SHORT LINES
GB&W Floods Out
During Sept. 1 3 - 1 8 heavy rains on the "West End" of Green Bay & Western's Whitehall Division (Wisconsin Rapids-East Winona) , washed out sections of the rail road in the Trempealeau River valley. Heav iest hit was the Arcadia area, which saw more than 10 inches of rain in just a few days. Also affected was GB&W's new 2 . 5mile spur into Badger Mining north of Tay lor. GB&W suspended operations on Sept. 15, when the crew for the Merrillan-East Winona turn (Job C) deadheaded back to Merrillan from East Winona after the rail road became impassable because of high water, stranding C-424s 3 1 2/313/314 and No. 2's train at East Winona. The crew for the Merrillan-Green Bay segment of train No. 1 (Job B) deadheaded from Merrillan to Wisconsin Rapids, where it picked up a switcher and about 20 cars before heading to Green Bay. On Sept. 14, one day previous to the shutdown, No. 2 had 152 cars total ing 1 5,000 tons out of Merrillan, one of the biggest trains ever operated by the GB&W. Starting Sept. 1 6 , GB&W began work ing Merrillan-Taylor turns , with Job A (Green Bay-Merrillan s egment of No. 1 ) tying up in Merrillan a s usual and Job C ' s crew working to Taylor and back (Badger trucked sand to the old load out in Tay lor). and then Job B working back to Green Bay on its rest. On Sept. 19 GB&W detoured No. 2 via the BN to La Crosse, SoolCP to New Lis bon and WC from New Lisbon to Wiscon sin Rapids with C-424s 3 1 2/3 1 3/ 3 1 4 and about 80 cars stranded at East Winona since the 1 5th. This was similar to the last such detour in 1 9 7 5 when the Trem pealeau left its banks. Ballast extras were dispatched from Wisconsin Rapids and GB&W mainte nance-of-way forces got the West End back in service on Sept. 2 2 , though more work needed to be done to make tempo rary repairs permanent.

C amas Prairies' Grangeville Turn ran with a rare UP/BN power set in September-mainte nance had sidelined some of the UP Geeps that work the jointly owned short line. The 40-car train is shown ascending Idaho's Lapwai Canyon on Half Moon Trestle on Sept. 4. D ave Gayer
-

Shorts
T rona Railway's two Baldwin AS-6 1 6 s continued t o operate into September 1 9 9 2 . Because a n agreement could not be reached for two or three SD40-2s with any leasing company, the plan to place the " Desert Dinosaurs " is on indefinite hold. Denver-based Broe Companies, Inc . , formed Railco, Inc. i n July t o operate 1 0 Class III short lines in the U . S . , several of which were purchased from Chicago & West Pullman. The new company controls Great Western Railway in Colorado and its NCO Division in Northern California, Council Bluffs Railway, Kansas Southwest ern, Chicago Rail Link, and Manufacturer's Junction Railway in St. Louis. Scrapping of the Oregon: California & E astern began in the Klamath Falls area on Aug. 3 1 . In July, Weyerhaeuser Compa ny and Oregon Parks and Recreation De partment officials signed documents that will turn OC&E roadbed into a public trail.

Elsewhere in Oregon, scrapping of the 1 33-rnile Oregon Eastern began in mid September between Celatom and Burns . North Coast Railway has had some fi nancial difficulty of late, but is hoping to secure funds from the California Trans portation Capital Improvement program for a three phase track rehabilitation plan, including plans to replace 1 2 ,000 ties, re pair six trestles and bridges and Wood man Tunnel, damaged by fire in 1 988. The ICC approved Union Pacific's sale of its 1 6 . 7-mile ex-Sacramento Northern Wood land Branch to Yolo Shortline Railroad. In cluded in the deal is 1 . 5 miles of trackage rights over the existing UP track in West Sacramento which will allow the short line to connect its existing operations on the line to Clarksburg to the south with the Wood land trackage to the north and west. Thanks to Bill Christopher, Bob Welke, Christian E. Stedman, Greg Brown, V ic Neves, George Cockle, Ken Meeker, THE MIXED TRAIN, FLIMSIES AND NORTHWEST

WAND

=

W isconsin & Michigan?

Another short line began operations in June (Craig Burroughs of Transaction As sociates instituted the deal). Wisconsin & Michigan Railroad. Reporting marks are WAND. WAND operates under a lease-to purchase agreement over WC, nee Soo Line, trackage between Bessemer, Mich., and Mellen, Wis. Once a busy ore line linking the ore dock at Ashland, Wis . , with Michigan's Gogebic Range, this route last saw regular service in 1 9 8 5 af ter Soo Line embargoed the line. WAND currently operates a few times per week with a leased Nicolet Badger Northern GE 65-tonner, though it is try ing to get newly acquired ex-Lake Superi or & Ishpeming RS-3 No. 1 6 0 4 in operable condition.

RArLFAN.
PAC I F I C RAILNews 4 5