History of Railroads

Imagine you are five years old. As your family arrives at the train station, your hand slips free of your Mom’s and you dash over to the tracks. Looking left, then right, your eager eyes scan the horizon, searching for your train.

Then you hear it. The quiet chugging of the locomotive. The clicking and clacking of the wheels gliding over the rails. The sound of happy families enjoying their ride as they arrive at the station

The engine pulls to a stop; the steam escaping. You run to the first car, eager to board and ride behind the engineer. But this is no ordinary train. This engine is just your size! The cars have seats built just for you! Even still, these cars are large enough for your Mom and Dad to come along for the ride.

With the toot of the horn, the engineer gently pulls the throttle and the little engine slowly starts inching forward. The cylinders pump and the steam chuffs and before long, the engine is chugging along. As you round the first curve, you look back and see the trusty red caboose tootling along, bringing up the rear.

Bright, cheery smiles are every where! Children cry out with glee as the train winds through the tunnel and into the day light. Parents look on with joy and contentment as they reflect on their own precious memories and those that are being made now. You and your parents never want this moment to end.

WHOLESOME & EDUCATIONAL FAMILY FUN

Railroading is in the blood of thousands of Americans. And, even through steam engines may have disappeared from full size rails across the nation, they are still running strong in miniature railroads. What is it about trains that appeals to children and adults alike? Is it the freedom of travel? The sound of the whistle? The simplicity of design? The life-like sounds of a chuffing steam engine? Or the smile on the face of a tired, yet friendly engineer?

There is no one answer but one thing is for certain: children of all ages, love trains! Look at the phenomenal success of Thomas the Tank engine properties! But it doesn’t stop with wood Thomas engines or electric HO train sets. No, this affection seems to grow into something much bigger. . . trains that are large enough to ride in, whether you are 3 or 93. There is no mistaking the attraction of trains to folks of all ages.

And even if you have never ridden aboard an Amtrak train, you may have fond memories of miniature, or Grand Scale, trains found at your local park or drive-in theater when you were young. Maybe you were one of the children who have fond memories of riding behind the diesel at Kiddieland in Chicago or in one of the department store displays of the time. Or perhaps you have heard stories of the famous steam engines running at Coney Island. Fairs, amusement parks, local parks, pumpkin farms, roadside attractions and others have all housed miniature trains at one time. Literally millions of people have had the joy of riding these at one time.

But what of today? Do these iron horses still exist to thrill our children of today? Are there place for families to go so that their young children can make their own memories? Yes! These trains are alive and steaming all around the world today! And more are being built or re-built every year!

In the California alone, it is estimated that there are at least 45 miniature engines being built. New facilities are opening or are in the planning stages each year. Some railroads, like the Redwood Valley Railway in Tilden Park, Berkeley, California, and the Riverside and Great Northern Railroad in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin, have just recently celebrated 50 years of service! Other mile stones include the 10 year anniversary of the Orland, Newville & Pacific Railroad in Orland, California. Various museums have resurrected old trains and brought them back to life for their visitors as well.

But it isn’t just public attractions. Private individuals are building their own railroad empires right in their own back yard. Some are indeed empires, as the track runs through miles of property. Many are smaller lines that might run around a city lot. All of them provide hours of fun for young and old alike.

FAMILY OPPORTUNITIES

But what does this all mean for families today? For many, it is a living, breathing education. In one visit you can learn about history of railroading, the science and math behind the locomotives, building and construction, wood working, machining, and more. You can visit with the people who run the railroads, often volunteers , and receive a lesson in community service. Visit the ticket office and gift shops and learn about business. And take a look at the gorgeous locomotives and rolling stock and see pure art! Creative families can find educational value in all aspects of Grand Scale railroading.

As an adult, you can be transported back in time to your youth. Revisit your own memories of the whistles and happy families. . . and make new memories with your own family today.

Where to Ride?

Grand Scale railroads can literally found all around the country. Three of the public railroads are listed above but others include: Griffith Park in Los Angeles, the Little Puffer in the San Francisco Zoo, the Portland Zoo railroad in Portland, Oregon, the Milwaukee Zoo railway, the Whiskey River Railway, Little A-Merrick-A, Marshall, Wisconsin, the Michigan AuSable Valley Railway in Fairview, Michigan, the Detroit Zoo railway, the Traverse City Railway, the Peconic County RR in Long Island, and many, many more private and public RRs.

