Park is on the brink of shutting down for lack of investment in essential repair and maintenance of track and equipment.

The leadership of the Texas Legislature would have to specifically authorize immediate relief of $650,000 to keep the railroad running through FY 2007, which ends on Aug. 31, 2007.

The supporters of Texas State Parks are waiting. So are East Texas towns. So are the railroad’s employees - many with specialized skills – who have to choose whether to have faith that the leadership will act.

In fact, if the legislative leadership does not act to stabilize the financial situation at TSRR, it is allowing the park system’s biggest economic powerhouse in East Texas to essentially fold.

This is the first test of the Texas Legislature’s will to move the state parks system from a crisis-mode management model to a long-term business model.

The general election is over and the decision can’t be delayed any longer. If the TSRR is forced into a static exhibit, it would be the earliest indication of how the legislative leadership views the state parks.

The Texas State Railroad is now a metaphor for the Texas State Parks system. Its last stop on the road to oblivion is already scheduled for Dec. 31. And that is why the TSRR is so important in the fight to save Texas’ state parks. The leadership of the Texas Legislature could find no better way to signal that it means to solve the state park funding woes and set the system on a secure financial track than keeping the Texas State Railroad alive so it can share in the better financial times ahead.

As the railroad goes, so go Palo Duro Canyon and the Battleship Texas and Government Canyon and the Central Texas forts and Lake Somerville and the remainder of Texas’ 113 state parks. - Evelyn L. Merz, The Jacksonville Daily Progress

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Railroad Derails Rotary Park Plans

DURANGO, CO -- American Heritage Railways - owner of the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad - has scrapped plans to build its corporate headquarters near Rotary Park, and is now looking to break ground at the train depot downtown.

"We're looking at where the building's location would be most conducive to all departments, and right now it's in the existing yard - we're not exactly sure where," said Andrea Seid, marketing manager for the railroad.

In September 2005, American Heritage filed plans with the city proposing a 3,767-square-foot building at 1560 East Second Ave., just east of Rotary Park. A metal warehouse used by the railroad to repair equipment currently sits on the land.

Seid said the property has been sold. Records with La Plata County show American Heritage sold it in June to Durango attorney Matt Kenna and his wife, Janet, who owns For the Birds just one block away at 1480 East Second Ave.

Janet Kenna said she plans to renovate the warehouse on the property and move her business by March or April. Her proposal to renovate the building is working its way through the city's planning process.

It is not the first time the railroad has sold property in Durango to generate some cash. In 2001, the railroad sold the parking lot adjacent to McDonald's to the city of Durango for $2.5 million to help pay for a bankruptcy of its former parent company. In 2003, the railroad sold Narrow Gauge Avenue to the city for $575,000, to help recover from the Missionary Ridge Fire in 2002, when the railroad lost millions after having to shut down during the peak summer months.
And in 2004, the railroad sold a parcel next to Narrow Gauge Avenue for $950,000 to Durango developer Phil Bryson and his partner Jim Hoffmann.

Plans for a new headquarters for the railroad coincide with the move to Durango by Allen Harper, owner of American Heritage. Harper became a full-time Durango resident in August 2005, and his children attend local schools. In addition to a new corporate building in Durango, he has plans for a train stop near the gliderport in the Animas Valley, and an 80-room hotel just west of the train station.

The railroad is the No. 1 tourist draw for Durango, with about 175,000 people riding the train each year. A study in 2001 showed the railroad generates about $100 million for the local economy. - Tom Sluis, The Durango Herald

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Thief Lifts $45,000 In Union Pacific Copper Wire

OMAHA, NE -- The Union Pacific Railroad on Friday reported the theft of copper wiring worth $45,000.

Sgt. Teresa Negron, a spokeswoman for the Omaha Police Department, said officers were called to 16th and Marcy Streets about 06:30.

Investigators determined that someone climbed a utility pole and stole 150 feet of copper wiring belonging to the railroad. - Kevin Cole, The Omaha World Herald

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Who's Pulling, And Who's Pushing?

Click on the following link to view the photograph, taken by Lou Sennick of The Coos Bay World:

[www.theworldlink.com]

Diesel locomotive No. 111 is slowly pushed across the railroad trestle over the Smith River next to Gardiner late Friday afternoon. The engine is part of the Oregon Coast Historical Railway museum in Coos Bay and has been stored at the former International Paper mill in Gardiner for the past few years after it was donated by the company.

