Track Warrants
"The Electronic Internet Newsletter of Western Railroading"P.O. Box 720301
San Jose, CA 95172
USA
Issue No. 12
Nov. 18, 1995
An eastbound "cans" heads toward tunnel two, near Bealville CA, on Oct. 21, 1990. The late afternoon sun casts a very golden glow to the scene.
Ken Stitzel) wrote:
(I saw an AP story in Wednesday's paper that said a transportation bill had gone to Clinton from Congress. It cut funds for mass transit and Amtrak, but didn't say by how much. The story said Clinton was expected to sign the bill. Too bad. I didn't hear a peep about this bill until after the fact. Is anyone here on the net tracking this stuff? A little advance notice would have been nice. All the info you need is out there on the Web.
For example:
Transportation Funding by Agency
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
FY 1996 Appropriations Committee
Conference Report
------------------------------------------
Change From FY 1995
FY 1995 FY1996 ----------------------------
Agency Appropriation Amount Dollars Percent
---------------- ------------- ------------- ------------- --------------
(Millions) (Millions) (Millions)
Total 38,172.3 37,010.8 (1,161.4) -3.04%
------------- ------------- ------------- --------------
Secretary 252.2 233.6 (18.6) -7.39%
Coast Guard 3,657.3 3,375.4 (281.9) -7.71%
Federal Transit 4,614.3 4,051.4 (562.9) -12.20%
Federal Highway 19,878.6 19,969.7 91.2 0.46%
Highway Safety 278.0 280.3 2.3 0.84%
Federal Aviation 8,392.2 8,216.3 (175.9) -2.10%
Federal Railroad 1,161.8 873.7 (288.1) -24.80%
Saint Lawrence Seaway 10.3 10.2 (0.1) -0.99%
Research/Special Prog 74.9 64.7 (10.2) -13.61%
Inspector General 40.0 40.2 0.2 0.59%
Transportation Stats 0.0 2.2 2.2 ---
General Provisions (187.2) (106.9) 80.4 ---
Source: House of Representatives Report 104-286,
Conference Report to accompany H.R. 2002.
Note that transit takes a 12% cut, FRA (including Amtrak) gets a 24% cut, but highway subsidies are INCREASED.
Here are some URL's for you to use:
For this bill, use Thomas, and look for stuff on HR2002.
Bob Scheurle (via usenet)
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I rode the Capitol trains yesterday (7 November) and can offer these observations:
The timekeeping of 721 Roseville to Emeryville and 724 Emeryville to Sacramento was excellent, on time the whole way, and early back into Sacramento, allowing me to catch an earlier bus back to Roseville.
The consist was F59, 4 California coaches and a Superliner snack coach. We ran pull mode westbound and push mode eastbound. As I saw the other equipment set Monday and this morning on the way to work, I can tell you that it is running F59, 5 California coaches and an El Cap diner. From all that I have heard, and seen, the Superliner snack coach is a FAR better car for this run, as it has revenue space upstairs and can be more easily operated by one person. The ex-ATSF cars should be put on the San Joaquins when enough Cal cars are delivered. That is where they were run in the late '80s when the SJs were running Superliners and with a several person crew seemed to do pretty well. The only stations where the platforms are high enough to trainline the doors were Emeryville and Suisun-Fairfield. At all other stations, the crew opened two doors, one in the second coach and one in the fourth. Station dwell time could be cut by a couple of minutes with higher platforms allowing all doors on the train to be used, although, since 724 had to wait for time at Martinez, this does not seem to be a timekeeping factor on Tuesdays.
721 was a little fuller than 724, but both trains had plenty of seats. My last Capitol trip was in March and on a weekend and I recall the trains being fuller. As it was, I had a four seat table to myself. I like the arrangement of both tables and conventional side by side seats.
After reading horror stories about the seats in the TRAC newspaper, I found them to be not at all uncomfortable. (I'm 6'4", 220 lb.) I would not rate the comfort as high as the SNCF coaches on Le Mistral when I rode that train in 1980, but the seats fit me fine for a 2.5 hour ride. I noticed at least one bike rack in use on one of the trains.
The crews were friendly, answering questions, joking with the passengers, and announcing if people could duck out for a smoke or not at various stations.
In San Francisco, it was nice to see PCCs on Market Street again. I noticed two, one painted in Muni cream and green (even as a kid, I did not find this the most attractive paint scheme, but it has grown on me a bit) and another in yellow with green stripes and no lettering. Does anyone know if the yellow and green is the paint job of some transit system or just something that looks good? It reminds me of some coaches that I saw in southern India some years ago.
