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Filed under: Humboldt, Marin, Napa Valley, North Coast Railroad, Railroad, Samoa
THA finishes lower boiler shop roof!
Lower boiler shop roof finished Nov 2009, Samoa, CA
Various retired teachers volunteering their time.
Some retired teachers rack up an incredible number of hours focused mainly on one special interest. A good example of that kind of dedication is Mike Kellogg, retired social science teacher at Eureka High School. A man of many talents, he has given most of his 1,150 reported volunteer hours this past year for the Timber Heritage Association.
SF Gate: Bill Provines – fireman on novel train – dies
Bill Provines, the last surviving employee of the famous “crookedest railroad in the world” that once climbed Mount Tamalpais, died Friday at his home in Novato of heart failure. He was 101.
Vacaville The Reporter: Rail cars arrive for refurbishment
Drivers crossing the Wichels Causeway on and off Mare Island on Wednesday were privy to a recent rarity on the island: A train chugging across, whistle blowing.
Wednesday marked the first installment of Mare Island newcomer business Alstom’s plans to refurbish 66 Amtrak Capitol Corridor trains. The initial three passenger cars to grace newly aligned track leading into Alstom’s Building 599 warehouse were towed by Alstom venture partner, San Francisco Bay Railroad.
I’m pretty sure it was a horn, not a whistle blowing. Thanks to Shawn for providing this one.
Link to video, embedded didn’t seem to work for me.
Here is a quick timelapse video of the recent joining of the P&SR Caboose #1 onto it’s newly rebuilt trucks. More video of the event coming soon.
NVR: Devlin extension gets rolling
For the next several weeks, trucks will build a section of a bridge over railroad tracks north of Green Island Road, using soil from a hill near Napa County Airport.
Green Island road is south of, and runs along the tracks leading to NWP/NCRA. Should provide another vantage point for railfans.
1948 U.S. Railroad Atlas Thanks to those who have posted this online.
Filed under: NCRA, Northwestern Pacific Railroad, Railroad, SMART, Sonoma, bicycle, trails, transit
Marinscope Newspapers > Novato Advance > News > NCRA, SMART release timeline for trains.
Construction work is finished on the railroad tracks that will carry freight trains through Novato. Now the tracks need to be inspected, and then freight trains are expected to start rolling by March 2010.
Meanwhile, planning and design work is under way for the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit (SMART) commuter train, and construction work should start in 2011.
After years of delay, a state-funded rail agency has finished repairing the Northwestern Pacific freight line in Sonoma, Marin and Napa counties, paving the way for a return of cargo service early next year.
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Meanwhile, three environmental groups are threatening legal action to stop the freight service, arguing the rail authority hasn’t weighed all the impacts.
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The groups — the Environmental Protection Information Center, Friends of the Eel River and Californians for Alternatives to Toxics — also said the authority has taken no action to clean up polluted rail yards.
Note: NCRA has started clean up, but has been delayed due to lack of funds. Governor vetoed last funding to clean up these sites.
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Freight service could start by next March, according to NCRA.
The railroad’s private operator, NWP Co., will be ready when it gets the go-ahead, said John Williams, the company’s president. But the timing remains uncertain, he said.
“I’m reluctant to tell anybody — including the shipping community — that we’re going to start on a specific date,” Williams said. “They’re not going to shift from trucking if they’re not sure we’re going to be there.”
via Ready to haul freight again | PressDemocrat.com | The Press Democrat | Santa Rosa, CA.
Filed under: Arcata, Blue Lake, Humboldt, NCRA, Northwestern Pacific Railroad, Railroad, bicycle, trails
Engineers are racing to survey possibilities for a trail between Arcata and Bracut while state money remains available.
Geotechnical work began this week to examine bridges, levees and other structures in an effort to determine several options for where a trail, or a trail-with-rail, may go. The city of Arcata was granted $1.07 million from the California Coastal Conservancy a year ago, but those funds were later frozen.
