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thentic re-creation of Pullman service, using Pullman cars plus diners, dome cars and obser- vation cars, upgraded to meet Amtrak stan- dards.” While negotiations with Amtrak con- tinue, Pullman is having several cars renovated under contract including heavy- weight (!) and lightweight sleepers, diners, and lounge cars. In addition to providing scheduled first class accommodations over Amtrak routes, along with Iowa Pacific’s High Iron Travel the company will provide equip- ment for chartered trains, as well.
ACQUIRES MORE POWER, CARS: Iowa Pacific continues to augment its fleet of passen- ger equipment with the purchase of two loco- motives and six cars from Carolina Southern. The locomotives are ex-Canadian National F7Au No. 9163 and ex-CN/VIA Rail F9B No. 6622. The cars include ex-Illinois Central ob- servation No. 3320 Paducah, built as a coach and rebuilt as an observation in 1947; IC re- built heavyweight diner No. 4109 Auguste Chouteau, built as a coach and rebuilt as a diner in 1947; IC Pullman Greenville, built for the New York Central in 1940 and sold to IC in 1958; and three heavyweight coaches. The Pad- ucah joins two other ex-IC observation cars in the Iowa Pacific fleet, Nos. No. 3305 Mardi Gras and No. 3310 Pontchartrain Club, cur- rently in service as Eaton.
Piedmont & Northern
DORMANT ROUTE IS REACTIVATED: On February 20, 2012, Patriot Rail ran the first train in more than 20 years over 13 miles of the former Piedmont & Northern Railroad between Gastonia and Mount Holly, N.C. The trackage is owned by the North Carolina De- partment of Transportation and is leased to Patriot, the short line holding company based in Boca Raton, Fla., which operates it as the Piedmont & Northern Railway (PNRW). The line was rehabilitated using federal, state, and local funding. PNRW interchanges with CSX at Mount Holly and with Norfolk Southern at Gastonia; the motive power is ex-Norfolk Southern, nee Conrail GP15-1s leased from Larry’s Truck Electric and painted in Patriot Rail’s bright red, blue, black, and gold colors.
Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit
WORK STARTS ON COMMUTER LINE: On February 24 ground was broken in Petaluma, Calif., for Phase I of the Sonoma- Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) commuter rail project in the Highway 101 corridor. This first phase will upgrade 38 miles of former Northwestern Pacific trackage between San Rafael and Santa Rosa to accommodate 80 m.p.h. commuter trains which will serve nine stations. Phase II will extend the line south to Larkspur Ferry and north to Cloverdale, for a total route 70 miles long. The service will use 18 single level diesel
multiple unit cars (DMU's) which will be oper- ated in “married pairs” and built by Sumito- mo/Nippon Sharyo U.S.A. in Rochelle, Ill. The bullet-nosed cars will meet FRA crashworthi- ness standards and EPA Tier 4 emissions stan- dards; delivery is expected in 2014 when service is expected to begin.
Regional Railroad Adds Capacity in Ohio
GENESEE & WYOMING’S OHIO CENTRAL is adding capacity in Youngstown, Ohio, to serve V&M Star’s expanded seamless hot rolled steel tube plants. V&M Star is owned by Germany’s Val- lourec & Mannesmann Tubes and Japan’s Sumitomo, which purchased the North Star Steel Tubu- lar Divison in 2002. The company is building a new, state of the art rolling mill to provide pipe to the burgeoning nearby Marcellus and Utica shale oil and gas fields and the Permian Basin oil shale field in Texas. Nearly eight miles of new track is being built to serve the new plant and the existing V&M mill, both located on Ohio Central’s Canal Branch, a former Erie Lackawanna line. Most track is constructed with continuous welded rail and 80-foot lengths of stick rail are used in the switches. Norfolk Southern will be able to serve both mills directly.
A Big Unit For a Small Railroad
GARDENDALE RAILROAD SD40-2M No. 9042 was built as Kansas City Southern’s first No. 630 (KCS second 630 was an SD40-3 rebuilt from an SD45). Later No. 630 joined the Morrison- Knudsen lease fleet as No. 9042 and retained that number after Helm took over the MotivePower, Inc., (former M-K) lease fleet. It was purchased by Foster Townsend Rail Logistics in the summer of 2011 for the Toledo Junction operation in Ohio and was then sold to Rio Valley Switching, Inc., for use on the Gardendale Railroad, which serves the oil and gas industries in the Eagle Ford Shale re- gion in southwest Texas. The unit is shown on February 25, 2012, at FTRL’s former Manufacturers Railway shop in St. Louis, Mo., where it was overhauled.
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MIKE MAUTNER
SCOTT WILLIAMS
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