Steam & Excursion > More angst in Ely

Here's the lead of a story from Thursday's Ely Daily Times:

The railroad has been in and out of lawsuits. 

The Ely City Council may have unknowingly painted itself into a corner in filing a lawsuit against S&S Shortline Leasing in 2015, and now they’re pinning their hopes of succeeding in the suit by possibly pursuing the annexation into the city of the strip of land the rail line runs on between Ruth and the far reaches of Elko County.The council, at its Sept. 8 meeting, directed City Attorney Chuck Odgers to draw up a map of the city-owned rail lines in order that they may vote to annex the property into the city. Councilmember Pat Robison was the only one to vote against the plan.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/16 09:45 by Copy19.

Amazing, are they also going to perform city services along the full length?

Out

They will be required to.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

I have no dog in this fight, but the remark about providing city services is probably not correct.  At least up here in Oregon, and depending somewhat on the municipalites ordinances, if say you bought a lot in an outlying area within city limits, that lacks a street, sewer, water main, fire hydrant etc. it would be up to you the property owner to make those improvements to standards set by the planning ordinances of the city.  Once installed, the city might be obligated to maintain these improvements depending on what was agreed to at the planning level.  If it was a full blown subdivision the city usually accepts the infrastructure installed at developer expense and then maintains it.  It doesn't seem like the railroad ROW would carry much if any additional obligation to the city.  

What is the big beef between the RR and the city????!!?

FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL!!!!!!!!!

Will the drama ever end.  Almost as bad as listening the whining about 844. 

JBWX

coach Wrote:
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> What is the big beef between the RR and the
> city????!!?

Based on my quick 10-15 minutes research, the big beef has been boiling over for more than 2 years between Mark Bassett and Marty Westland, but the "defining event" was mentioned in a thread about 2 years ago:

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,3513726

I'm very surprised you haven't commented on any of the threads I found, although you seem very interested? Anyway, I got you started. I also strongly recommend you continue with your own research before throwing random rants on this controversial topic. Much more information can be found here on TO and also on Ely Times.

cchan006 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> coach Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > What is the big beef between the RR and the
> > city????!!?
>
> Based on my quick 10-15 minutes research, the big
> beef has been boiling over for more than 2 years
> between Mark Bassett and Marty Westland, but the
> "defining event" was mentioned in a thread about 2
> years ago:
>
> http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?10,
> 3513726

And I still stand behind the comment I made near the beginning of that thread.

-Mike

Mike Massee
Tehachapi, CA
Photography, Railroading and more..

Yep follow the money trail and mountains of debt. Marty Westland does not need nor does he want control of the railroad. He was just trying to clean up the corruption on the management board and the hands on management AT the railroad. Time will tell where all this goes. By the way Marty Westland is no longer on the City Council and could careless what happens to the railroad anymore, so the Marty Westland blame game can end. Mr Bassett is now left to his own devices and time will tell if the railroad falls apart or not. One thing I do know is that the railroad has been on a downhill trend since MB took over with a 100% turnover rate on paid staff and volunteers; as well as its financial state. I have seen this first hand from the being on the inside as a volunteer for 7+ years. For full disclosure I'm good friends with Marty Westland and have known him for 10+ years now and he is not evil villain  that some people have made him out to be!

And I still stand by my statements made in that thread!

CS



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/18/16 18:30 by CaliforniaSteam.

I also stand by my statement to years ago.

Good old fashion nevada politics!

Posted from Android

I spent the week after Labor Day on the railroad with Mason.  We pumped Mason latest handcar about 100 miles and performed some restoration projects that I will share in about a week once my video is edited.  

Mark told me that in Nevada all properties within incorporated cities must be served by sewer. I don't know how a city could extend beyond county boundries either.   I think Mark sees a relationship where they are joint owners of the railroad with S&S shortline. With that there will be more incentive for S&S to open the line. I personally think it would be a good thing to eject the city from the operation.  I don't live in Ely, but I read the news weekly as it is better than any reality show.

