Dead end

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

The long, boring story first:

Our city has a BNSF bridge that goes over the top of Falls Park, in our downtown area. The rail line has probably been there a century, and the current bridge dates to around 1947. It’s a nice bridge, if you’re into train bridges, approximately 1/3 mile long, about 20 to 50 feet above the water, at the bottom of a big hill. Up the hill is a small storage yard, and access to some industries that receive cars nearly every night. Beyond that, the line splits north of town. One branch dead ends at Dell Rapids, 20 miles, to service a huge quarry. The line is owned by The Dakota & Iowa Railroad, which runs a daily mile long rock train through town. The other branch, owned by BNSF dead ends 50 miles away at Madison. It hauls unit trains of grain and ethanol, perhaps 2-3 times a month.

Our city fathers would like the railroad to MOVE this bridge! The city got a $40,00,000 bucket of free government money ([}:)]) to move the BNSF switch yard and storage tracks out to the edge of town. Now they want the railroad to move this bridge, to gussy up the park.

One of my customers is on the city council. Today, I cornered him, and asked about the bridge relocation plan. The options are something like: 1)move it south 100 yards for $12 million, 2) move it north 250 yards for $18 million, or move it 1/2 mile south for $34 million. This is the city’s cost for development and land aquisition. So…I asked who would pay for the bridge itself?

He: Well, I guess the railroad would pay for it, it’s their bridge.

Me: Why would they pay to replace a perfectly good bridge?

He: Well, you see, people just don’t understand. That bridge is old, and rickety, and in danger of collapsing in the near future. With

2

That sounds like something stupid the Rock Springs city council would come up with… Maybe you should attend a meeting and educate them some.

3

The city pays for it. Usually 100%.

RWM

4

Got to disagree with the RWM here.

“The City” ain’t gonna’ pay for nuttin’. We’re going to pay for it. The money will be confiscated from us by some government agency. It will then be transferred to “The City” to be used on whatever dang fool project the ignorameces can be talked into.

5

I agree ‘we are all going to pay for it…’. Usually these kinds of projects wind up with federal/state/local costs. In Winona, MN: there was a push to replace the Huff St grade crossing(CP) with a bridge. Everyone thought the idea was good. CP was willing to raise the roadbed at their cost to make the clearances work. When it came time to ‘pony up’ the money, the city was over-extended on road projects and tabled the bridge! This is after financing/ear-marks had been gotten for the federal/state part of the project!

Jim

6

greyhounds: I think you need to turn off the TV and radio, quit reading the newspaper for a while and go outside. I think you’re letting the world get to you. It’s fall, the leaves seem extra colorful, and it’s great to be alive. [:)]

7

i figure that like many other ideas that come up is small town politics involving railroads this bridge moving project wont amount to anything. the railroads are not going to invest the money in a bridge they rarely use.

8

If it drops big deal, replace it with a new one somewhere else.

Ship the salvage for scrap income to assist in replacement cost of said new bridge.

That is the trouble with some Councils these days… spend spend spend.

9

I’ve already done some preliminary work on submitting info during the 60(?) day period alloted for public comment. Essentially, I figure the city needs to simply work with the railroad to smooth over some issues concerning a bridge that is not going anywhere in my lifetime.

There is one funky little quirk that does need to be addressed, that would fix a lot of issues with the whole scenario at this point.

How do they determine how tight a radius can be used on a track leading to hill? In this case, a short, connector track needs to be put in place, to allow an empty grain train to come in from the northeast, and turn northwest, up a big hill.

10

OK

11

I’m just saying, that my mutual funds are probably in the same toilet as yours right now. If I let all the bad news of the world get to me, I’d go crazy. For stress relief, we’re driving to Wisconsin and Minnesota tommorrow to tour some colleges with our oldest son, a high school senior. [(-D]

12

I realize the councilman was a customer of yours, so you had to go lightly; but what in the world is the connection between possible coal trains on the DM&E and Sioux Falls? Perhaps your bridge stretches all of the way to Brookings?

13

Hard to believe, I know. A City Councilman, imersed in politics, with BIG ambitions to run for state office (again-he lost badly the first time), has no idea what’s going on in the real world.[D)]

We got interrupted, before he could finish explaining to me, how nothing ships into our city on trains anyway. [D)] This, from a man who builds houses, that use lumber, drywall and cement, all hauled in by rail.[V]

14

I really need to know this: Do people who wish to run for higher office, have to go to Washington for a lobotomy? It seems like as soon as a local person decides to run for office, or better yet, aligns themselves with a national political party, they lose all common sense, lose all focus on local issues, and seem to become a parrot for the national party they are aligned with, and can’t do any more than spout the “party line”.

We have had that happen around here, they some how manage to work the issues of the national party into speeches about local projects and issues, and it is annoying as hell to hear a local trustee talking about “universal health care”, or whatever the issue du jour happens to be, during a discussion on street improvements, or fall leaf collection, or something similar. Once national party politics seeps into small town governments, it doesn’t bode well for the local citizens…

15

Priceless.

16

When the city council meets with railroad people they will learn a lot. First is that city council is not in charge of the railroad but FRA if there are physical problems, STB if there are business/government problems. The only problem apparent is a city council which thinks it is playing with a Lionel set.

17

It’s probably a good thing that I’m still outside looking at the pretty leaves. (I did come back in to go to the bathroom and eat some eggs.)

Otherwise I’d get really upset with the statement that the Federal Government is “in charge” of the railroads.

Look, over there, it’s a Cardinal in yellow leaves.

18

Absolutely the town wants to gussy up the park if someone else is paying for it! Are they taxing the teachers extra to pay tuition for poor students? Railroads have to be politically sensitive to these things, but there are cases where the RR says “no” and stands by it. Consider the DM&E fracas at Rochester, MN. Social and political considerations aside, this is still a property-owning country and the RR’s almost always got there first. Is the Park older than the RR line? Well, what was so wrong with the RR line the past 100 years that now it’s intolerable?

It amazes me that this country is supposed to have been moving to a more conservative politics in the last 25 - 30 years, but so many little town councils have a couple of “socialistas” on board who are all for robbing from anything that makes money to build something with that money that won’t make any money for anyone else, not even their city. - a.s.

19

I think this is just another manifestation of a common problem for many towns in the Midwest. When the railroads were built, they sought the easiest grades possible; and those were found along the banks of the rivers. The towns welcomed the railroad’s presence as a matter of economic survival.

Now many towns find themselves cutoff from their riverfront, and the presence of a railroad greatly complicates making a scenic parkway out of the riverfront. Moreover, the railroads had the nasty habit of locating switchyards along their lines in the cities. Whatever the railroad’s current contribution to the economic life of the city is, it is not known or appreciated by the general population.

Rochester may be the extreme example, but the same problem is very widespread.

20

I wonder what the cost of moving the park would be as compared to moving the bridge . . .