The San Joaquins that I saw had Horizon cars and F59s. I didn't really check on their timekeeping, other than the one that preceded 724 into Emeryville was a few minutes late, but not late enough to put 724 off its schedule.
This was the first time that I had used the new Emeryville station. It is very nice and its neighborhood seems better than that the Oakland 16th Street was in.
The passengers with whom I spoke seemed happy with the service, one person expressing a wish for an earlier train to allow more time in SF. (I told him about the Starlight, but we agreed that its present schedule is too early.) It is a shame that Caltrans and the California Transport Commission can't come up with a plan for improving the infrastructure and assuring the train's future. CTC has been holding up some $50+million in bond money for over a year that SP and Caltrans had agreed to spend on track and signaling improvements. The Capitols were very popular when they were launched with a 2 for 1 fare and ridership grew at a rapid rate until the fare was discontinued about 5 or 6 months after the trains started. During that time, the trains' farebox recovery rate exceeded 50% for the only time in their history. On weekends, Cal Train commute cars from the San Francisco-San Jose trains were added to the rear of the Amtrak equipment to handle the 1000+ people who showed up for the ride. After the 2 for 1 fare finished, ridership plummeted and has only slowly increased. There is a 2 for 1 deal on right now, but it only covers Monday to Thursday travel, and while a fair number of us were in ties or suits and obviously on business trips, the big market for these trains remains leisure travel.
We will have to see if CTC continues to fund the Capitols after December.
"J. W. Bowker", via usenet
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October 24, 1995---San Francisco Bay Area Station Car Demonstration Launched Today, Their Majesties King Harald V and Queen Sonja of Norway launched the San Francisco Bay Area Station Car Demonstration. The demonstration will use 40 two-seater, ground-up built, electric vehicles imported from Norway. Each vehicle has a retractable cord in its nose and an onboard charger.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) manages the project. Other sponsors are Pacific Gas & Electric, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the U.S. Department of Defense through CALSTART, and the California Energy Commission.
BART Board President Michael Bernick told the King and Queen, "The next time you visit the Bay Area, we will have thousands of station cars." The cars will be driven from the BART Ashby station each morning by Sybase employees to their work site, used by the employees during the day and returned to the station at night. Charging will normally be done at the station at 208 V, but can be done at any 120 V outlet. Sybase is the world's sixth-largest independent software company.
BART has contracted with Green Motorworks, Inc. to lease the vehicles manufactured by the Personal Independent Vehicle Company of Norway. Green Motorworks will be responsible for ensuring the good operation of the vehicles and for the interaction with the drivers. The Norwegian firm is setting up a U.S. firm (Clean Intelligent Transportation, Inc. or CITI) to begin building the electric car here in 12 to 14 months with high U.S. content.
The car, called the City Bee, is the only EV available worldwide that meets BART’s specification for station cars. Twelve City Bees built to European standards—without freeway capability and air conditioning—will be in the demonstration by December 1995. By the summer of 1996, 28 addition City Bees, but built to U.S. standards—with air conditioning and freeway capable—will be in service at other BART stations and will be used for between home and station trips and between station and work trips by employees of other firms.
The cars have SAFT NiCd batteries and a curb weight of 1750 lbs. They have thermal plastic bodies over extruded aluminum space frame and are 9.2 ft long, 5 ft wide, and 5 ft high, and have a wheel base of 4.2 ft. The roof, sides, bottom, and nose of the vehicle is one piece of color impregnated plastic. The surface has a matte finish so scratches do not show. If an accident occurs, the plastic can be “welded” back together and the surface refinished. Damaged portions of the aluminum frame can be cut out and new pieces welded in. With periodic upgrades, the car has a potential for long life (20 or more years) and is almost totally recyclable. Stated differently, once a vehicle is purchased for a station car program, in theory it will never have to be replaced, only upgraded and recycled. Dr. Martin Bernard, Executive Director of the National Station Car Association, said, "What we have today are hand-made prototypes. If CITI manufactures this vehicle, or someone else does a similar vehicle, at volumes large enough to get the price down to $10,000 or less, the station car concept will shift from demonstration to full scale implementation, because it then becomes economic, and a good business opportunity. At $10,000 a car, the station car market would be large enough to allow volume production. So it is sort of a chicken and egg thing."
