www.railfan.com/railnews www.railfan.com/railnews
All Aboard Florida
SECURES HIGHWAY RIGHT OF WAY: In late June, All Aboard Florida had cut a deal with the state and the Orlando Orange Coun- ty Expressway Authority to acquire a 50-year lease with a 49-year option on part of the Bee- line Expressway’s right of way. AAF plans to build the Orlando-Cocoa leg of its proposed higher-speed rail line to Miami on the south- ern edge of the highway. Between Cocoa and Miami, All Aboard Florida will use the exist- ing Florida East Coast Railway, with im- provements which will include more double track. All that remains now is to come to an agreement with Orlando International Air- port, the rail line’s northern terminal. The De- seret Ranch, which owns 300,000 acres of property that abuts the southern edge of the expressway, has expressed concerns that the rail line might adversely affect its future plans to use part of the tract for housing and commercial development.
California Western
TREE HUGGERS FUND TUNNEL FIX:On June 19 the California Western Railroad an- nounced that it would immediately begin re- pairs on partially-collapsed Tunnel No. 1 after the Save the Redwoods League gave the rail- road $300,000 in exchange for an option to es- tablish a conservation easement or allow pub- lic access along the 40-mile railroad right of way. The railroad had considered selling red- wood timber along the line to raise money. About 40 feet of the tunnel lining collapsed in April and isolated all rolling stock in the west- ern terminal of Willits. The railroad expects to resume its normal schedule by late July.
Catskill Mountain
COUNTY THREATENS LEASE: In June 2013 the County of Ulster, N.Y., notified the Catskill Mountain Railroad that it is default on its lease on the county-owned former New York Central branch between Kingston and Phoenicia. The notice alleges that the rail- road has failed to comply with the terms of the lease which require it to rehabilitate at least one mile of track per year, maintain it to FRA Class 1 standards, clear brush, papers, and trash from the right of way, maintain drainage, or obtain licenses, permits, and ap- provals for the operation of Cornell Street Yard Kingston, among other things. The County says if the railroad does not “cure the aforementioned defaults” by July 12, it will declare the lease forfeited and will remove all CMRR property.
Central Oregon & Pacific
SISKIYOU LINE WORK TO BEGIN: A $7 million TIGER grant from the United States Department of Transportation will partially finance the $9.4 million reconstruction of the mothballed Central Oregon & Pacific route over Siskiyou Summit between Medford, Ore., and a junction with Union Pacific at Weed, Calif. CORP, Jackson and Douglas Counties, and the Coos-Siskiyou Shippers Coalition will contribute the remainder of the cost.
CN-Painted FP9 Polishes Southern Ontario Rails
THE 73-MILE ONTARIO SOUTHLAND RAILWAY put its ex-Canadian National FP9 No. 6508 into service hauling freight in early June, wearing a tattered coat of CN’s black, green, and gold colors of 1954. On June 3 (above) it led the daily train from Cami Automotive in Ingersoll, Ontario, to Canadian Pacific’s Woodstock yard. Built by General Motors Diesel Division in 1954 as CN 6508, it became VIA Rail 6305 in 1978 and got its old number back when it went to the defunct Waterloo-St. Jacobs Railway in 2006. OSR has also acquired FP9s 1400 (ex-VIA 6303, née CN 6539) and 1401 (ex-VIA 6312, née CN 6523) in RaiLink colors from the Goderich & Ex- eter, a former RailAmerica property. After repairs to their draft gear in June, they were to have moved from GEXR’s Goderich shop to storage at the Guelph Junction Railway shop in Campbell- ville, Ontario. (GJRY is owned by the City of Guelph and is operated under contract by OSR.)
23
Brookville Delivers New Power to Tri-Rail
THE BROOKVILLE EQUIPMENT CORP. of Brookville, Penn., has delivered the first of a dozen new BL36PH commuter locomotives to the South Florida Regional Transportation Au- thority’s Tri-Rail commuter system in Miami, Fla. Each new four-motor d.c. traction unit is powered by an EPA Tier 3-compliant 20-cylinder MTU 4000-series engine that’s housed in a semi-monocoque carbody designed by Cesar Vergara. Earlier this year Tri-Rail took delivery of 24 new Hyundai-Rotem bilevel coaches — 14 trailers and ten cab cars. These feature crash en- ergy management systems and are identical to those used by Metrolink in Southern California.
JAMES GARDINER
BROOKVILLE EQUIPMENT CORP.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62