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Western Railroad Discussion > I'm So Confused! (again)Date: 01/18/17 10:43 I'm So Confused! (again) Author: callum_out This is an excerpt from STB filing 242468.pdf and is a current filing. This involves the transfer of operating authority to a corporate family group owned
by David Durbano. They also control the Southwestern lines being taken back by the BNSF. "The transaction subject to this Notice of Exemption involves Saratoga's acquisition and operation ofWYCO's approximately 23.71-mile rail line between milepost 0.57 (at Walcott, WY) and milepost 24.28 (at Saratoga, WY) in Carbon County, WyomingThe transaction subject to this Notice of Exemption involves Saratoga's acquisition and operation ofWYCO's approximately 23.71-mile rail line between milepost 0.57 (at Walcott, WY) and milepost 24.28 (at Saratoga, WY) in Carbon County, Wyoming" What's interesting is that the rail line mentioned has no ties, no rail and was pulled up years ago. The filing also mentions that they own but do not operate (shown as non-operating) the line in Oregon between near Ontario to Celatom (remaining portion of the UP Burns branch). So my questions: 1) How do you operate a line with no tracks? 2) Is the Oregon Eastern still running? Thanks for any replies Out Date: 01/18/17 10:47 Re: I'm So Confused! (again) Author: SP4360 Trains run great on paper--no delays, accidents or incidents.
Date: 01/18/17 12:30 Re: I'm So Confused! (again) Author: WichitaJct Also, no revenue, no costs either.
SP4360 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Trains run great on paper--no delays, accidents or > incidents. Date: 01/18/17 13:39 Re: I'm So Confused! (again) Author: dcfbalcoS1 Also, the company auditor can do the books during a commercial on tv and not miss any of the show.
Date: 01/18/17 22:44 Re: I'm So Confused! (again) Author: JDLX I had to go look at the documents myself, very interesting series of transactions on going at the moment.
From what I can reconstruct, the following is happening. David L. Durbano has been the principle behind Western Railroad Builders (WRB)/The Western Group, which started in railroad construction and maintenance contracting and eventually got into shortline railroad ownership and operation. Durbano/WRB got into shortline ownership in 1987 when they bought the Saratoga and Coalmont branches from Union Pacific under the Wyoming/Colorado Railroad banner. A short time later WRB partnered with Intermountain Gas of Boise to place the initially successful bid on UP's"Boise Branch" cluster, they set up the Intermountain Western Railroad and started buying and painting locomotives and other equipment, only to have the deal fall apart a short time later largely because some court cases over union and other job protections resulting from a restructuring of the Pittsburg & Lake Erie was casting a dark shadow over shortline spinoffs. UP later restructured this branchline package and sold it to the Idaho Northern & Pacific; in the meantime, on its own WRB carried on and bought UP's Oregon Eastern branch, from Ontario to Burns, which they placed back into operation for a few years in the early 1990s with the help of some large mostly Federal government dollars to raise and rebuild track destroyed by the flooding of Malheur and Harney lakes in the middle 1980s. The line west of the diatomaceious earth plant at Celatom was gone by the middle 1990s, they have been operating it ever since as the Oregon Eastern Division of Wyoming/Colorado. WRB also went on to acquire in later transactions the Southwestern, Cimarron Valley, and Arizona Central railroads, and also operated for a while the "Dry Valley railroad" in southeast Idaho, I think this was a contract operation serving some JR Simplot Company phosphate mines, using three or four ex-Milwaukee Road SD-9s. Hard times and sawmill closures forced WYCO to abandon both of its original lines, but as some of this spate of recent filings indicates WRB has for a variety of reasons yet to consumate the abandonment of the Saratoga line. I don't know what the back story is, but typically when a railroad receives authority to abandon a rail line they are given a certain amount of time to "consumate" the abandonment, i.e. salvage the materials and fulfill whatever other abandonment conditions the STB imposes on its approval of the abandonment. Once all this is completed the carrier files a consumation notice, and that usually closes out the abandonment case; however, the carrier only has a certain amount of time to so do, though from what I have seen the STB is fairly generaous at handing out time extensions for a consumation to happen. Until that cosumation notice is filed, the STB still has jurisdictional authority over the subject rail line. It appears