Background: Station cars are a transportation service. They are electric vehicles driven to and from mass transit stations. For initial demonstrations, the drivers will be carefully chosen commuters. When fully implemented after the turn of the century, station cars combined with line-haul transit will be a transportation service, as ubiquitous as a utility, that change the transportation paradigm of many metropolitan area households. Station cars will reduce local emissions of using conventionally fueled vehicles for short trips and other associated societal costs and will make mass transit a convenient door-to-door service.
The National Station Car Association is a national, technical, non-profit, corporation with the purpose of guiding the development and testing of the electric station car concept.
Martin J. Bernard III, via usenet
FT. WORTH, Texas, Nov. 14 ---Wabash National Corporation (NYSE: WNC), in a joint development effort with Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation (BNSF) (NYSE: BNI), unveiled its new AllRailer(TM) articulated, multilevel railcar for vehicle transport in a roll-out ceremony at its Lafayette, Ind., manufacturing plant last Friday. A BNSF senior management team led by President and Chief Executive Officer Robert D. Krebs was present to inspect Wabash National Corporation's first entry into the railcar market and to witness a demonstration of the car's capabilities.
BNSF and Wabash National Corporation collaborated on the AllRailer railcar design, which allows shippers to transport vehicles by rail in a fully-enclosed environment, protected from both airborne contamination and vandalism. "The goal of this new design is to provide automotive shippers quality improvements, while maintaining the economics provided by the current fleet of vehicle-hauling railcars," said Steven F. Marlier, BNSF senior vice president-consumer business unit.
PRNewswire via Brian P. Kreimendahl
As reported in the Vancouver Sun on Monday, November 13
WOMAN STAYED IN STALLED CAR HIT BY VIA TRAIN TO BE WITH DOG
A woman whose stalled car was hit by a Via Rail passenger train at a level crossing in Chilliwack said she didn't flee on foot becuase she didn't want to leave her dog. Marjorie Stevens, 69, said she knew she was in the train's way when her car stalled Sunday at the Rosedale crossing. The train tore the front off the car but Stevens and the dog were uninjured.
Canadian Press, via usenet
Highlights from articles in the Austin American Statesman:
11/15---Conrail wants 3000 mile piece of the Southern Pacific Railroad to carry its freight trains to the Texas-Mexico border. UP plans to buy to buy the line as part of its $5.4 billion acquisition of SP has Conrail along with some Texas officials attacking the proposed merger as anti-competitive. According to Paige Kane, an assistant vice president with Conrail, "Our acquisition of the Southern Pacific Lines would provide true competition for the shippers and manufacturers of Texas. It is more competitive than what they would be able to get with the Union Pacific-Burlington Northern agreement." Sensitive to charges of reduced competition, UP said it would allow the recently merged BNSF to use almost 4,000 miles of its tracks in areas where a UP-SP merger would leave only one railroad for shippers. Critics of the rail consolodations worry that they will result in higher shipping rates for Texas agriculture, petrochemical, and manufacturing businesses which would be passed on to the consumer.
State Rep. Rob JUnnell, D-san Angelo, a leading state government critic of the proposed merger said it would be less objectionalif Conrail acquired SP, but even then there would be concerns about competition. But Conrail argues that if it could buy certain SP lines, Texans would still get competitive shipping rates even if the merger os approved.
Conrail wants to buy 3,000 miles of SP tracks running from the midwest to New Orleans and into Texas to the Mexican border. That purchase, Conrail officials argue, would benefit shippers who ,for the first time, could use a single shipper to move freight from Mexican border to the midwest and on to New England, or from New England to Mexico. Conrail is only interested in those 3,000 miles and not in the other 11,500 miles of track through the west.
In recent weeks, Conrail officials have been busy meeting with state officials,shippers, the media, and others to promote its interest in the SP lines. UP has already rejected Conrail's offer to buy the lines for an undisclosed amount. UP spokesman John Bromley says "Conrail is really doing this to undermine our proposed merger. They're that we wouldn't sell them trackage or grant them rights to expand their franchise. UP still needs the lines that Conrail is interested in." UP, like Conrail, is conducting a public relations campaign in Texas and has had at least some success. The Port of Houston Authority has announced it will support the proposed merger in exchange for expanded rail access to three of its shipping terminals on the Houston Ship Channel.
The UP will submit its proposed merger to ICC by Dec. 1. The ICC is expected to take about eight months to act.
