Nocturnal Doodlebug Ride in Delaware
THE WILMINGTON CHAPTER NRHS chartered the Wilmington & Western's ex-Pennsylvania Railroad doodlebug No. 4662 for a special evening run on August 15, 2013. The trip operated nearly the entire length of the W&W between Greenbank and Hockessin, Del. The outing was a memorial trip in honor and remembrance of Wilmington Chapter officers who have passed away, and was run through the generosity of past chapter
Iowa Pacific
SANTA CRUZ BRIDGE FIX IS IN: After re- jecting bids earlier this year for bridge repairs on the county-owned former Southern Pacific branch between Watsonville Junction and Davenport, Calif., the Santa Cruz County Re- gional Transportation Commission modified the bid package. On August 15 the RTC rec- ommended that a $4.19 million contract be awarded to Stacy & Witbeck, which will pay for repairs to the worst four of the nine bridges deemed to need immediate attention. These include the La Selva Beach structure at MP 9.09, which will take an estimated $3.65 million. The line is operated by Iowa Pacific’s Santa Cruz & Monterey Bay Railroad.
LINE SALE CAUSES CASH CRUNCH: Several Iowa Pacific properties, including the Saratoga & North Creek in New York and the Santa Cruz & Monterey Bay in California,
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president Phil Snyder. A few photo stops were made, and current chapter president Michael T. Burkhart and Bruce Barry provided lighting for some night shots. One setup was at the former National Vulcanized Fibers plant in Yorklyn (above). The plant is now owned by the state of Delaware, which is removing some of the modern buildings on the industrial site while stabilizing the older buildings for eventual restoration.
were under fire from many quarters in 2013 for late payment and non-payment of bills. The railroad said that it had to repay more of a Federal Railroad Administration loan, due to the sale of the Arizona Eastern, than it had expected to, which caused a shortfall of cash. IPH sold AZER to Genesee & Wyoming for $90 million in 2011 and expected the FRA to ask it to repay $20 million of a $65 million loan. $35 million was set aside, and the rail- road was caught in a cash squeeze when FRA demanded the entire amount.
NJ Transit
DID NOT FOLLOW STORM PLAN: The Record of Hackensack, N.J., has obtained a copy of the NJ Transit Rail Operations Hurri- cane Plan, which was prepared months before Hurricane Sandy hit at the end of October 2012. 70 locomotives and 273 cars which were stored at Hoboken and Kearny, N.J. and
ended up being flooded by the storm surge. The damage was estimated at $100 million; among the affected equipment were brand- new dual-power locomotives and multi-level passenger cars. The newspaper had to sue the agency to obtain the document and the first copy that Transit provided was completely redacted, except for the title. The second copy showed that the railroad had identified a half- dozen locations where equipment could be moved to higher ground in the event of a major storm. Hoboken Yard, on the banks of the Hudson River, and the Meadows Mainte- nance Facility in Kearny at the mouth of the Hackensack and Passaic Rivers, were not on the list. Since the storm, NJT has made arrangements to use Conrail Shared Assets’ Linden Yard and a running track located along the agency’s Raritan Line for emergency storage. Ten months after the storm, 17 of the locomotives and 97 cars still await repairs. To our knowledge, heads have yet to roll.
STEVE BARRY
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