St. Paul Union Depot
SPUD REOPENS, TRAINS TO RETURN: In Minnesota, the St. Paul Union Depot has re- opened to the public as the Union Depot Multi- modal Transportation Center after lying dor- mant for 40 years. The Ramsey County Regional Railroad Authority bought the wait- ing room, concourse, and associated track from the U.S. Postal Service in 2007 and purchased the headhouse in 2009. The total cost of reno- vations was $243 million. Right now it’s a bus depot served by Metro Transit; Jefferson Re- gional Bus Lines began operations out of the facility in January. The RCRRA says the Am- trak Empire Builder will add Union Depot as a stop later this year, while in 2014 the Central Corridor light rail line will establish a stop in front of the headhouse. The building was com- pleted in 1925 and abandoned with the incep- tion of Amtrak in 1971.
Steam Into History
CIVIL WAR STEAM: Steam Into History is a new nonprofit which will initiate regular steam excursions over the old Northern Cen- tral Railroad near York, Penn., this spring using newly built Civil War-era replica 4-4-0 No. 17 York pulling a short train of wooden coaches between New Freedom and Hanover Junction, Penn. The route is known to have been traversed by President Abraham Lin- coln. York is under construction at Kloke Lo- comotive Works in Elgin, Ill., where the lagged boiler was united with the frame in early January. This shop, owned by David Kloke, built his No. 63 Leviathan in 2009 using the same blueprints as No. 17, which were originally made for the National Park Service’s replica of Central Pacific No. 63 Jupiter at Promontory, Utah. While leased coaches will be used initially, Steam into His- tory plans to have 1850-era replicas built to replace them. The train and stations (which are the original structures) will be populated by Civil War re-enactors. We’ll have more in- formation on this project next month.
Stewartstown Railroad NJ Transit Hurricane Recovery Continues
STORM REPORT WAS IGNORED: In December 2012 it came to light that in 2011 NJ Tran- sit had commissioned First Environment Inc., to investigate the possible effects of global warm- ing and rising sea levels on its rail operations. The “Resilience of NJ Transit Assets to Climate Impacts” report was released in June 2012 and contained a storm surge map which showed that both the Meadows Maintenance Center in Kearny and the Hoboken Terminal would be vulner- able to flooding. Unfortunately, NJT management never read it; NJT Executive Director James Weinstein has defended the agency’s decision to park a large percentage of its locomotives and rolling stock at the low-lying locations in spite of the forecast storm surge. 63 locomotives and 231 cars had to be taken out of service due to water damage after the October 29, 2012 storm. Meanwhile, service into Hoboken, N.J. remained under diesel haulage in early January as
work continued on restoring the Mason Substation, which provided electric traction power to the terminal complex and was inundated. All the former Erie routes into the waterfront termi- nal normally use diesel power, but the electrified ex-Lackawanna Gladstone Branch and most Morris & Essex line trains from Dover and Boonton Line trains from Montclair are normally electric. Still operating under a special schedule at press time in January, weekday Gladstone Branch trains run through to Hoboken behind dual-mode ALP45DP locomotives, while others use electric m.u. cars and require a change en route at Summit or Newark. Number 4510 was in electric mode heading from Hoboken to Gladstone across the North Branch of the Raritan River at Peapack, N.J. (above) on December 31, 2012.
26 JANUARY 2013 •
RAILFAN.COM
LIQUIDATION AVOIDED? The acrimo- nious contest between the Stewartstown Rail- road Co. and the estate of George M. Hart ap- pears to be headed toward an amicable resolution after the estate asked the Surface Transportation Board in December to hold the Stewartstown Railroad adverse abandonment proceedings “in abeyance” until February 15 “to permit the Estate and the Stewartstown Railroad Co. to explore whether there is a pos- sibility of a mutually satisfactory settlement through direct negotiation.” On November 30 The Stewartstown Rail- road Co. had asked the Board to reconsider its November 14 decision to allow the Hart estate to liquidate the railroad in order to settle a $352,415 claim against the railroad. The rail- road said it had commitments of nearly $300,000 and was raising additional funds which would allow it to satisfy the lien and purchase the railroad. The railroad claims it is a “viable railroad business in the process of restoring itself to operation.” It also said that
STEVE BARRY
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