I seem to remember this being a very heated thread back when Orr decided it could control train speed limits. It would appear that the court decided that Orr had no ability to do this whatsoever.
http://www.trains.com/trn/default.aspx?c=a&id=3621
Given the extreme ramifications this case had on the future of interstate commerce, I would say the court did a great job.
Score one for the judges!
Sometimes common sense and reason prevail. We should celibrate this because it is becoming increasingly rare.
Appeals court strikes down train speed limit in Orr
Duluth News Tribune - 06/24/2008
The U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the state of Minnesota
cannot set a speed limit for trains in Orr.
In March 2004, a special law was introduced in the Minnesota Legislature to
prohibit railway corporations from permitting a train to be operated at a speed
in excess of 30 mph while any portion of the engine or train is within the
limits of the city of Orr.
The Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific Railway Co. alleged that Orr officials
indicated the city would withdraw the special law if the company would pay for a
feasibility study to determine whether the track could be relocated so the city
could expand its downtown. The railway would not agree to do so. The special law
went into effect on Aug. 22, 2005.
In a decision released Friday, a three-judge panel agreed with the railway that
the speed limit is not allowed under federal law.
I find it interesting that the DW&P and not CN is listed as the railroad company. Didn’t the CN totally absorb the DW&P a long time ago? I know they always were a subsidiary of the CN - does CN still maintain the DW&P on paper as a semi-autonomous entity?
I saw a freshly painted box car rolling north on a UP train over BNSF’s Hinckley Sub a few weeks ago that carried the “Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific” lettering.
That blood curdling scream you heard if you were outside when the decision was announced came from Brookings, South Dakota. They were going to impose a speed limit through town if/when the CP/DM&E coal line goes through.
Given the number of houses built right next to the tracks, the RR probably already runs under a voluntary speed limit.
Some clown actually told me that South Dakota has a statewide railroad speed limit of 50 MPH, and that the Highway Patrol enforces this with radar.
So much for that BS story.
Butch, the state has about 175 troopers in total. Given our land mass, that makes them pretty thin on the ground without worrying about what the railroads are doing. You were right to take that comment with a grain of salt.
I’m amused at the idea of some trooper hiding in the weeds with a radar gun. Does he then take off down the track behind the train, lights and siren going, in order to “pull it over” and write the ticket? Better yet, could we have a special division of cops equipped with Roadrailers? Or perhaps he could just block the next crossing with his squad car and wait for the train to arrive (hopefully not wait in the car itself).
Nahh, they’ll drive parallel to the locomotives and attempt, with whatever guns at their disposal, to shoot the emergency fuel cutoff switches in an attempt to stop the train. 
Then they’ll resort to the spike sticks - railroad spikes - and if that doesn’t work, they’ll try to PIT the locomotive with their Crown Vics.
Tongue in cheek, of course!
The clown who told me that is a major league BS artist, but once in a blue moon he’s right. I thought I’d get confirmation on this board from somebody who knew for sure.
It could be DWP is still at least nominally separate. CN’s recently repainted Missabe units are still lettered “DMIR” if you look on the cab. CP I think still considers the Soo a semi-independent subsidiary, they sure aren’t in a rush to repaint the Soo equipment I see on a regular basis.
p.s. my aunt was Postmistress in Orr many years ago.
CN doesn’t reletter any equipment, possibly because they’re too cheap to redo the AEI tags [;)]. You’ll find the CN logo slapped on cars retaining nearly any of their premerger reporting marks. Or not. Even ICG stuff, which could easily be updated to IC reporting marks (same numbering system) isn’t being–it keeps the ICG reporting marks even if repainted. And there;s no telling whether the cars will come out in gray, red oxide, or blue. I think they economized their continuity boss. New cars for CN could come in almost any reporting mark (and new and secondhand DWC box cars are among the most recent).
Yes, Soo is still around, and you’ll find some new cars being delivered with SOO reporting marks and CP logos or lettering. The most recent I’ve seen are some center-beam flats.
I believe that one of the reasons that SOO, D&H, DM&IR, IC, DW&P, etc. still exist on paper is because they are the US subsidiaries of Canadian corporations. The BN line to Winnipeg was/is a separate Canadian corporation north of the border.