HOW TO LEARN MORE

Various publications now exist to help people in their search for Grand Scale railroads. The prominent magazines include the Grand Scales Quarterly and the 7+RAILROADER, both published by Robinson & Associates in Red Bluff, California and Live Steam, published by Village Press in Traverse City, Michigan.

The Web has also been a valuable tool for those interested in learning more. Web sites of interest include www.grandscales.com and www.7plusrailroader.com, which have exhaustive links pages. Another great resource is www.discoverlivesteam.com, www.livesteaming.com and www.steamingpriest.com. All provide a great deal of information.

Fuel costs seem to rank high in surveys of US citizens most grave concerns. Rates up there at the top, doesn’t it?

Who are some heavy users of fuel that are not as often thought of? For surface transportation there are many indeed; cars, trucks, buses, etc. While we are talking about surface transportation, let’s talk about trains. The railroad has always been a big part and played an even larger part in the flow of fuel even before the locomotives used fuel. Even back when the trains were steam driven from coal. The Flow of Fuel is very important and no one can argue that, better than Rockefeller. As you know he was a master of the flow, all the way down to controlling his cost and his competitors costs on the rail lines.

By forcing restrictions on the distribution systems it was hard to compete and many an Oilman sold their companies to the “streamline by the numbers former accountant with the impeccable books.” Before you continue this discussion please go read the life story of Rockefeller and Standard Oil Company, then you may continue. Now let’s continue, today the railroad is a big user of fuel and the railroad is responsible for much of the major movement of fuel as well as the natural resources in our country. The railroad delivers fuel to terminals for trucking companies, without the railroads it would be difficult to supply the trucks with the needed fuel. Pipelines only go to so many places.

The railroads move chemicals out of the refineries, compete with them and their vendors to deliver the fuel and deliver to the trucking terminals, which are not near pipelines, while the railroad competes with the trucking companies to deliver products to the market or manufacturing companies. Then in the last decade or so you have seen an increasing amount of piggy back trailers from trucks on the flat bed railcars moving across the country due to high fuel costs, insurance costs, interstate trucking regulations, trucking unions, driver hour restrictions, road construction destroying equipment or slowing the traffic flow and shortage of qualified drivers. As all these methods compete in the market and for fuel, they also compliment each other providing our great nation with much redundancy, which at times seems wasteful, but in this newest era of the threat of International Terrorism, makes it nearly impossible to stop the turning wheels of industry, energy and commerce. The entire system moves on the flow of fuel.

The railroad companies can buy large amounts of fuel and store it and move it cheaper and has an inherent edge on the trucking industry. And where as the railroad is more efficient than the trucking industry, the tracks do not go everywhere. Also the loads need to be larger to make it worthwhile. So even if the railroads are more efficient the shipments must be broken down to get to their final destinations. Thus you will always need both forms of transportation, which are the two of the largest private users of fuel.

The railroad is one of the United States greatest assets for moving our products and part of the distribution system which has helped stabilize our civilization and allowed us to grow. Fuel costs are a huge issue in the rail roads and those costs are passed on to you and I, whether we realize it or not, in everything we buy

Railroads have been around in the US since the early 1800’s. They have come and gone over the years and now there are a few big players, the large Class 1’s and many small railroads called shortlines. The shortlines have a very tight expense budget and often very low profit margins.

Shortlines operate in places where the large railroads find little to no profit in serving the customers. The shortlines can go in and operate because of vastly different overhead structures. These differences allow the shortlines to haul the traffic to the larger railroads and still serve the customers as they have been accustomed to.

The largest expenses for shortlines are labor, fuel, and car hire. Car Hire is something that only about 1% of all railroad personnel have heard of. Of that number, only about 0.5% have a vague notion and have heard the term. The remaining 0.5% are the people that work with it every day, work with the rules, and understand the nuances of what is going on.  Unfortunately these numbers mean that the vast majority of those working on and in a railroad have no idea of the impact they are having in the area of Car Hire.

What is Car Hire? Car Hire simply put is the amount of money that railroads pay the car owner to have the car on their railroad. It is just like if you go to rent a car from Hertz or Avis. You pay them by the day and by the mile to use their car.  The railroads do the same thing, they just have bigger cars. 

The railroads have vast databases of information that is all sent to a central repository in order to track all of the cars.  This database, Train II becomes the official record for when cars are moved and interchanged between other roads. This also is the information that feeds into the Liability Continuity System which makes sure that the entire month is accounted for. Those rules are a lot more complicated and won’t be gotten into here.