Mr. Durbano is exiting the railroad business to go after other pursuits, resulting in a series of Transaction Notices, all filed with the STB yesterday. In the first one (Finance Document 36091), Mr. Durbano is restructuring his corporate family structure, specifically to transfer the remaining common carrier obligations on the Saratoga line from Wyoming/Colorado Railroad to the newly created Saratoga Railroad, LLC, which Durbano will continue to own and control. The other three filings are all recording transactions between Durbano and two other entities, West Branch Intermediate Holdings LLC (One Embarcadero Center, 39th Floor San Francisco, CA) and Continental Rail LLC (a suite on Cammercial Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale, Florida). West Branch is "a limited liability company formed for the purpose of acquiring and financing short line railroads as an investment", and Continental Rail LLC is "an existing limited liability company and a non-carrier formed for the purpose of managing and operating short line railroads". In Finance Document 36084, West Branch is seeking authority to purchase and Continental Rail is seeking to manage the Cimarron Valley, Clarkdale Arizona Central, and Wyoming/Colorado Railroad doing business as Oregon Eastern Railroad. In Finance Document 36085, New Mexico Central Railroad LLC is filing to replace Southwestern Railroad as the operator of that road's Whitewater Division, both by purchasing lines directly and assuming Southwestern's lease of lines leased from BNSF. Lastly, in Finance Document 36087, West Branch and Continental seek authority to respectively own and manage the New Mexico Central Railroad LLC. The effect of all this will be to transfer all of the current Durbano railroads to West Branch ownership and Continental operation and management. Durbano will be left with the Saratoga branch under the Saratoga Railroad LLC name and the Southwestern's Carlsbad Division; however, BNSF and Southwestern are in the process of not renewing Southwestern's lease on that line, and BNSF is taking it back from them, and to that end Southwestern filed an application to terminate its common carrier operations and obligations over the Carlsbad Division yeserday under docket #AB_1251_0_X. Once that is done Durbano will have only the Saratoga Railroad, which is still on the hook for whatever residual issues are holding up the consumation of the abandonment of that line, whatever they may be. Does this help clear things up? Jeff Moore Elko, NV Date: 01/19/17 00:04 Re: I'm So Confused! (again) Author: mtnwestrail Wow, Jeff. That is amazing. Thanks.
Paul Birkholz Sheridan, WY Date: 01/19/17 05:29 Re: I'm So Confused! (again) Author: donstrack Nice summary Jeff. Every time Southwestern's name pops up it gets my attention because of the connection to the former Kennecott Chino open pit copper mine at Santa Rita, and the Kennecott smelter at Hurley.
http://utahrails.net/bingham/kcc-chino.php A couple days ago, the subject came up of BNSF's copper concentrate train between Hurley (on SWRR, ex AT&SF) and Kennecott's smelter here in Utah. That's when I saw that Southwestern was part of Durbano's Western Group. And to think that Dave Durbano's father, Ernie, started out scrapping rail cars (and later a few locomotives) here in Ogden, Utah. Don Strack Date: 01/19/17 09:10 Re: I'm So Confused! (again) Author: callum_out Jeff, thanks for the research, did a bit of my own and pretty much discovered what you stated. The Saratoga thing is interesting
in that there is an operating exemption involved, for snowmobiles? It's amazing, as you found out, how involved some of these transactions have become. Ouit Date: 01/19/17 09:28 Re: I'm So Confused! (again) Author: MarionLinn Yes, great summary Jeff! The issue with the Saratoga Branch is that the letter required to be submitted to the ICC/STB consummating the abandonment was overlooked by the short line's management, even though they salvaged the track and began disposing of some of the right of way parcels. Eventually, the abandonment authority expired (nowadays the usual shelf life is a year) and the Saratoga line is still considered to be part of the national rail system even though there is no way a train could operate over it. It is a classic example of the old adage about the job's not done until the paperwork is finished. The consequences are more legal technicalities than anything else. Because the Saratoga Line's common carrier obligation has not been officially "extinguished," real estate parcels comprising the right of way are still subject to oversight by the STB and that clouds getting clear titles, etc. Thus the Saratoga was isolated from the short line sale package to avoid complications. .
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