Southern Railroad in Louisiana from previous
owner
Bill Wainwright.
Continental Rail is apparently the latest reincarnation of John and Gary Marino, the founders of RailAmerica and Patriot Rail. Sadly, John Marino passed away recently. The sale includes two lines in Louisiana: Monroe to Sterlington and Tallulah to Talla Bena. The trackage north of Talla Bena to the connection with the North Louisiana & Arkansas is currently out of service. The Delta Southern’s six CF7s are re-
portedly on the chopping block with the expected arrival of four ex-Canadian Pa- cific GP9us. The CF7’s may be scrapped on site due to lack of alignment control draft gear. One GP9u will replace two CF7s on the Sterlington, La., side, while three GP9us will replace four CF7s on the Talluah side.
V&S Towner Line
V&S Railway continues its attempt to abandon its Towner Line extending 122 miles from North Avondale Junction, Colo., to Towner. This former Missouri Pacific
route was purchased by the Colorado Department of Transportation in 2011 and leased to V&S Railway. A contractual barrier is in place preventing interchange with Union Pacific at North Avondale Junction. A subsidiary of A&K Railroad Materials, V&S applied to abandon the line in order to scrap it.
Notice of the abandonment was served on August 21, 2015. On August 24, two companies, KCVN, LLC, and its wholly owned subsidiary Colorado Pacific
Railroad, LLC, jointly filed
a formal expression of intent to purchase the Towner Line. This filing automatically stayed the effective date
BNSF Special Tours Soldier Summit
An exceedingly rare movement occurred on October 1 in the mountains of Utah as BNSF operated an Office Car Special on Union Pacific’s ex-Rio Grande main line over famed Soldier Summit. BNSF ES44DC No.
7418 drew seven passenger cars
carrying railway officials surveying BNSF trackage rights over the fabled route. Here the OCS is seen in Price Canyon, having passed the summit and now descending en route to the well-known mountain town of Helper, Utah, and on towards its destination of Grand Junction, Colo.
PHOTO BY NIKKI BURGESS
of the abandonment by ten days, until September 30.
KCVN and Colorado Pacific request- ed that V&S provide them with the necessary information for assistance or purchase, including the minimum pur- chase price, its most recent reports on the physical condition, and its estimate of the Towner Line’s net liquidation val- ue, as well as permission to inspect the line. V&S has said it does not object to the extension, thus the STB granted the extension to October 20. The effective date of the abandonment was postponed to October 30.
Napa Valley Wine Train Sold to Noble House
After 26 years, the Napa Valley Wine Train has new owners. A partnership of Noble House Hotels & Resorts of Kirk- land, Wash., and real estate developer Brooks Street has purchased the rail- road from its founder, Vincent DeDo- menico, the inventor of Rice-A-Roni and former owner of Ghirardelli Chocolate. No changes are expected to take pleace immediately. DeDomenico purchased the line from Southern Pacific in the late 1980s and ran the first Wine Train on September 16, 1989.
Royal Slope Railroad New Operator for
The Port of Royal Slope in Washington State has picked Frontier Rail of Bur- bank for the operation of the Royal Slope Railroad. Also in the running was the Eastern Washington Gateway Railway. Apparently Frontier offered to operate the Royal Slope Railroad while covering
Western Watco Lines Watco’s two most recent purchases
New Names for
now have new names to go with them. The 111-mile Texas-New Mexico is now Texas & New Mexico Railway, and the
all costs of doing so. Eastern Washing- ton Gateway wanted the Port to share in some of the costs if there were losses. Frontier Rail Corporation was found-
ed in 2006 and operates 250 miles of railroad in four states as well as operat- ing industrial switching, car repair, and transloading services at 12 locations in seven states.
The White
Apache Railway USDA Loan Denied Mountain
Independent
reported that the U.S. Department of Agriculture affirms its denial of a loan to the Little Colorado Water Conservation District to purchase the Apache Railway from Hackman Capital Partners. The Los Angeles-based investment group purchased the paper mill in Snowflake, Ariz., in 2013 and decided not to use the railway as part of its redevelopment plan.
Local community leaders formed a nonprofit
foundation to secure
the $7.2 million purchase price in efforts to save the railroad. USDA announced it would not grant a loan on September 3, and a review completed October 15 confirmed that decisions. A Hackman spokesman stated liquidation proceedings would begin if the purchase price was not raised by November 30. —OTTO M. VONDRAK
14 DECEMBER 2015 •
RAILFAN.COM
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