All of this means that as long as you have the car, you are paying for it. If you get a car and it sits in your rail yard for 3 days, you have just paid for 3 days of car hire. You wouldn’t rent a car from Hertz to have it sit in the garage while you go on vacation, would you? You need to think of your car hire and cars on-line the same way.

You say you have free time? Yes, most shortlines have agreements for a certain amount of free time from their Class I connection to handle the cars.  The amount of time depends on your agreement. This can be anything from no time at all to several days or even a week or more.  This doesn’t mean that you can sit on the car for that entire time. All it means is that the Class 1 believes that you can operate efficiently and get the car to and from the customer in that time.  Reality is that most shortlines don’t do this and end up with a lot of extra expenses.

What other free time do I have? The car hire rules have the capability for reclaims. A reclaim is the ability to take money back from another railroad or the car owner under certain rules.  These are often abused and the shortline thinks they are getting a great deal by only paying for 1 day instead of 3. However they often don’t follow the rules and sometimes don’t even get permission from the other railroad.  This results in their being charged back for those 2 days and they have to pay it anyway.

So you get the car, it goes to the customer, the customer loads or unloads the car, you get it back from them and it goes back to the connecting road. Pretty simple, right?  Yes but we all know that life isn’t always that easy. What can happen?

1. The car sits in your yard for days until taken to the customer
2. The car is interchanged to your railroad and shouldn’t have come in the first place. It sits for days or weeks or more until you figure it out and send it back.
3. The car goes to the customer who sits on it for days or weeks.  Unfortunately you don’t have any kind of demurrage set up in your tariff and can’t charge the customer for that time.
4. The car comes back from the customer and sits in the yard waiting to get interchanged.
5. The car is bad ordered for some reason and is sitting on a siding somewhere.

In all of these situations you are still paying for that car.

So, what can you do about it?

1. Start communicating! Take inventory of what you have on your property and figure out if it should really be there. If it shouldn’t be there, get rid of it.
2. Get a demurrage tariff established for all of your customers. And stick to it! Enforce it. They won’t like it.  But if they know that they will have to pay to sit on cars, they will improve their operations.
3. Don’t just let a damaged car sit. Contact the car owner immediately and get something going on it. You are still paying for it as long as it sits. Who knows, you may just get some relief if you ask the right people.
4. If you got a car that doesn’t belong to you, get rid of it right away.

The important thing to keep in mind is to get the cars off your property as soon as possible. Communication between your accounting, marketing, and operating people will greatly improve the bottom line.

If you don’t have the people to do the analysis and reveiw of the cars or the time they are sitting at different places or you don’t know the Car Hire rules, hire someone to look into them and do this for you. This doesn’t have to be a full time person on your payroll, it can be contracted out to any number of resources and companies.  By contracting out this service you will not only save on the headcount, you won’t be paying for any benefits or often office space either.  Most of this can be done off-site and via computers through the internet.  The expense you pay for this will be far exceeded by the money you save in operational efficiencies, cost savings and demurrage revenue.

If filling up your gas tank one more time will drive you insane – take heart. With summer upon us, gas prices are hurting everyone, yet that does not mean you have to forgo your vacation this year. As gas prices climb, vacationers are finding new and relaxing ways to get around the country, such as the train!

Rail passenger service across the United States is an efficient and stress free way to travel. No worrying about the dreaded road construction barrels, missed highway exits, or overheated radiators. Simply hop aboard a passenger train and relax. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? In fact, it’s easier than you think.

There are three types of passenger rail travel in the United States. The first and primary mode of train travel is via Amtrak. Amtrak tickets can be booked either through their 1-800-USA-RAIL phone center or online at www.Amtrak.com. From short hops to long distance hauls, from New York to Los Angeles, passenger train travel is an efficient means of traveling from one city to another, often passing through areas untouched by road travelers. Amtrak operates a nationwide rail network, serving more than 500 destinations in 46 states on 21,000 miles of routes. Serving more than 25.4 million train passengers a year, Amtrak offers the most options for individual travelers and families alike.

The second mode of train travel in the United States is via tourist railroads. Tourist railroads are privately owned rail companies that provide daily services to day trippers. These railroads often lease track from freight railroad companies to run excursions and daily trips. One of the most famous tourist railroads is the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad located in Durango, Colorado. Having been in continuous operation for 125 years, the Durango & Silverton carries passengers behind vintage steam locomotives and rolling stock original to the line. The Silverton excursion is their classic roundtrip run from Durango to Silverton along the scenic and remote Animas River, which is only Accessible by the train and by air. Packages including hotel stays are also available at an additional cost. Other large tourist railroads include the Strasburg Rail Road in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania – home of the Pennsylvania Dutch - and the Napa Valley Wine Train in Napa, California.