The group had to move it to Bolin Island in December 2004 while they waited for transportation to Coos Bay, but it was vandalized then moved back to the mill site. On Friday Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad engine No. 3811 hooked up with the locomotive and towed it into Coos Bay at about 17:00. - The Coos Bay World

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State Leaders Seek Flood Relief

HOOD RIVER, OR -- Rep. Patti Smith and Sen. Rick Metsger will tour the destruction of infrastructure at Farmers and Middle Fork irrigation district holdings on Tuesday.

The two legislators want to view the carnage wrought by a surge of water and debris on Nov. 9. The 15-foot-high torrent ripped out hydropower lines and filled canals with sediment.

Metsger and Smith are compiling data in the hopes of garnering the maximum amount of state aid. Not only are the economic losses mounting into the millions from the extensive damage in Hood River County, but the two legislators are dealing with property owners along the Sandy River that have been left homeless.

“What scares me is that this could get worse – it’s only November,” said Smith. “We need to be cutting through the red tape to expedite repair work and figure out how we can prevent as many future problems as possible.”

She and Metsger reported on the grim scenario to the Joint Emergency Preparedness Committee in Salem this week. Their list of woes was long and included the following facts:

* Farmers Irrigation District is crippled from generating the full $2.5 million each year from hydropower production that is necessary to cover operating costs. Middle Fork has completely lost its ability to produce power worth $1.2 million each year. The two agencies support the county’s agricultural industry that feeds $85 million into the local economy. Without state and federal aid, Farmers will be unable to deliver water to 1,400 customers this summer and Middle Fork to 420 clients.

* Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort has been isolated by devastation along Highway 35, which has also led to the closure of Highway 26 to that area. The business is Hood River County’s largest private employer with 1,000 workers during the winter season. Plus, 500,000 annual visitors add tourism dollars to the $5 million payroll brought into the county by Meadows.

* Mt. Hood Railroad faces bankruptcy from a complete shut down of operations due to extensive damage of the track near Dee. The embankment has also been undercut at various points along the route to Parkdale. The company employs 60-70 workers and provides freight service for lumber, fruit and propane from the mid-valley region. An estimated $6-$7 million is contributed to the county’s economy by the railroad.

Metsger has requested that Gov. Ted Kulongoski place the Oregon National Guard on standby to help with repair work in the valley.

However, the Oregon Department of Transportation believes it has the situation in hand The agency has hired Tri-State Construction, Inc., to mobilize equipment materials and manpower to get at least one lane open to Meadows as soon as possible. The resort usually opens by the first part of December. ODOT has tasked Tri-State with working extended-hour shifts, possibly even 24 hours a day in some locations, to speed up repairs.

“Although ODOT doesn’t think the services of the Guard are necessary at this time, we need to keep that option open. There is a sense of immediacy here because of the potential for an economic emergency,” said Metsger.

Smith believes the floods have highlighted the need for better communication between government agencies. For example, she said the Division of State Lands owns some sections of waterway and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has jurisdiction of others. So, valuable time has been wasted this week tracking down the proper authority to gain permission to enact flood and erosion control measures.

“It’s very clear that we need one individual in charge during these events to quickly sort out issues and get things moving,” said Smith. “We also need a clearly defined plan of action so everyone is on the same page and can act quickly.” - Raelynn Ricarte, The Hood River News

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Train Noise Divides Neighbors

HASTINGS, MN -- In Hastings, the whistleblowers are on track for a fight.
Train noise in the historic downtown is quietly pitting neighbor against neighbor. And train enthusiasts worry that a plan to silence the whistles in their city center is being railroaded through City Hall.

"I've lived down here for 28 years, and the noise has never kept me up once," said Tony Berens, a third-generation owner of Berens Jewelry on Second Street. "They try to keep downtown old and historic, and what's more historic than hearing the whistle blowing?"

Berens and other Hastings business owners say they're proud to play host to up to 30 trains a day sounding whistles in 15-second bursts at two downtown crossings.

And they point to a series of fatal car accidents along the light-rail tracks in Minneapolis as evidence that the noise is a necessary precaution.

"It makes this town what it is," said Ken Klink, a downtown antiques vendor. "It's like having an antique grandfather clock in your house. You don't even notice it when it chimes."

