Western Railroad Discussion > Albany & Eastern Can't Get no Love!

After years of disinterest and neglect by SP and the previous shortline owner, Rick Franklin is making a serious effort to clean up the right of way. But that has raised the ire of trackside property owners who have built fences, roads, and outbuildings within the right of way. Rick is concerned about liability, but the neighbors don't want to see that angle. The local paper has been making hay of the situation.

http://democratherald.com/news/local/right-of-way/article_020f68ac-989e-11e2-bdb3-001a4bcf887a.html

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

funnelfan Wrote:
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> After years of disinterest and neglect by SP and
> the previous shortline owner, Rick Franklin is
> making a serious effort to clean up the right of
> way. But that has raised the ire of trackside
> property owners who have built fences, roads, and
> outbuildings within the right of way. Rick is
> concerned about liability, but the neighbors don't
> want to see that angle. The local paper has been
> making hay of the situation.
>
> http://democratherald.com/news/local/right-of-way/
> article_020f68ac-989e-11e2-bdb3-001a4bcf887a.html

It's almost as though Franklin has an obsession about clearing the property along the right of way. I suppose if he has the bucks to do the work...

I can see the liability issues he is trying to avoid, like having a tree in the ROW fall over on someone's house, or someone hit at a crossing because they couldn't see the train coming through the brush. I think BNSF really could take a few lessons here. They really need to log the ROW of their lines in western Washington. Every time a major storm hits, the tracks are covered in tree limbs and debris.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/13 10:51 by funnelfan.

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Quite a snowfall

Is 50 feet each side the FRA requirement?

Tom Y

icancmp193 Wrote:
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> Is 50 feet each side the FRA requirement?
>
> Tom Y


No, that is the typical width of the ROW, 50' from the centerline of the track either side, or 100' wide.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

FRA part 49CFR213.37 only requires that vegetation not interfere with signal lines or devices, not provide a way to spread fire to structures, not obstruct visibility for wayside signs, track inspection, inspection of passing trains, or grade crossing vision by motorists or pedestrians, and "not interfere with railroad employees performing normal trackside duties". Some state regulatory requirements (e.g. CA) has more specific regulations about walkways and clearances that apply to vegetation.
When I was at Metrolink in Los Angeles we had to take down a beautiful row of eucalyptus trees in Chatsworth that were on the property line for liability reasons.
Several limbs broke off during a wind storm and damaged barns and sheds, the trees were so large that if a whole tree blew over it could hit houses. They only live a finite number of years; they would all die over the next couple of decades. We removed them with mixed feelings and with the mixed reception of the neighbors, who loved the trees but understood that the risks had greatly escalated.
I had been passing that lovely curved row of trees while riding SP trains and motorcars and Metrolink trains and Hy-rails from about 1959 to about 1996.
IIRC the original concept of the 100-foot right of way as specified in the land grant railroads was based on giving the railroads control over the trees as a means of reducing the risk of blockage or wrecks due to down trees. (Maybe in the Pacific Northwest, with Douglas Firs and Cedars regularly exceeding 100 feet the concept fails with a 100-foot strip of land for a right of way.)

Indeed. Rail lines in the Northwest could all use a good round of brush cutting.


cp1400

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When I bought the Sweet Home branch from BNSF, I only had a lease on the right of way and BNSF was not interested in fighting the vegetation issue in court. Every time I started to remove vegetation from the right of way, I would get calls from some of the land trespassers. I did however hire vegetation control companies to spray a 25-30' wide strip down the tracks to comply with FRA requirements.

Mike Root
Madras, OR

It seems as though the obvious is being overlooked here... The land owners that have encroached on RR property...the RR has the right to clear their right of way... how many here would let your neighbor put up a fence inside of your property and take the land for themselves, or build a driveway through your yard.... The RR is not the bad guy here...
The RR has been there long before those homes were.

G.D.

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