On a side note, if you haven't visited lately, the railroad is looking really good.  They just put a 1.5 million into replacing somewhere in the neighborhood of 4000 ties on the Keystone.  They also fixed three grade crossings, installed a new culvert, and removed a lot of mud out of the way on the highline. The mine gave them several car loads of ballast that they distributed along the right-of-way.  

I noticed they are also carrying a lot more passengers than during my previous summer visits. I think it has to do with hotel space opening up, allowing for visitors to spend the night, rather than passing through.  The mine seems to be winding down operations as copper prices are low.  Talk is they are doing the minimum to keep the pit open to prepare for an eventual increase in price. Unfortunately, the restaurants and casinos around town were dead leading me to believe that people are really watching their money.

Going out on a limb, I foresee the Nevada Northern becoming a worthwhile piece of real estate in the coming years.  The Yucca Mountain project might be dormant, but it is not dead.  Nuclear waste is piling up around the country and the nuclear stakeholders are waiting for Obama to leave office. During his first campaign he promised Nevada he would block Yucca Mountain and he did just that. Before he left office he established the Basin and Range National Monument right dab in the middle of the proposed right-of-way to Yucca Mountain.  There is the Mina option for the line, but the Indians are blocking access through the reservation around Walker Lake.  That does not leave a lot of options.  However, a 1990's era study cited the Nevada Northern as an option for getting to the Nevada Test Site.   I think it would be a good thing for the railroad as the line would survive and the Nevada Northern and S&S would both come out way ahead. With all the money the museum could really become an amazing facility.   This hypothesis is solely my own and I stand behind what some would consider a crackpot idea. 

 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

100% turnover rate is B.S. I've been going and volunteering there for 10 years next February and many of the same people are still working there and helping out. I can see them age over time in my photographs. Wonderful group of folks.

-M

Mike Massee
Tehachapi, CA
Photography, Railroading and more..

Well I dont know anything about the gossop in Ely But I do love the Nevada Northern. Could end up being better then Strasburg if they keep at it. It would be nice if the rail line got re conected to UP in Elko someday. There is going to come a day when something opens up out there. Mining is down these days but someday it will be back. That would be great and all but in the mean time If you live in the western US The Nevada Northern is worth the trip.

Harlock Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> 100% turnover rate is B.S. I've been going and
> volunteering there for 10 years next February and
> many of the same people are still working there
> and helping out. I can see them age over time in
> my photographs. Wonderful group of folks.
>
> -M

 B.S I think not, the turnover happened before you showed up. How many paid shop employees are there now? There was a full shop crew when I was there.


CS

 

One point of order, Nevada Northern never went to Elko, it stayed several mountain ranges east of there and effected connections with the WP at Shafter and the SP at Cobre.  Hasn't been a train north of the Shafter connection since 1983, during BHP Nevada Rail's short life they only went to Shafter.  S&S Shortline Leasing nominally has the line in service from Shafter to Currie, but they haven't been south of Shafter since about 2010 or 2011.  After about three or so years with no car storage they are again in business, at the moment they have somewhere in the neighborhood of 150-200 tank cars and covered hoppers in Shafter. 

I wonder about S&S Shortline Leasing...a search for them turns up S&S Sales and Leasing, which appears to be an equipment and parts dealer based out of Fairmont, Utah.  Their logo is on the few pieces of equipment they have on the NN.  However, Midwest Pacific Rainet & Logistics (umbrella organization over all of Mike William's shortlines) also claims the NN/S&S to be one of their properties.  Makes me wonder a little bit just what the business relationship is there behind S&S Shortline Leasing, and if they really have the kind of resources the newspaper article is attributing to them, and if they do a willingness to spend it on this property.  The mainline is still laid with the original 60-pound rail from 1905...Northern Nevada and then BHP replaced a lot of ties and put a lot of ballast down when they rebuilt the line in 1993-1995, but didn't do anything about the rail, and they were limited to 10 mph or so operations on the line and still had a lot of derailments.  Shortly before they shut down there were news articles to the effect they were going to build a truck scale and start trucking their ore to a reload on the LA&SL somewhere in Utah rather than keep using the railroad.  The current operators of the mine were interested in using the railroad when they showed up, but only if someone else paid for the rebuild, and I suspect that would still stand today...I ran some rough calculations a few years back that estimated well into the hundreds of millions to rehabilitate the NN mainline for any sort of serviceable condition.  Until that happens the Ely mine trucks everything to a truck to rail reload in Wendover, Utah.  