The last mode of passenger train travel in the United States is luxury private trains. Formerly known as the American Orient Express, GrandLuxe Rail Journeys is the largest of these private train companies and embodies elegance at its best. Offering a fleet of restored rail cars from the 1940’s and 1950’s and attended by formally attired staff, GrandLuxe trains include sixteen American Orient Express vintage carriages, assembled from museums and private collections throughout America. No more than 100 passengers are aboard at any given time, ensuring personalized service. GrandLuxe offers 7 to 9 night itineraries through the Western United States, National Parks, Mexico, and Canada. In addition to the breathtaking views on these journeys, dining and sleeping arrangements are first class and offer the top notch service of a by-gone era.

As with any passenger rail service, the enjoyment comes not just with the destination but also the journey along the way. Passengers have the opportunity to stand up, move about the cars, and get to know other people from around the country. Passengers will children will find riding the train to be easier and more relaxing as children can also move around the cars and use the bathroom when the need arises. In addition, seats on passenger trains are often roomier than airline seats.

So what are you waiting for? Book your trip today and rediscover what a relaxing vacation can be like.

Modelers of HO trains model after specific railroad periods of the United States and Canada. From almost the onset of American railroads the 40 foot boxcar has been in existence. It began to disappear from the railroads in the 1960s.

Refrigeration was changing from the old ice method to the modern thermal air-condition cars that were self cooling. Also, the 40 footer was beginning to be too small. The larger 50 & 60 footers were taking over and they even experimented with 86 foot boxcars. The big railroads wanted to haul more goods and reduce the tonnage they had to haul. It took 125 40 foot boxcars to equal 100 50 foot boxcars. The reduction would be 25 less 40 foot boxcars times their empty gross wait.

This was certainly an advantage for the railroads let alone the maintenance of the smaller boxcar. With this in mind the majority of the model railroaders I know still prefer the 40 foot boxcar. They like the era from the late 1920s though the early 1960s. They are also very colorful and interesting. Many of these nostalgic colorfully designed boxcars are gone unless they might be in a railroad museum. There were so many different designs and logos to see.

The hobbyist still has the opportunity to find many of these colorful boxcars that are manufactured by several model railroad producers of freight cars. Some examples are Kadee, Intermountain, Athearn/Athearn Genesis, Accurail, Bachmann, Walthers, Red Caboose, Bowser, Roundhouse (Roundhouse is now makes only the pre twentieth century cars), Branchline, Life-Like, etc. There are several more that sell kit form freight cars as do some of the aforementioned companies. You can even get wood kits but they are not common.

Now for the types of 40 foot boxcars there are more than you may possibly think. The types of construction and usage varied. It all depended where the railroad was mainly located and types of products, food and perishables that were being shipped. From perishables, staples (wheat, Corn, Barley, Soy, etc.), equipment that needed to be enclosed, parts, manufacturing equipment that was relative small and the manufacturer did not want the tools and or equipment dinged by flying debris, ice, snow and heavy rain, and typical Midwestern hail storms.

Typically soft goods like flour, sugar, fruit, dairy products, and processed meats were hauled in 40 foot reefers. These boxcars are smaller in size than the standard 40 footer. The majority of these reefers were wood as were most of the other types of 40 foot boxcars. This changed however, as time went on to metal reefers.

There are multiple types of 40 foot steel boxcars. There are the following types:
40’ Superior Door Boxcar; 40’ Double Door Boxcar; 40’ Ribbed Boxcar; 40’ Modern Boxcar; 40’ Express Boxcar; 1937 AAR 40’ Boxcar; 40’ 12 Panel Boxcar; 40’ AAR Modified Boxcar; 40’ PS-1 Boxcar; 40’ Boxcar w/Youngstown Doors; 40’ Double-Door Boxcar; 40’ High-Cube Boxcar; 40’ Ribbed Boxcar; 40’ Steel Boxcar w/6 Panel Doors; 40’ Steel & Wood Ice Bunker Reefers; 40’ Steel & Wood Boxcar. This includes several types of 40’ stock cars.