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In other developments on the trail front, the Humboldt County Association of Governments last week directed its staff to spend
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$15,000 on initial moves to prepare the Annie and Mary Trail between Blue Lake and Arcata for development.
Filed under: Mendocino, NCRA, Northwestern Pacific Railroad, Railroad, SMART, Willits, bicycle, trails
Some sad news this week.
Willits news: Ruth Rockefeller: Community loses a venerable citizen
After her retirement from teaching, she took on the failing Northwestern Pacific Railroad; preserving the railroad became her passion. She was the first woman to be elected chairman for the North Coast Railroad Authority in 1998 when she was 80 years old. The plaque she received for this honor was presented to her by the board of directors chairman, who said: “Whoever thought an 80 year old school teacher would be actively managing the NCRA, but there’s nothing like this little old schoolmarm.”
Ruth was very proud of that award and worked diligently to the end of her life to save the railroad.
Former Tiburon mayor and rail backer Ellman dies
Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit booster George Ellman died last month, but he is not done with the rail project just yet.
His ashes will be on the first SMART train scheduled to roll down the tracks in 2014, a request made by Mr. Ellman before his death.
NorCal History Blog: Getting to work at Falk
I talked to Bill Rich yesterday, and the folks at HSU are getting ready to start digging at the historic town site of Falk.
Cloverdale seeks to link downtown to the train station
Cloverdale is considering building a bike and pedestrian path to its rail station in anticipation of eventual commuter train service.
The path is being proposed as a way to link the downtown to the station on the opposite side of the freeway.
The bike/pedestrian path, dubbed the Cloverdale Greenway project, could replace two of the four vehicle lanes on Citrus Fair Drive that run under Highway 101 and connect the west of town to the station on the east.
Not local related, but still a little fun. World’s smallest model train.
Thanks, all for your support. It was one of those things that was hard to get, was good info on the railroad. Every monthly meeting they have a presentation with photos of progress on the railroad. However, they haven’t posted a single 2009 presentation yet. I keep saying, they need to show what they have done, it is a pr thing.
Filed under: Marin, Northwestern Pacific Railroad, Railroad, SMART, Sonoma, trails, transit
A San Francisco firm has been selected to write the specifications and design requirements for the trains, tracks and stations for the Sonoma-Marin commute rail system.
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The firm, LTK Engineering Services, also will support SMART in its dealings with the Federal Railroad Administration and state Public Utilities Commission, which oversee railroads.
The contract is for $2 million and runs through December 2010.
The SMART board on Wednesday also approved contracts to two firms to design the pedestrian and bicycle pathway that will be alongside the 70-mile train right-of-way.
Filed under: Marin, NCRA, Northwestern Pacific Railroad, Railroad, Sonoma
PRESS RELEASE – Ukiah – October 22, 2009
North Coast Railroad Authority (NCRA) Chairman, Allan Hemphill today announced that $40
million in repairs to 62 miles of the Northwestern Pacific (NWP) railway between Napa County
and Windsor have been completed.
He said Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) inspection of the repairs to trackway, crossing
signals, and bridges between Windsor in Sonoma County and the national rail interchange
(Lombard), located North of American Canyon in Napa County, will take up to 90 days.
Hemphill said the NCRA’s contract rail operator, the Northwestern Pacific Company (NWP
Co.), expects to be operational on this 62 mile stretch of the NWP line no later than March of
next year.
“The return of freight service to the NWP line will take trucks off of 101, reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, and reduce transportation costs for North Bay businesses and agricultural interests,”
said Hemphill.
He said one immediate beneficiary of freight train service will be Marin and Sonoma dairymen
who are suffering from escalating costs of feed grains that must be trucked in from the Central
Valley.
“The delivery of livestock feed by rail will substantially reduce transportation costs and provide
an immediate life line for Marin and Sonoma County dairymen and ranchers,” said Hemphill.
Other commodities expected to be moved on the line in the first year of service include wood
products, building materials, cases of wine, and other general merchandize. Hemphill said the
NWP Co. estimates operations of 3 roundtrip trains per week in 2010, increasing to 3 roundtrips
per day in 2011 and beyond.