I do remember hearing something of NN unsuccessfully applying for the most recent round of TIGER grants to do trackwork.  

Here's the NN mainline at the first or second public crossing south of Dolly Varden from this past June.  

Jeff Moore
Elko, NV 

---

CaliforniaSteam Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>  B.S I think not, the turnover happened before
> you showed up. How many paid shop employees are
> there now? There was a full shop crew when I was
> there.

100% over how long?  Sure, people leave as they do everywhere.  John has been there perhaps 7 years. Henry has been there about 8 years and took over after Al passed away. Angie has been there for quite a while, but I am not sure if she is still working in the shops as she is running trains more often.  Gary has been there a number of years, and I believe started as a volunteer. That is four people in the shops. If you walk through the shop under Henry's management you will notice a big difference from the way it use to look.  Heather has been there three years running the gift shop and reservations.   Mike is still alive changing ties, Erin is a part time track guy, Kurt is still there too. There are also three new people who have a great attitude... a guy who came from the V&T, a tourism guy who is also a conductor who came from the Skunk, and another gift shop guy.

Mark has a good group of people there right now.  I have been going there for the past five years and I have seen an assortment of difficult personalities come and go. This last visit was probably the best group of people I have come across.  We have noticed that the locals that come to work at the railroad tend to stick around.  The ones who come from outside typically work a season or two before they move on. 


 

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

webmaster Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CaliforniaSteam Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >  B.S I think not, the turnover happened before
> > you showed up. How many paid shop employees are
> > there now? There was a full shop crew when I
> was
> > there.
>
> 100% over how long?  Sure, people leave as they
> do everywhere.  John has been there perhaps 7
> years. Henry has been there about 8 years and took
> over after Al passed away. Angie has been there
> for quite a while, but I am not sure if she is
> still working in the shops as she is running
> trains more often.  Gary has been there a number
> of years, and I believe started as a volunteer.
> That is four people in the shops. If you walk
> through the shop under Henry's management you will
> notice a big difference from the way it use to
> look.  Heather has been there three years
> running the gift shop and reservations.   Mike is
> still alive changing ties, Erin is a part time
> track guy, Kurt is still there too. There are also
> three new people who have a great attitude... a
> guy who came from the V&T, a tourism guy who is
> also a conductor who came from the Skunk, and
> another gift shop guy.
>
> Mark has a good group of people there right now.
>  I have been going there for the past five years
> and I have seen an assortment of difficult
> personalities come and go. This last visit was
> probably the best group of people I have come
> across.  We have noticed that the locals that
> come to work at the railroad tend to stick around.
>  The ones who come from outside typically work a
> season or two before they move on. 

Todd pretty much summed it up, plus all the seasonal folks who come help with the charter, the volunteer engineers, firemen, brakemen and conductors, most of them are the same great folks year after year.

Mike Massee
Tehachapi, CA
Photography, Railroading and more..

This pissing contest between certain people and Mark reminds me a lot of the pissing contest about UP steam.  Shit happens but get on with life.  I know some of the folks who left the NN some years ago, and they were good folks.  But for whatever reason they did not get along with Mark, I never understood the details.  But Mark has kept the museum running and a new generation of folk seem to get along with him just fine.  I'm certain that Mark has his flaws but who doesn't.  The museum is more important than Mark.  As best as I can tell he is doing a great job of keeping it alive.  Could somebody do better? Maybe.  But somebody else could also do a whole lot worse.  The problem with the city council seems to transcend small town politics and rise to the level of gross incompetence.  The NN museum is unique opportunity to preserve so much history of not only railroading but old time industrial Americana.  It deserves to survive.

JBWX

I have a friend who is an engineer out there at times, has spoken both well and poorly about things but has been very
consistent in his views on the city. Inasmuch as my friend has run for things like sheriff I trust both his words and his
instinct. And Mr. West, respect you as I do, if we relate this to the UP, Ed Dickens would be on the city council.

Out