Hi all!,
I started a petition to save WMSR from the hiking path!!!
Its Here http://www.ipetitions.com/campaigns/WMSR/
Every signiture counts!!!
I’m with you all the way!
I signed it, and forwarded it to a couple of other sites, Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown
Nice. NOW just push it hard into RUN 8 and play for trains not trails.
I just signed it. This railroad must be saved.
I signed it too. Hope it helps.
Signed.
The main problem with the Western Maryland Scenic possibly shutting down is state budget cuts - not the trail.
As a dedicated railfan and a dedicated member of RAILS TO TRAILS CONSERVANCY, there seems to be some confusion here. The petition says the only reason the WMSR will be cut back is due to sharing a tunnel with the trail users. TRAINS’ own newsite says that WMSR is being cut back due to the state’s elimination of the operating subsidy. If the railroad IS going to be shut down, then opposing railbanking (a rail/trail conversion) may mean that the abandoned right-of-way reverts back to the adjoining landowners, and is lost forever to either rail or trail uses. We need some clarification.
The Western Maryland Scenic is one of the east’s finest tourist roads. It is a quality operation and must be saved for future generations to enjoy and learn from.
I would love to see the WMSR continue its operations, but I am also a dedicated hiker and backpacker. I don’t know much about this issue, but I think that a hiking trail along the track would be better than losing the train and having no hiking trail at all. I don’t know much about railbanking, but having the train route revert back to private ownership would be far worse than a hiking trail along the train route. I am a train fan. Don’t get me wrong in that respect.
Conrad
As a hiker then you can understand that a 415 mile trail can bend a bit around one rail tunnel.
The trail proposal involves a hiking/biking trail. The same low grades that allow the railroad to operate efficiently are very desirable for a bike trail. I don’t see why the tunnel can’t be used for both. The train only operates through the tunnel four times a day on a predetermined schedule. It could be set it up to work like a drawbridge with scheduled openings. No hikers/bikers could use the tunnel within a certain window four times a day to allow the train to pass. It isn’t like a main line where trains could come through on an irregular schedule. As a railfan, especially of the Wild Mary, I would hate to see the train go. I would like to ride the whole length of the WM main line by bike - its the only way you can see it today. Sadly, the trains have been gone for thirty years.
Well then you are going to have to staff both ends of the tunnel with a center and fit it some way with communications to the WMSRR and keep people OUT of the tunnel on days when trains are running.
Maybe… if the WMSRR was to assign a car to a train that is capable of safely transporting the hikers and bikers thru the tunnel in return for a small increase from whoever controls the hiking/biking trail to cover the costs of moving these people thru the tube.
I dont know if it is possible to execute such a stop/pickup and restart the train at either end of the tunnel safely. And people will get impatient from waiting on the train and try to use the tunnel themselves.
There are just no good solutions except moving the hiking/biking trail someplace else.
Modifying a tunnel or boring a new tube creates all kinds of engineering problems and expense no one can afford.
People will someday be inside a tunnel with a steam train and they will probably get hurt and killed. No one wants that to happen.
The Railroad has first dibs on the tunnel, the trail needs to find a different path.
Does the WSMR own its trackage? If so, there is nothing the state can do about it because the tracks are privatly owned. Also, if you are on the trail when the train comes, WAIT A MINUTE!!! Its not like you are going to work or anything.
I have rode the ENGINE up & back it is a thirll of a lifetime do not lose this to save about $125,000.00 which the State of MD. can find in some of there other programs .
As a former railoader who worked for a class one railroad (now a fallen flag) and is neither anti-rail nor anti-trail, these are givens that must be considered:
1.) Not all railroad must or should become trails.
2.) Because of # 1, Rails-to-Trails (RtoT) actually promotes abandonment by its very nature of lobbying where people would rather have a quiet trail or private property reversion vs. a noisy (only when trains by by or are present) tax revenue producing railroad (NIMBY syndrome growing worse, that is why the whistle restrictions when safety and common sense would dictate blowing the whistle is safer than having a quiet but deadly neighborhood). Don’t be fooled by RtoT, trails do not produce tax revenue, they actually increse taxes and trail staff are part of that cost, railroads pay taxes for revenue, land and buildings (if WMSR doesnt it may be due to non-profit- for profit railroads pay large sums of taxes).
3.) RtoT by their nature and statements lobby against and are anti-rail.
4.) RtoT has made it perferable to have a trail, instead of a short line railroad/tourist operation serving freight customers (and passengers for tourist).
All trails do not need to be created from railroad rights-of-way, especially at an alarming increasing frequency and increasing loss of railroad miles and increased trucks on highways.
And in an increasing budget conscious Federal and State budget crisis, those trails will eventually feel the effects of budget cuts and maintenance will be a part of those budget cuts.
5.) Where (this is just like the promise of jobs being put on again by a railroad to employees, it has never happened, a continued loss of job, see how many people are employed now on rr’s vs the 1980s) has a rail banking status ever actually resulted in the rails either being used again, or the rails relaid? Never to my knowledge.
If UP, NS, CSX , BNSF or KCS have not relayed rail to again serve a customer or section of territory after removing it, a short line
I’m afraid Gary Miller is mistaken in a couple of his statements. Rails to Trails does not lobby for, or otherwise promote abandonment of active lines. And his statement about revenues/taxes would be refuted by an awful lot of towns that have experienced considerable economic growth of retail businesses that have arisen from the opening of the trails, and are now dependent upon them.
I signed it for you! Good luck and keep us posted!
…I am a long time rail fan…I am also a trail supporter…The tunnel involved on the WMSRR is a rather short one {914 ft.|, and wasn’t it bulit to dimensions for double track…meaning wide space through it. I’m sure controls can be devised to limit trains or people on bikes and walkers to use it separately…Not at the same time. Furthermore for additional help a fence can be constructed to separate the track from the trail space through it. I sincerely hope the $125,000 financing {if that is what will be lost}, can be replaced by some means…Trails require the low grading {as mentioned above} for the bikers and walkers too, etc…Those are real mountains in that area. Surely if financing can be secured to continue the RR operations a way can be found for both groups to use the tunnel…