Train service was stopped by the FRA in 1998 due to safety concerns. The California
Transportation Commission (CTC) released about $40 million in state funds to repair 62 miles of
track from Lombard to Windsor in 2006. NCRA started work in 2007 to repair 55 crossing
signals, replace 50,000 crossties and 23,000 tons of ballast, shore-up levees in Schellville, and
repair 43 rail bridges between Windsor and the train connection with the Union Pacific
(Lombard) located North of American Canyon. A lawsuit by the City of Novato objecting to the
repairs delayed work for 14 months. The lawsuit was finally settled and work resumed in
November 2008.
Hemphill said that the FRA will begin inspection of the track in November. He said that before
freight operations can begin, the FRA must lift the emergency order that stopped train service in
1998. He said the NCRA must also certify a $2.5 million Environmental Impact Report (EIR)
originally issued last March. The draft EIR will be reissued in November, with the goal of final
adoption in January or February 2010. The EIR, which is required under the California
Environmental Quality Act, evaluates the impacts of train operations on the Russian River
Division, defined as Lombard to Willits.
“Trains are good for the environment, good energy policy, and good for the local economy,” said
Hemphill.
“Impacts from the return of train service are overwhelmingly positive. One rail car will remove
4 trucks from 101, and 1 gallon of diesel will move one ton of freight over 400 miles,” he said
Railroaders put on Oktoberfest to raise funds for restorations – Humboldt Beacon.
Celebrate Oktoberfest and support the efforts of the Timber Heritage Association at a fundraiser at the Adorni Center in Eureka on Friday, Oct. 23.
The event will feature platters of delicious German fare, cold beer and root beer, music from the Humboldt Accordionaires, and a raffle for a three-day round trip aboard the private railcar Virginia City (from Emeryville to Reno).
Filed under: Humboldt, Manila, NCRA, Northwestern Pacific Railroad, Railroad, Samoa, THA
We had a special speeder run today, just for the communities of Manila, and Samoa. Weather wasn’t bad, just light rain. The rides were free, as a thanks for the support. Pretty good turnout, despite the very limited advertising.
We’ve cleared part way in to the last heavy brush area between Manila and highway 255. It really helped having the use of the exhavator to load the dump truck. NCRA needed the exhavator and dump truck for use down south to clean up winter debris. They greatly helped out the speed and width of cleanup. Now further cleanup will be harder and slower. At least we don’t have much left of the thickly overgrown area left.
Two Thursdays ago members went out to Fields Landing to retreve another speeder and move it to Samoa. The engine in it is no good, so the speeder is going to be restored as a trailer to the A&MR RR speeder. Issuses to be dealt with is braking, pa speaker, lights, and general restoration. The engine have already been taken out.
We have already met our rent requirement for the year with the work we have done.
The ROW has been cut just east of the bridge by Sierra Pacific for what looks like levee work.
Filed under: Humboldt, NCRA, Northwestern Pacific Railroad, Railroad, Samoa, Sonoma, THA, Union Pacific, harbor
THA: Looks like we will be transporting the five passenger cars, at least starting, the end of November time frame to Samoa. If all goes well, of course. Looks like the best roofing material, will be the bed liner stuff.
SR Press Democrat: Old railroad bed to get new life as bicycle trail
Creation of a Sonoma-to-Schellville trail for bicyclists and pedestrians is under way with plans to replace a 4-mile swath of Union Pacific railroad tracks with a paved path.
Please note, this, as per the article isn’t NCRA, or SMART owned property, despite some anti-rail folks.
SR Press Democrat: Cloverdale celebrates its 150th birthday
An interesting article on the history of Cloverdale, and interaction of the rail. I didn’t know that Cloverdale was a northern point of the railroad for about 17 years.
TS: Humboldt Bay’s economy and the harbor district’s future, by Patrick Higgins
Usual rallying against rail, and large port.