But city officials see — or hear — it differently. The City Council and the five-member board of the Housing and Redevelopment Authority have expressed strong interest in silencing the whistles, and the HRA has hired a consultant to help get that permission from the Federal Railroad Administration.

"It helps the downtown be a more livable place with the horns gone," said Bob Hollenbeck, an HRA member and downtown landlord.

In April, heavy opposition quashed a proposal that would have eliminated the need for warning whistles by upgrading the rail crossing on Second Street with an automatic gate.

Dozens of residents from a neighborhood commonly referred to as "Cow Town," just east of the downtown tracks, persuaded the council to vote down the "quiet zone" proposal, 6-1.

Some city officials felt the outpouring was mostly spurred by safety concerns, not noise. The original proposal called for closing the Third Street crossing entirely to through traffic.

Cow Town residents worried they would be cut off from the city if Third Street is blocked off, if a train is stopped at Second Street and if First Street — the remaining entryway to their neighborhood — becomes flooded, as it sometimes does.

In July, the HRA approached the City Council about reviving the stalled proposal. The group is examining the possibility of installing a swinging gate on Third Street that could be unlocked for emergency vehicles.

The proposal could go before the City Council before the end of the year.

Council Member-elect Barb Hollenbeck isn't scheduled to take her seat until January, but the toy store owner has high hopes that the new quiet zone proposal will win approval. She and her husband, Bob Hollenbeck circulated a petition supporting it over the summer and obtained more than 100 signatures.

"I think it's a quality of life issue to make the downtown area more appealing to residents," said Barb Hollenbeck, who can hear the whistles from her living room with "doors closed and windows closed."

"It would be great to have more owner-occupied buildings (downtown), and improving quality of life encourages that," she said. "There's not even any crossing gates at this point on Third Street. It's a dangerous intersection."

If approved, the city could fund part of the street work with $55,000 from its 25-year-old tax increment finance fund, which channels property taxes from downtown businesses into beautification projects and special uses. If the city doesn't designate a use for its TIF money by the end of the year, the funds revert back to the county, the state and the city.

Berens, however, feels that the quiet zone proposal is a backhanded Christmas present for two developers struggling to sell riverside condominiums downtown. After months of lackluster pre-construction sales, one of the developers has proposed converting his project into a series of row houses.

"It's basically to sell the condos," Berens said. - Frederick Melo, The St. Paul Pioneer Press

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BNSF Disputes Landowner's Application

HELENA, MT -- A Helena orthodontist is more interested in preventing a Helena-to-Great Falls rail line from becoming a bike and pedestrian trail than he is in operating a short-line railroad, BNSF Railway Company and a rail-trail advocacy group say.

BNSF and two members of Recreational Trails Inc. made the assertion in letters this past week to the federal Surface Transportation Board.

Daniel Fiehrer, the orthodontist, wants the federal board to force the railroad to sell its Helena-to-Great Falls line to him for use as a short line.

The railroad and the rail-trail group claim that Fiehrer's request is incomplete and his business plan is speculative. They claim Fiehrer's real motive is not to run a rail line but to prevent the 95-mile route from becoming a bike and pedestrian trail. A BNSF attorney asked the board to reject Fiehrer's application.

Fiehrer, who owns two parcels along the line, could not be reached for comment Saturday. No one answered his home telephone, and a recording at his business number said he was out of the office for the weekend.

Fiehrer applied to the Surface Transportation Board last month. Board members have the power to force the sale of a "feeder" line if shippers along the route haven't been provided with adequate service by the railroad.

Robert Jenkins III, a Washington, D.C. attorney representing BNSF, wrote that Fiehrer failed to show that local shippers have a "serious or even a passing interest" in using the line.

Fiehrer hasn't demonstrated that he's capable of purchasing and running a railroad, Jenkins and Seattle attorney Charles Montange wrote. Montange is representing Great Divide Cyclery owner Eric Grove and former state parks administrator Doug Monger, both members of Recreational Trails Inc.

Fiehrer has said he would lease the route to a short-line railroad, which would run freight and passenger trains along the line, opening a corridor between Canada and Mexico. - The Associated Press, The Billings Gazette

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BNSF Outlines Thanksgiving Holiday Operating Plan

This year the Thanksgiving Holiday will be observed on Thursday, November 23 and Friday, November 24.