In all they all had a specific purpose for the railroad as well as the user. Many of the reefers were labeled with the name of the product and producer of the goods being carried. There was Rath Black Hawk Meats, Swift, Carnation Dairy Products, Needham Meats, and major carriers such as Pacific Fruit Express. The Pacific Fruit Express Company (PFE) owned the largest number of reefer cars of any of the different reefer users. Union Pacific owned the second largest number of PFE reefers and pulled more reefers than any other railroad during that period of the 40’ Boxcar/Reefer era.

As time has gone on the boxcar has almost disappeared from the railroads. However, the need for boxcars has now become critical. The Piggy Back and Double Stack Containers is not necessarily the means needed for some goods. The boxcar may indeed have a come back on the railroads of today.

At one time the United States had some of the most luxuriant streamliners in the World. At the end of World War II the streamliner was the means to travel about the United States and Canada.

Something happened that killed rail passenger transportation for good as far as the independent railroads was concerned. By the early seventies, railroad passenger service was gone. Several things happened that killed the independent passenger service.

The airlines became the major transporter of people. The railroads lost the mail service contracts to the airlines and the United States Government interfered with passenger service to such an extent that government medaling almost single handily destroyed passenger service in the United States.

Railroads’ losing of the RPO (Railroad Post Office) was a big blow since it subsidized the passenger service. Passenger service is generally not a good money making proposition. In Europe all ground transportation is subsidized. For the United States, the RPO system was that subsidy.

The real killer was the U.S. Government medaling in railroad passenger service. Congressman would force the railroads to stop at some outpost to pick up grandma way off the beaten track. This occurred all over the country. This was killing railroad profit margins and finally broke the Camels back. The railroads could no longer serve the passenger and stay in business.

The railroads informed the government they would no longer operate passenger service in the United States beginning in the fall of 1970. As a side note, my father and brother took the last Union Pacific streamline from Pocatello, Idaho to Seattle in August 1970.

This was a tragedy for this country and her ability to move people around. What we got for it is Amtrak. With Amtrak we got limited service, poor food and scheduling that’s never on time. The Amtrak routes are very specific and do not serve the public very well. The line is heavily subsidized by the government yet is always in the red. Passenger cars have improved immensely over time but the issue of getting to where you want to go is very limited. However, if I want to travel to Salt Lake City from Seattle I can’t. They dropped that line because they could make money. That may be true however, the effectiveness of Amtrak was abysmal. The early trains were terrible because they were using the old cars from the railroads that had not been maintained. It took years for them to have a real dinning car and food preparation system.

I’ve ridden Amtrak and it was okay but could not compare to the City of Portland Union Pacific Streamliner. It isn’t that the employees are not trying, they are in every way possible. The problem is the government is running the passenger service. This has been a continuous dilemma from the beginning of nationalization of foreign railroads to the creation of Amtrak in the United States..

In England the passenger service was outstanding as far as travel was concerned. The food on the Inter City lines was excellent as was the sleeping accommodations. Now, the railroads in England are going private because the government can’t afford to operate them anymore.

On the mainland of Europe trains are all subsidized and are extremely efficient. There is the Chunnel Express between Britain and Europe. This high speed train travels over much of France and is one way so no head on wrecks can occur. This is the way the Chunnel Tunnel operates.

When in the Army I rode over a great deal of Western Europe by train. It is very rare that a train is late. You better be on the right platform or you will not make the train.

Amtrak has an abysmal record for being late. You cannot depend on the train being where it is scheduled to be. Thus your plans revolve around a juggernaut of tardiness. The sad part of this whole fiasco is the United States has the worst transportation system in the World. We are the richest country on Earth yet we can’t get any where. It is so bad that even the shipment of goods is in big trouble because of poor management and government interference. United States leadership from a state by state point of view is generally anti-business and is ignoring both human and freight transportation. We are heading for a crises that may bring the country to its knees because no one is paying any attention to our transportation needs. We have more cargo coming in and going out of U.S. ports than ever before yet we cannot handle it. It can be but no one seems to care until it is too late.

The airlines can’t cut the mustered. You get to an airport then what does one do?? Transportation by road is horrible and very lengthy. Many times it takes longer to get to the airport or to one’s home than the flight time. There have been these grandiose propositions by local and state leaders to build light rail to the various suburban townships. It never happens and we just keep digging a bigger hole.

On the other hand Chicago probably has the very best rail transportation system available for interurban rail service in comparison to other rail passenger service in the United States. Chicago bought up the entire railroad right-a-ways entering the city and allows the railroads to bring in and out freight according to Chicago’s Metra rules. The Metra system is incredible and very effective and efficient.

