Two pieces of bad news from the State of Jefferson…
Bill Killion (long-time volunteer on the Yreka Western) is
reporting on the railroadnews.net discussion board that the YW is not
likely to survive much longer. The railroad has been losing $10,000
a month since the Tunnel 13 fire on the Central Oregon & Pacific
cost the railroad 60% of its freight business. In the 17 months
since the fire the railroad has accumulated a debt load in excess of
$1 million. The company passed into receivership back in December,
and there was supposed to be a court hearing tomorrow (16 March) to
appoint a permanent administrator. There is no money left in the
till, and even if freight shipments resume it will be too little too
late to save the YW. He states that the railroad will likely be
liquidated to pay debts…soon…
Timber Products (the only shipper of any substance left on the YW)
has apparently stated that if the YW closes it may elect to close
its Yreka plant and move it to Roseburg, OR, which would eliminate
another 150 jobs from the county.
Notices of Intent to Abandon the entire line of the McCloud
Railway have appeared in the legal sections of local papers this
week. Entire railroad east of McCloud is up for abandonment, with
common carrier service to be suspended on the McCloud-Mt Shasta City
segment and the trackage retained for “industrial purposes”.
Bergie might see this, but you can also email such news to him for possible inclusion in the news wire. Sometimes he can get more information for a newswire posting.
I posted this as a heads-up for the magazine, not the web-site. I’m hoping they might have a tidbit in the rag about this news item. And I should have said in the Subject line something like; California News - Trains, hope you have space to covre these items from California!
Modoc Railroad Academy of Sacramento was looking at buying the McCloud Railway for it’s new training facility, but passed on it chiefly because of the steep asking price.