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Re: Yreka Western No. 19 up for auction – Ed Elis Offers To Store It
Author: sp4294
Date: 10-01-2013 - 18:04
To me it seems like Ed Ellis is looking for a free steam locomotive. And isn't his Iowa Pacific Holdings under some financial strain? Also, as a note of this auction, the Siskiyou County Sheriff's department has yet to even to start the legal proceedings to make an announcement and proceed on with the auction of the 19, so it may happen later than what's being said if it even happens at all (the Sheriff's Department was even unaware that there was going to be an auction when the initial announcement was made on Trainorders.com.) So, all this was started from somebody jumping the gun.
I do feel I need to correct some facts about the Yreka Western in the original post. While car loadings were low in the 90's (especially the late 90's after the closure of Hi-Ridge). When Timber Products had the 2 new veneer spurs built in the early 2000's carloads were back up in the thousands. With carloads around or exceeding 3000 in 2007. The railroad was in the black at that time, but CORP's mothballing of the Siskiyou Line really messed things up, with the last shipments of veneer heading out of Yreka and over the hill in the spring in 2008. Things after that started to decline, but the car storage was the saving grace for a number of years. A few loads of propane have been the only freight moved in 2009 and 2010. But poor business ethics on part of the owner escalated things to where they are now, but it doesn't mean that the YW can't come back (it's come back from worse and that was during the Great Depression). A new operator and the much anticipated re-re-opening of the Siskiyou Line would help turn the YW around, and a well advertised excursion train with the 19 would help too (the last 2 years the Blue Goose ran there was hardly any advertising done except for the distribution of few brochures that didn't get delivered until half the season was over. And just has an example how bad it was, there were people in Yreka that didn't know the Blue Goose was running at the time, and that whistle can be heard for miles around. But in the 90's when it was Willis Kyle's operation, the Blue Goose was well advertised, and reservations were needed in advance to ride the train.
As I said the 19 needs to stay in Yreka. Northern California has already lost the 18 and 25 along with the McCloud Railway, there's no reason the Yreka Western and the 19 can't be saved. It could be made a profitable excursion operation if the right people were involved. Other railroads seem to make a living running excursion trains why can't it be done on the YW? Also to add, the city of Montague would be thrilled to see the excursion train come back, they have suffered greatly since the excursion quit running.
Tim Stricker
ex-Yreka Western Employee
Gillette, WY
I do feel I need to correct some facts about the Yreka Western in the original post. While car loadings were low in the 90's (especially the late 90's after the closure of Hi-Ridge). When Timber Products had the 2 new veneer spurs built in the early 2000's carloads were back up in the thousands. With carloads around or exceeding 3000 in 2007. The railroad was in the black at that time, but CORP's mothballing of the Siskiyou Line really messed things up, with the last shipments of veneer heading out of Yreka and over the hill in the spring in 2008. Things after that started to decline, but the car storage was the saving grace for a number of years. A few loads of propane have been the only freight moved in 2009 and 2010. But poor business ethics on part of the owner escalated things to where they are now, but it doesn't mean that the YW can't come back (it's come back from worse and that was during the Great Depression). A new operator and the much anticipated re-re-opening of the Siskiyou Line would help turn the YW around, and a well advertised excursion train with the 19 would help too (the last 2 years the Blue Goose ran there was hardly any advertising done except for the distribution of few brochures that didn't get delivered until half the season was over. And just has an example how bad it was, there were people in Yreka that didn't know the Blue Goose was running at the time, and that whistle can be heard for miles around. But in the 90's when it was Willis Kyle's operation, the Blue Goose was well advertised, and reservations were needed in advance to ride the train.
As I said the 19 needs to stay in Yreka. Northern California has already lost the 18 and 25 along with the McCloud Railway, there's no reason the Yreka Western and the 19 can't be saved. It could be made a profitable excursion operation if the right people were involved. Other railroads seem to make a living running excursion trains why can't it be done on the YW? Also to add, the city of Montague would be thrilled to see the excursion train come back, they have suffered greatly since the excursion quit running.
Tim Stricker
ex-Yreka Western Employee
Gillette, WY