Train Service:

The BNSF Railway Company’s Thanksgiving weekend operating plan will focus on meeting customers’ expectations, while allowing employees to spend time with their families.

During the holiday weekend, carload train service will operate according to normal schedules, subject to crew availability. Train service on Thanksgiving Day will be adjusted to allow employees to spend time with their families.

Merchandise unit train service will be aligned to reduced customer operations starting on Thanksgiving Day and continue through the holiday weekend.

BNSF may annul or consolidate some carload train symbols, including through, local and industry switch jobs immediately following the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.

Coal:

Unit Coal trains--both loaded and empty--will operate normally over the Thanksgiving holiday. However, BNSF will attempt to keep trains at the crew's home terminal between 10:00 and 14:00 on Thanksgiving Day if capacity exists at the terminal.

Since many non-unit train coal customers plan reduced operations over the holidays, BNSF may annul or consolidate trains in line with anticipated reduced traffic volumes. Additionally, consistent with the needs of customers, BNSF will reduce local, road-switch and switch engine assignments.

Agricultural Products:

Thanksgiving Day is a shuttle holiday.

· Empty Shuttles -

Customers with empty trains arriving at the loading facility after 18:00, Wednesday, November 22, may elect to move their official spot time to 06:00, Friday, November 24. During this time frame, trains may be loaded if desired.

· Loaded Shuttles -

Customers with loaded trains arriving at an unload facility after 18:00, Wednesday, November 22, may elect to move their official spot time to 06:00, Friday, November 24. During this time frame, trains may be unloaded if desired.

In either case, customers who elect to move the spot time must contact the BNSF Grain Desk at least eight (8) hours in advance and advise of their intentions for train, power and crew planning purposes.

There is no allowance for the Friday after Thanksgiving. Origination Efficiency Payment (OEP) or Destination Efficiency Payment (DEP) will be lost if customer(s) elect to operate outside of these allowances.

Throughout the holiday weekend, BNSF will focus on keeping the Grain Network performing to meet increased demand. If crew and locomotive capacity is available, the train will run. We will coordinate with all customers who are willing to work during the holiday and use extra service if necessary to meet the demand.
Intermodal:

BNSF will continue to operate Intermodal trains over the Thanksgiving holiday. However, due to lighter volumes of traffic and possible train consolidations, shipments originating on Thursday, November 23 through noon on Tuesday, November 28, may experience extended destination availabilities of between 24 and 48 hours.

Please contact your BNSF Intermodal Marketing or Customer Support Representative if you anticipate critical service requirements over the holiday.

Interline Traffic:

Delays may occur on interline traffic if connecting carriers have reduced operations for the holiday. - BNSF Service Advisory

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Another Sign Of The Christmas Season Arrives In California

OMAHA, NE -– Christmas trees are again on their way to households in California, and Union Pacific is helping move them. The season’s first rail shipment of fresh Christmas trees arrived Wednesday afternoon in Los Angeles on board a UP train from Portland, Oregon.

Over the coming days, Union Pacific expects to transport nearly 725,000 Christmas trees to California in more than 1,000 containers or over-the-road trailers. The majority of the containers are bound for Los Angeles; the remaining will ship to Lathrop in Northern California.

Historically, the railroad moved Christmas trees in boxcars that were unloaded at various locations by a wide variety of vendors. In 1988, Union Pacific began moving the trees in intermodal containers and over-the-road trailers. Since then, the railroad has transported more than 9,600 containers and trailers loaded with more than 6.5 million Christmas trees from the Pacific Northwest.

Intermodal shipping involves moving freight by rail and truck without re-packing the shipping container. An example:

· A container on an over-the-road truck chassis is loaded with Christmas trees at a tree farm.

· The loaded container is driven by truck to the rail yard in Portland and placed on a railroad flat car.

· The flat car is moved by train to an intermodal terminal in Los Angeles or Lathrop.

· The container is removed from the flat car and placed on an over-the-road truck chassis.

· The container is driven by truck to vendors in the Los Angeles or Lathrop areas.

- Mark Davis, UP News Release

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Transit News

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Rail Runner On Track For Possible December Startup

BELEN, NM -- The New Mexico Rail Runner station in Belen is near completion, and riders can expect to ride the commuter train by the end of the year if there are no further delays in laying the track and signal system.

