Yolo Shortline now owned by Sierra RR. Also anti-trolley sentiment on SP Santa Cruz line, which the county apparently intends to buy. Doesn't UP still serve an active cement plant at Davenport on that line? What sort of "trolley" are they talking about? Also a Muni Peter Witt derailed in San Francisco, doing some damage.

http://railroadnews.net/news/11-8.html
ryarger@rypn.org

Bob, Can't help on the Sacramento part of the story, but the incident with the Muni Melan car was interesting because the car was left unattended on some non-passenger rails that connect the F Line with the J Line for pull in and out trips.

5 automobiles got damaged while the big orange Melan Peter Witt got the paint scratched.

Ted Miles

ted_miles@nps.gov

> The West Sacramento City Council approved purchase of Sierra Northern Railway's (SNR) Clarksburg branch. SNR is successor to the Yolo Shortline. The branch was originally built by the Sacramento Northern (SN) in 1929 as the Oxford branch and was electrified until the early 1950s. Also included in the same was the former SN trackage between West Sacramento and Riverview that was originally (1913) part of Oakland Antioch & Eastern's main line from Oakland. Sale price for the sale was reported at $5.25 million accoring to the Sacramento Bee. The historic line will be scrapped and converted into a riding and hiking trail.


bakerst@best.com

Another disgraceful loss to the trail contingency. Read the article. It is NIMBY-mana. Imagine, a working rail line near a new high school? Oooohhhh, never heard of that before.

Ugh. Pardon the sarcasm, but at $5 million dollars for a community to buy a line for the sake of scrapping, the stakes and the wages of the battle to stop short-sighted trails has just been ratcheted up.

It has been a year of many losses for the rail transportation preservation effort.

Rob

rdavis@rypn.org

The problems with this line are less nimby-ism, and more related to changes in the local economy, both industrial and agricultural.

The fact is that most lines like this one were built to serve agricultural customers, who now look to trucks instead. This line got some industrial business, but now even that is leaving as the area is redeveloped with a new minor league ball park and housing (and the resulting new high school)

The city and the rails to trails groups are not responsible for the loss of commercial rail service, they are more like the doctor who turns off the life saving equipment, and lets the patient die after a prolonged illness.

Saving the right of way as a trail is better than the alternative of having it sold off piecemeal and developed. The most significant conflicts seem to come when there are both museum (or tourist train) uses and trail uses proposed for the same right of way. Unfortunately, the trails groups are better organized and more politically powerful than most rail preservation groups. If the line still had any economic value as a railroad line it would not be available for conversion.

Randy Hees

> Another disgraceful loss to the trail
> contingency. Read the article. It is
> NIMBY-mana. Imagine, a working rail line
> near a new high school? Oooohhhh, never
> heard of that before.

> Ugh. Pardon the sarcasm, but at $5 million
> dollars for a community to buy a line for
> the sake of scrapping, the stakes and the
> wages of the battle to stop short-sighted
> trails has just been ratcheted up.

> It has been a year of many losses for the
> rail transportation preservation effort.

> Rob


http://www.spcrr.org
hees@ix.netcom.com

> Another disgraceful loss to the trail
> contingency. Read the article. It is
> NIMBY-mana. Imagine, a working rail line
> near a new high school? Oooohhhh, never
> heard of that before.

> Ugh. Pardon the sarcasm, but at $5 million
> dollars for a community to buy a line for
> the sake of scrapping, the stakes and the
> wages of the battle to stop short-sighted
> trails has just been ratcheted up.

> It has been a year of many losses for the
> rail transportation preservation effort.

> Rob

5.25 million? If I were a resident there I would mount a campaign to throw out every incompetent who voted for it.
mw


p_michael_warren@yahoo.com

As I understand it the City wants to buy the Railroad right of way to avoid building three very costly overpasses for a new highway bypass. It all comes down to $$$, as usual.

wsflco@yahoo.com