Jerry Storrs Jr (similar story also submitted via Brian P. Kreimendahl)
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11/16---Illinois Central Corporation, hoping to maintain competition on some southern rail routes, said Monday it will seek to buy portions of Southern Pacific Railroad in connection with UP's proposed acquisition of SP Corp.
Illinois Central says the 3,900 mile trackage rights and sale to BNSF may not go far enough, especially in the Texas and Gulf of Mexico markets. IC wants to buy SP lines from Memphis,TN to Dallas, Houston, And Brownsville and from New Orleans to Houston. "IC is advancing this proposal as an alternative for shippers if UP"s agreement with BNSF is not sufficient to satisfy anti-competitve issues in this geographic area." said E. Hunter Harrison, president and CEO.
IC which didn't disclose a proposed price said it has filed its petition with the ICC. Southern Pacific announced Wednesday that the governors of seven states have pledged their support for its acquisition by Union Pacific. The states are Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Wyoming.
Jerry Storrs Jr (similar story also submitted via Brian P. Kreimendahl)
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As reported last week, the old faithful, middle-aged SD-7 and SD-9 units in Roseville are still hard at work. For those keeping a close eye on things, you'll be happy to know that the following units were MUd in pairs, pushing, pulling and shoving cars on the east end:
Honor thy elders and stop in Roseville to see how well SP has taken care of the innards on these elderly graduates of LaGrange. They do their duties without even a whisp of smoke and still sound like I remember new ones sounding on the 'Q back in the '50s. (No snow in Roseville, either!)
Lots of run-through BN power has suddenly appeared on runs from the northwest. Maybe the green and red combinations are harbingers of things to come, particularly in view of trackage rights granted by UP in the merger application.
SP is keeping the new GEs in fair cleanliness, but it would be fair to say that they are getting washed for nothing just by going north over the Siskiyous these days. Some of the oldtimers at the Lodge in Roseville say that even the cab-forwards in helper service were washed as soon as they came off the Hill back in the waning days of steam.
And this from a conductor on the Bakersfield turn: "If you have one of the [Dash-8, 4-axle] GEs on the point, you're going to have one of the roughest, most uncomfortable rides of your career. Those things hunt, bounce, and you feel every rail joint every inch of the way. Now the NEW 6-axle units, well, they're like a limo, and just about as quiet, too."
Tom Krummell, Roseville
I had a chance to grab the consist of the grain train at Modesto on UP's Tidewater Southern. The GSTST was operating about an hour after the local, LFW41 and showed on 9th Street, at my hang-out at the Old Mill Cafe. (The TS moves about 10 feet from my table, yes I'll write up a railfan grub piece on this place!) The CSTST was Southbound with about 75 loaded grain cars for Turlock at approximately 14:10 and seen with this consist:
CNW 8652, CR 744, UP 5060, CR 568
Though UP SD40s, SD60s or C40s, various wide cabs are common to this train and some pool or foriegn power, Conrail and SD50s are a bit unusual to the TS and even the Feather River. Good consist.
R Carlson(Altamont Press)
9/24 DAHOF 6887,6859,6845 Hearne,TX DALAF 8084,9344,8536 " CHMXZ 9146,6153 " 10/14 CHMXZ 4256,3144,3469 Hearne,TX LADAF 7316,9647,8386,8591 " PBWCM 8624,8290,DRGW5406 " VIHEM 6819,6881,6810,8695 " DOEST 9777,8585,9740,9788 " 2CHMXZ 249,NS3996,3348 " DALAF 8033,7540,8619,9647 " MFEGT 7338,7546,9652,8057 " 1MBSMF 9234,7517,8084,6889 " 2MBSMF 8006,8010,7831 " LDNL 3128,3372 " WORK DRGW5411,8549 " OGTAT GRR9059,GRR9401 " LAMFF 8511,8667 " 11/12 DASAF 9772 Hearne,TX LAMFF 8290,7384,9626,8379,9647,CSX7083 " CHMXZ 9319 Round Rock,TX NLLD CNW8707,CRL753,3743,2139 Taylor,TX SASP 3530,2479,3414,3654 Thrall,TX GLFWCC 4161,CNW6855,3772,3833 Milano,TX 11/13 UP PWR MV CRL504,4211,2450 Mumford,TX DAHOF 6876,6808,EMD796,EMD878,EMD837 Hearne,TX HEVIM 8646,9282 " 1PBWCM11 8191,2721,8137,8067 " MXCHZ 3757,3618,CRL547 " FWHEM 8494,8588,6851,8674 Seger,TX 1PBWCM12 8145,8173,8540 Hearne,TX NPHO CNW6835,3240,CN9316 Tatsie,TX CLAIC 130,192,152 " FWMX 3327,850,3557,4307,3517 "
It was one of those beautiful Southern California winter days yesterday (Saturday, November 11) with no clouds and max sun. A cool breeze helped keep the air clear and temps in the Pass in the mid - 70s. If it was a spring day it would have been perfect for spring skiing! If I had to design a better day for railfanning I couldn't have done it.
