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North County Transit District
SPRINTER IS BACK IN ACTION: On May 18, 2013, the North County Transit District’s Sprinter light rail system resumed full service between Oceanside and Escondido, Calif. The line was shut down on March 9 after inspec- tors from the California Department of Trans- portation found irregular wear patterns on the light rail vehicles’ disc brake rotors. In the ensuing two months the problem was diag- nosed and replacement two-piece rotors were ordered and installed. Taking advantage of the downtime, NCTD also inspected and maintained the cars’ HVAC systems, cleaned and made repairs to their interiors, and washed and waxed the exteriors. Express buses substituted for the trains while the rail- road was out of service.
Railex
FLORIDA REEFER SERVICE PROPOSED: Railex, which operates expedited refrigerated unit trains between the West Coast and its warehouse in Rotterdam, N.Y., plans to add a new Southeastern service lane later this year. The new trains will run down the CSX River Subdivision from Selkirk, N.Y., to South Kearny, N.J., and then along the “I-95 corri- dor” to a proposed 252,000-square foot Jack- sonville Distribution Center located in Jack- sonville, Fla., on the Florida East Coast. The biweekly West Coast Railex trains run over Union Pacific and CSX between Wallula, Wash., Delano, Calif., and Rotterdam.
Santa Fe Southern
KAPUT? The continued operation of New Mexico’s Santa Fe Southern Railway is uncer- tain, as the company website says “Due to cir- cumstances beyond our control, we do not know the date trains will begin running this year. We are hoping to begin operations in Au- gust.” However, the local newspaper reports that after its usual wintertime shutdown, all full-time and seasonal employees have been
Geeps in a Three-Way Swap
A COUPLE OF THOSE EX-IC&E GP40-2S we showed you in the March issue (page 26) have gone to Arizona’s Copper Basin Railway in a three-way deal. FTRL Railway has acquired ex- Copper Basin GP9s Nos. 205-207, which were sold to Metro East Industries (East St. Louis, Ill.) as partial trade-in credit for GP40-2s Nos. 303 and 304 (ex-HLCX 4214 and 4217, ex-IC&E 4204 and 4207, nee SSW 7268 and SP 7246) that CBRY picked up from Helm Leasing. MEI in turn resold the GP9s to FTRL, which has leased No.207 to Center Ethanol LLC in Sauget, Ill.
laid off and that the line will not operate this year. The railroad has no remaining freight customers and has survived by running excur- sions between Santa Fe and the junction with BNSF Railway’s Raton Pass line at Lamy. The city of Santa Fe is also served by New Mexico Rail Runner commuter trains, which reach the city over a new right of way which was fin- ished in December 2008 and leaves the Raton line at CP Madrid near Waldo, between Domingo and Lamy.
Strasburg Rail Road
NEW FEATURES AT LEAMAN PLACE: This season, a new picnic grove will be in serv- ice at the east end of the Strasburg Rail Road
at Leaman Place, Penn. Fans will be able to take in the action on Amtrak’s electrified Key- stone Corridor on one side and enjoy steam- powered Strasburg trains on the other. Also in the works at Leaman Place: a turntable! Hope- fully that will be good news for those photo- graphing eastbound trains in the morning.
Union Pacific
LONE STAR INTERMODAL STARTS: Union Pacific has instituted the twice-weekly “Texas Shuttle” dedicated intermodal service in each direction between the Port of Hous- ton’s Barbours Cut Container Terminal and UP’s Dallas Intermodal Terminal, located in Wilmer, Texas.
VIA Rail Canada Gets Lucky . . . Very Lucky
A FILL SATURATED BY HEAVY RUNOFF GAVE WAY under VIA Rail’s biweekly Winnipeg-Churchill train as it approached Togo, Saskatchewan, on April 28, 2013. While the consist remained coupled and upright, the locomotive and baggage-dorm derailed and the first coach
(above) was suspended precariously over the void. None of the crew or passengers were seriously injured. (The coach is not bent — this panoramic image was made by digitally “stitching” together several smaller, individual images recorded by an RCMP officer on a cell phone.)
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CONSTABLE M. BUCKLAND, ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE
MARK MAUTNER
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