Passenger Trains > Want to buy your own private train?

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20110419/BUSINESS/110419388/1350?Title=Want-to-buy-your-own-private-train

I hope and pray that these get purchased for the 4449 crew. To have a train set like 261 has would be incredible....

Honestly, there is no place to park them. As well as the small matter of building the new engine house for the locomotives. So this is, unfortunately, unlikely.

They wouldn't need to be parked at the new OMSI/RRshops site, though. There must be a few secure places around greater Portland to store them -- closed mills, mothballed docks, etc., where they'd be close at hand but secure from vandals.

I'm not saying there wouldn't be other problems with buying 9 bombed out cars landlocked in various places in NorCal and turning them into a 4449 fleet for Portland, but it seems Portland would have a few places they could be stored.

Ted in OR

Wonder what the trucks would be worth? I suspect that the bodies may well into corrosion cancer but the trucks might be salvageable

John Gezelius
Tustin, CA

Corrosion isn't the main problem but, rust as the cars are made of Cor-ten steel.
Charlie
MP 53 on the BNSF Topeka Sub

I believe most of these cars were part of the "Worlds Fair Daylight"

Most of these are.

Some of the NCRA's other cars, which were stored at Willits, were ex-CNW bilevels and a couple of Budd stainless cars, ex-Amtrak and ex-SP/PRR.

I believe that the City of WIllits had them scrapped after they suffered heavy vandalism. The GP9s that were stored there after the stupid collision in
the Willits yard have also reportedly disappeared.

Anyone care to guess at how much those cars will sell for?

You'd think there would be spots, but there was a huge scramble to find places to park the "extra equipment" that had to be out of the Brooklyn yard last January.

Likely pretty low. Close to scrap.

The real cost is movement, since it can't be by rail.

Pullman Wrote:
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> Likely pretty low. Close to scrap.
>
> The real cost is movement, since it can't be by
> rail.

Could they be moved by rail if placed on a flat car...like the PA that is currently being moved to Texas?

They could be moved by rail but the nearest active rail is HOW FAR AWAY?

I keep wondering about that. These things are ON rail, it just seems to be rail the FRA doesn't like for some reason. Shouldn't it be possible to buy an equipment-moving slow order from the FRA that would let the old track be used at no more than 10MPH or so and with no more than X ton units for a one-time move to clear the equipment off the tracks? Almost any state DOT can manage things like that on roads, or the remains of them.

Even if the rail has been physically cut at some place for a few blocks, it might be cheaper to only use a truck for those 4 blocks or whatever than for 5000 miles or whatever the full trip would be.

lwilton Wrote:
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> I keep wondering about that. These things are ON rail, it just seems to be rail the FRA doesn't like for some reason. Shouldn't it be possible to
> buy an equipment-moving slow order from the FRA that would let the old track be used at no more than 10MPH or so and with no more than X ton units
> for a one-time move to clear the equipment off the tracks? Almost any state DOT can manage things like that on roads, or the remains of them.
>
> Even if the rail has been physically cut at some place for a few blocks, it might be cheaper to only use a truck for those 4 blocks or whatever
> than for 5000 miles or whatever the full trip would be.

FOUR BLOCKS?? Currently you would have to truck the loads to Lombard (near Napa) at least.

NOTHING has run on the NWP trackage north of Willits since 1998. The Eel River Canyon, where the railroad runs most of the way between Eureka and Willits,
is geographically unstable; mudslides, subsidence and washouts have cut the route in countless places. South of Willits and north of Windsor the line is in
somewhat better condition but still unfit for any kind of movement; nothing has run between Willits and Windsor (except a few track-speeder tours) since 2001.
Only south of Windsor, where rehabilitation has been done in anticipation of restarting freight service, is the track in any condition to run anything; however
nothing is moving on that track now, until disagreements between the commuter rail/bicycle trail district (SMART) and the North Coast Railroad Authority and its freight
operator, NWP Co can be ironed out. In fact, SMART was dragging its heels on ANY freight service, insisting that NWP could not even submit paperwork to the
FRA without SMART approval; the FRA first upheld SMART and then changed its mind, ruling in favor of NWP. Still, SMART and NWP must come to a
joint-operating agreement and the NIMBYs in the City of Novato have been throwing obstacles in the path of resumed freight service in the form of threatened
legal actions.

The late Francis Wong did move a few cars from Willits via truck. He said the cost was at least $20K per car, and that was several years ago. Any bidder would have to add that cost to their bid per car.

I don't think these cars will be around for much longer.

Chris.