I hadn't railfanned Cajon Pass in a while and I was apprehensive that BN green would be flourishing and that Red Bonnet and all ATSF motive power consist photo ops would be at a minimum. Nothing could have been further from the truth. I didn't see a single BN unit the entire day (I did however see two CR units lashed together and buried in a SP motive power consist with a long mixed freight battling upgrade towards Devore).
I have never seen Cajon as busy as it was yesterday. It was as busy as the busiest day at Tehachapi. From the time I got to the Cajon environs at about 10:00 AM until dark the action was intense. It did tail off some at the very end of the day thankfully as I was pooped!
I am guessing that a lot of container ships recently docked at the Ports of Long Beach and/or Los Angeles causing the large flow of stack trains on the ATSF. One of the great things yesterday was that ATSF was using a two (2) unit helper set in the pass which included an F45. I don't know how much longer that's gonna happen on the ATSF as the 20 cylinder EMDs are slipping away from Chico's roster. Although I missed this as I was on a "refreshment" run to the local convenience store - an EMD SD70M Demonstrator also came through the Pass in the middle of a motive power consist (on the UP or ATSF - I can't remember which one now).
Of course ATSF trains had the usual J.B. Hunt stuff, but there were TONS of orange Schneider trailers as TOFC loads. One interesting thing I hadn't seen before were two (2) ex-UPS 40' Trailers completely painted biege heading up the Pass. Harry Wong got lots of shots of these things so I'll know more about the reporting marks later. Dave Casdorph said that UPS had been selling their 40' trailers so we collectively surmised that as UPS sells these trailers they are getting painted.
Thanks to Dave Casdorph, Ed McCaslin and Harry Wong for a hilarious day of train watching in Cajon.
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Cajon the 12th:
This is from 7:30 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon.
Note no SP trains during this time, though an eb Mojave Flyer was seen at the I-15 overpass around 2:30.
Thats it from here... -Chris Butts (via Brian P. Kreimendahl)
Subject: just a reminder to always do a sanity check on your testing procedures...
The FAA has a device for testing the strength of windshields on airplanes.
They point this thing at the windshield of the aircraft and shoot a dead chicken at about the speed the air-craft normally flies at it. If the windshield doesn't break, it's likely to survive a real collision with abird during flight.
The British had recently built a new locomotive that could pull a train faster than any before it. They were not sure that its windshield wasstrong enough so they borrowed the testing device from the FAA, reset it toapproximate the maximum speed of the locomotive, loaded in the deadchicken, and fired. The bird went through the windshield, broke the engineer's chair, and made a major dent in the back wall of the engine cab.
They were quite surprised with this result, so they asked theFAA to check the test to see if everything was done correctly.The FAA checked everything and suggested that they might want to repeat the test using a thawed chicken.
Hello Steve,
Thanks for another edition of Track Warrants. I really enjoy your publication. I hope you will always have time for this. I would imagine you could become burnt out doing this on a weekly basis!
Thanks again. Track Warrants is great!
Regards, Gary R. Clark
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I am President of the Miles Canyon Historical Railway Society, Whitehorse,Yukon, Canada. We are looking to purchase, borrow, lease, or rebuild, etc a running or restorable locomotive and cars for 36" scale track. It will operate as a tourist heritage railway on a short section of the White Pass Railroad. I am looking for sources and contacts to pursue this.
George Privett tel (403)668-7715, Fax (403) 668-7356, NET gprivett@yknet.yk.ca
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Steve
Greetings, Rob just forwarded me a copy of your Track Warrant #11. Great stuff.
Doesn't get any faster. I'll also will send you material as I find it....Winterail is set for March 9th 1996...
Vic Neves
BAD NEWS....The following addresses have had problems with transmission and are being deleted: Jarlath2@aol, GRIPPW%ALLOY.BITNET@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU,
This document was last updated November 18, 1995.