The arrival of a quarter mile of track needed at the Belen station was delayed earlier this summer, but last Saturday around 03:00, the track was delivered in Albuquerque and transported to Belen over the weekend.

Lawrence Rael of the Mid-Region Council of Governments (MRCOG) said the track was transported in one piece, which required special equipment to ship and move it into place at the Belen station. Although the track has not yet been laid, the cement railroad ties are down.

"In the next 15 days, barring any other major issues, it should be in place," Rael said.

Once this is done, a signal system still needs to be installed, and that requires laying cable from Isleta to Belen.

The signal system, in layman's terms, is equivalent to a traffic signal that reports when a train leaves Belen, so no other train can go until it emerges from Isleta. However, once a signal system is installed, it allows other trains to know the exact location of the first train and, with this device in operation, another train can be sent five to 10 minutes after the first one departs.

"I'm cautiously optimistic," Rael said. "There's a lot of electrical work to be done, and normally it takes about 60 days, but we're laying the ties and cable at the same time, so it won't take that long."

Right now, they are working on laying the cable between Isleta and Los Lunas and, realistically, the Los Lunas station should come on line the early part of December, Rael said.

"We're working feverishly to get it in place, and so far we're on target to meet that goal," Rael said. "The good news is we have all the equipment and supplies needed to finish the job."

The New Mexico Rail Runner Express consists of five locomotives and 10 cars, which have the capacity of carrying 200 passengers. Although there are only 140 seats, there is plenty of standing room as well as enough space for bicycles to be transported. Each train station is also equipped with bicycle racks and is wheelchair accessible.

Just as the commuter Rail Runner offered free rides the first three months of its initial operation, Rael said the same would be true for the stations coming into operation later this year. "The first three months will be free," he confirmed.

The Bernalillo station has also been completed except for a piece of track, and Rael said that station will come on line shortly after Belen and Los Lunas.

"The track is in for Bernalillo, but we want to get service extended to the south first," Rael said.

The commuter train has been operation in the Albuquerque region for approximately four months, and Rael said the ridership has been good.

"During special events, we were running full cars and even had to add cars to the train," Rael said. "We did see a little dip in ridership on the midday run once fares were charged."

He added that the commuter train was designed for commuters, and the ridership on the morning and evening trains has stayed pretty much the same.

"That's really its primary mission — for commuters," Rael said. "It's working really well."

For information on the schedule, rates and stations for the New Mexico Rail Runner Express visit www.nmrailrunner.com. - The Velencia County News-Bulletin

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Light Rail Makes The World A Little Smaller

DENVER, CO -- On Friday morning, I caught a ride down Interstate 25 to the Lincoln Avenue light-rail station, listened to the grand opening speechifying and grabbed one of the inaugural rides back downtown on the new Southeast Corridor.

I was able to wedge myself in between three officials who have much to gain from the new transit service, and we discussed its merits as we took in the spectacular views of the Front Range.

Randy Pye is mayor of Centennial, and since he had duties to attend to, he was first to get off, at the Dry Creek Station - but not before he bragged about it being the highest-elevation station along the route. "Get off the train sometime at sunset and enjoy Centennial and a spectacular view of the mountains," he said.

A few minutes earlier, Pye had cheered a throng of well-wishers at the grand opening ceremony by reminding them that FasTracks construction will usher in six new light-rail corridors over the next 10 years.

"The whole world is watching to see how we do this," he said.

Longtime Douglas County Commissioner Melanie Worley sat across from me and reminisced about her six years of lobbying Congress to get more federal money for our fledgling light-rail network.

"I think eventually we changed their way of thinking," she said. "But when we first went in, it was business as usual."

Seated across from me and next to Worley was John Lay, president of the Southeast Business Partnership, an economic development group in the Denver Tech Center.

"We'd seem to arrive in Congress the day after the folks from the Big Dig (Boston's troubled $14.6 billion downtown transportation project)," Lay said. "They'd fill Congress full of baloney about how they'd finally turned the corner. Over the years, as tunnel tiles fell on cars there and water seeped into their tunnels, our project started to look better."

Earlier, under the grand opening tent at Lincoln Station, U.S. Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., recalled his battles with then-Senate Banking Committee Chairman Alfonse D'Amato, R-N.Y., over federal funding for light rail in Denver. Such money traditionally was allotted to eight cities back east, Allard was told. D'Amato held the purse strings, and over the years Allard got him to open them a bit for the $1.75 billion T-REX project.