Why is it in this country nothing gets done unless there is a major crisis like 9/11?

The U.S. railroads have been loosing ground since World War II. Some changes were needed where others were not.

I love trains as a hobby and the real railroad. Even as hobbyist we care about the heart of our transportation system - the U. S. railroads.

In this particular discussion, I would like to provide you with a condition that affects the economic stability of the Pacific Northwest and perhaps the Nation.

Railroads have been a significant part of the Seattle/Tacoma metropolitan region for over a century. So has the ability of the ships of the sea bringing us goods to be shipped by the railroads across our vast land. However, a man made disaster has begun because of bad management and the lack of foresight.

The Seattle/Tacoma combined ports are designated as the ninth largest in the World and the third largest in the United States. This is a feather in the cap of those who have helped build such an industry. There is a catch to this progress. The railroads can’t get the goods out of Seattle/Tacoma. It is going to get worse because the Seattle Port Authority has bought three super cranes that have the capability to reach out over a ship that is 100 meters wide. These ships are in design in Korea. They can hold an immense load of containers that range in the thousands.

To give you an idea of how fast a container can be loaded onto the ship and the same time off the ship is about a minute and a half each direction. Very skilled Long Shore men do this 24/7. The cost of a ship in port can range from $1,500.00 and up per hour. So the loading and unloading has to be fast but so does the ability of the railroads to handle these containers. In our present day situation, railroads management cannot mange the requirement to meet the shipping goals. This is without the super ships.

To give an example of how bad the situation is was the loss of the Nissan contract to this West Coast port for all of their cars and trucks. They moved to Long Beach, California. This was costly for Seattle and for Nissan. The city lost major revenue and Nissan lost a day at sea travel. It is closer to Seattle from Asia by one day than to the ports to the South. It cost approximately $43,000 a day at sea.

With this in mind, we shall look at the four railroads that once existed in this region. Prior to some of the major mergers in the railroad industry the railroads in this area consisted of the Great Northern, Northern Pacific, Union Pacific and the Milwaukee Road.

With the advent of specialized flat cars, railroads could now carry two containers one on top of the other with a maximum of four containers per car. Unfortunately only two of these railroads could carry the double stacks as they are called. With the merger of the Great Northern/Northern Pacific and CB&Q into the Burlington Northern Railroad which eventual included the Santa Fe to become the Burlington Northern Santa Fe plus the demise of the Milwaukee Road left us with only two rail passes across the Cascade Mountain Range. The Union Pacific route is south to Portland and east through the Columbia River Gorge.

Two get the double stacks through the mountains you have to have tunnels that can stand the height of the double stack freight cars. At present, only one tunnel can do that. That is through the North Cascade Tunnel of the BNSF through Stevens Pass. Problem, the tunnel is about 7.8 miles long. It originally had electrified engines to pull the freight and passenger trains though the tunnel. Now they use diesel engines which generate poisonous and toxic gases in the tunnel. Because of this, the railroad was required to build huge fans to suck the gasses out before another train could enter the tunnel. This creates a delay of 20 to 30 minutes to accomplish. Basically you loose a half a day of traveling time.

Second the Northern Pacific route through the Cascades was shut down for economic reasons. More recently the line has been reopened because of traffic problems but it has a problem. The Stamped Pass tunnel is to low to handle double stacks. The railroad is thinking about either re-drilling the tunnel or building a new tunnel adjacent to the old one because of other problems with the present tunnel.

Third and worst problem for the railroad situation was allowing the Milwaukee Road to fall into bankruptcy by both bad management and a bunch of arrogant railroads. This railroad is vital to help get the products in and out of the two port areas. It has the lowest ruling grade of the other two tracks of 1%. The other two railroad tracks have a ruling grade in excess of 2%. The Milwaukee Cascade tunnel was designed for electrification and had to have extra clearance in the tunnel to allow for the workman to maintain the system. This would allow for double stacks with plenty of clearance.

The Union Pacific halls double stacks all the time but with one draw back. The track goes some 180 miles to the south before heading east.

This total inadequacy has become a head ache that may shut down a great deal of our commerce and unfortunately no body is doing anything about. They just talk about it. The cost to re-track the Milwaukee Road to Spokane, Washington will be peanuts compared to the cost of getting a poorly managed port(s) and railroad right always fixed when the super cargo ships arrive on the seen.