"Most of that money goes to where the most riders are," Federal Transportation Administration boss James Simpson told the crowd. "It's hard to bring home that bacon, and Allard did it."

"Everybody wants our money, but you people voted with your pocketbooks, too," Simpson added. "Not everyone does that for transit. Whatever it costs today, think what it'll cost 20 to 30 years from now. This is for the future, for your children and grandchildren. And it's a magnet for investment."

Cal Marsella, general manager for the Regional Transportation District since 1995, is having one of the red-letter weeks of his life. On Wednesday, he emceed a news conference at Union Station, naming a finalist to be master developer for the billion-dollar transit hub. On Friday, he got to crow about the completion of his T-REX labors.

"We are looked at around the country," said Marsella, named by the American Transportation Association as its outstanding public transit official for 2006. "Every time we do a transit project, it comes in on time and under budget. It was uncanny the way the business community worked together with the Sierra Club and the Colorado Environmental Coalition on this. They all realized this project would bring a better business environment as well as a more sustainable environment. This is one that everybody got behind."

Meanwhile, back on the track, Lay, Worley and I were zipping past the Hampden Avenue stop, talking about the tunnel underneath I-25 from the east side to the rail station on its west.
Sixty percent of the jobs in the Tech Center are on the east side of the highway, but light rail runs along the west side, Lay noted. That's why there are now five pedestrian overpasses at the stops south of Hampden.

"None of them are funded with public money," he said. They were mostly paid for by employers who assessed themselves special-district taxes to fund construction, he said. "None of these bridges would exist if the private sector hadn't stepped up."

Looking out her window at the passing autos, Worley mused about how much closer light rail brings suburban Douglas County to downtown Denver.

"I hope we like each other," she said.

By the way, RTD is offering free rides today on the 19-mile Southeast Corridor light-rail line. Starting Sunday, you pay. If you're not too busy, hop on for a stop or two, then double back.

It's way impressive. As RTD director O'Neill Quinlan said Friday, "We've changed the skin of Denver." - Rob Reuteman, Rocky Mountain News

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Riders Pack RTD's New Light Rail

DENVER, CO -- Denverites jammed on to RTD's new southeast light rail line today, with standing-room-only on every available car.

Station platforms were crowded with more and more riders participating in the historic opening of the $880 million, 19-mile rail line from Union Station out to Lincoln Avenue. The weather was beautiful - sunny and warm - as riders welcomed the new transit extensions, which were completed under budget and ahead of schedule.

"I'm very excited," said Kay Miller, of Lakewood, who was riding the new line with her parents out to Lincoln Station and back. "I've always been a huge fan of light rail and for RTD to continue expanding its lines is a very good idea."

Miller lives within two blocks of RTD's next light-rail expansion to the west.

Throngs of people gobbled up all the food in sight, including hot dogs and ice cream that RTD had served. Cries went out that three times more food should be ready for Saturday's celebrations, in which the entire light rail system will be open to the public for free.

On Saturday, the stations will host parties with music, vendors and yes, more food. Various radio stations will be broadcasting along the line, as well as balloon artists, Polynesian dancers and canned food drives.

"I like it because me and my grandpa are really into trains," said 8-year-old J.J. Pippin as he and his mother, Cari, rode the train to Lincoln Station.

Sunday's trains will carry Broncos fans for the first time from as far away as Lincoln down to Invesco Field. - Jeff Leib, The Denver Post

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Light-Rail For California's Central Valley To Be Discussed Monday

VISALIA, CA -- Critics and proponents of a light-rail project in California's Central Valley will discuss a new feasibility report Monday for an ambitious public transportation system here.

The project would cost between $503 million and $644 million to build, and it would require millions of dollars to maintain every year.

Detractors say that's an unrealistically expensive undertaking for the cash-strapped agricultural region, and current residents wouldn't benefit.

Backers - including some local politicians - say the region must begin working on the system now to improve quality of life for residents' children and grandchildren. They say the cost does not factor the traffic congestion, pollution and sprawl that a light-rail system could help reduce.

The study by engineering firm Wilbur Smith Associates, commissioned by the Tulare County Association of Governments, found ridership would be too low and construction costs too high to qualify for federal funding. Annual operating and maintenance costs would outpace income from ridership by between $2 million and $4 million each year.

Elizabeth Wright, a regional planner for TCAG, said the population of Visalia and Tulare - proposed terminals - aren't big or dense enough to generate enough riders before 2030. - The Associated Press, The San Jose Mercury News

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Keeping A Close Eye On LIRR's New Steps

NEW YORK CITY, NY -- When it comes to action the Long Island Rail Road should take for passenger safety, fixing the gaps is just "one piece of the puzzle," says New York's senior senator.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the LIRR's recent response to fixing problem platforms to prevent riders from falling through large gaps "encouraging." But he called for measures beyond those being taken.

"The railroad owes it to its riders to do a comprehensive safety review of all its operations and infrastructure," Schumer said. "We will watch them like a hawk to make sure they do."

Other local politicians largely adopted a wait-and-see attitude on the railroad's response.

The LIRR is currently shifting tracks, moving platforms or extending platform edges at dozens of stations while reviewing the safety of other stations.

The move came in response to the spate of gap-related accidents, including the death of tourist Natalie Smead, 18, of Minnesota, who fell into a gap at the Woodside station and was struck by a train.

Some politicians said they are keeping a close eye on the LIRR's activities.

"It's our understanding that they've [the LIRR] completed a review of the majority of platforms and are on track to finish by the end of the year," said Tom Dunham, spokesman for state Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre), who sits on the MTA Capital Program Review Board. "But it's too early to comment if the review is satisfactory because we haven't seen it yet."

Assemb. Richard Brodsky (D-Hartsdale), chairman of the Assembly's Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions, said his committee will hold a hearing before the end of the month.

"We'll ask the usual, like why is it taking this long to recognize and to correct the problems, how permanent the fixes are. There's no lack of questions," Brodsky said.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said with gap solutions as simple as attaching wooden extensions to platforms, he hopes the LIRR will move swiftly.

"It appears from this week's events that the solution is as easy as drilling a 4-by-4 to the platform to get additional foot space," Levy said. "It seems that the solution can be put into place quickly and cheaply, so hopefully we will see all of these gaps remedied in the very near future by the railroad."

Official's say

Newsday asked elected officials and transportation leaders to comment on how the LIRR, or MTA, is handling the gap issue:

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy:

"It appears from this week's events that the solution is as easy as drilling a 4-by-4 to the platform to get additional foot space. It seems that the solution can be put into place quickly and cheaply, so hopefully we will see all of these gaps remedied in the very near future by the railroad."

Stu Loeser, spokesman for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg:

"The mayor supports whatever steps the MTA takes to improve passenger safety."

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.):

"Although a senseless tragedy should never had been the wake-up call the LIRR needed to better protect its riders, their recent response is encouraging. But there is more to do and ... fixing the gaps is one piece of the puzzle. The railroad owes it to its riders to do a comprehensive safety review of all its operations and infrastructure."

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.):

"I am very concerned about the safety issue posed by the gap, which threatens the safety of riders. This situation has already had tragic consequences and has gone on far too long. ... I understand that the MTA is working on some solutions and I urge them to address this issue as soon as possible before any more people are injured."

Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno (R-Brunswick):

Referred questions to the office of state Sen. Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre).

Tom Dunham, spokesman for Skelos, who sits on the MTA Capital Program Review Board:

"The MTA and the LIRR have been moving forward, but this is not going away. This is an important safety issue."

Charles "Skip" Carrier, spokesman for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan):

"The speaker is deeply concerned for the safety of Long Island Rail Road riders and will do everything possible to ensure their safety."

Assemb. Richard Brodsky (D-Hartsdale), who heads the Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions:

"We'll ask the usual, like why is it taking this long to recognize and to correct the problems, how permanent the fixes are. There's no lack of questions. We'll make sure the MTA understands that the legislature is watching. I think they've been taking it seriously, but no one quite knows if these are long-term or short-term fixes."

Elliot "Lee" Sander, co-chairman of Gov.-elect Eliot Spitzer's transition team for transportation policy:

"Certainly, we're going to be looking at critical issues, and we would expect the MTA to identify that as a critical issue. On the gap, we are extremely concerned about Long Island Rail Road."

Gov. George Pataki, Gov.-elect Eliot Spitzer and Nassau County Executive Thomas Suozzi:

Did not respond .

- Sophia Chang, Newsday

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