Posted on 06/15/2009 9:40:36 PM PDT by dennisw
Part of a short-line railroad in Oregon's ruggedly beautiful Wallowa County has become a 30-mile-long parking lot for about 700 idled railcars, some blighted with graffiti.
Many residents aren't happy.
David Stein, for one, said mustard-yellow centerbeam lumber cars along tracks owned by the Wallowa Union Railroad have spoiled his view of mountains, meadows and pine forests from his home outside Enterprise.
"What can you see?" Stein, 54, asked in disgust. "Trains!"
The situation is a snapshot of a national picture. The economic slump has idled about 70,000 Union Pacific railcars, now sidetracked wherever space can be found, said Zoe Richmond, a Union Pacific spokeswoman in Roseville, Calif. The railroad has also furloughed 5,000 of its 48,000 workers. Other railroads are in the same predicament, she said.
Back to back, Union Pacific's idled railcars would reach from Seattle to Albuquerque, N.M.
"We don't have 2,000 miles of track anywhere in our system to put them," Richmond said. "Unfortunately, the stored cars are really just a big visual reminder of our current economic situation."
In April, Union Pacific struck a three-year deal with Union and Wallowa counties -- owners of the Wallowa Union Railroad -- to store as many as 1,800 railcars on unused tracks along the foothills fronting the granite teeth of the Eagle Cap Wilderness.
In return, the counties will receive $59,000 a month to pay down debt they racked up to buy the rail line in 2002 -- a sore point with residents who opposed the purchase in the first place.
The 63-mile Elgin-to-Joseph railroad was built in 1906 and once served sawmills near Wallowa and in Joseph. Largely idle since 1996, it was last owned by Idaho Northern and Pacific Railroad and parent company Rio Grande Pacific Corp. of Fort Worth, Texas.
The line almost disappeared in 2002, when Idaho Northern signed a contract with a Montana salvage company to tear up 45 miles of ties and rail. Wallowa County officials stepped in and denied the company a salvage permit.
Soon after, Wallowa and Union counties bought the railroad for $6.5million, hoping to generate revenue by hauling logs, freight and tourists.
But it hasn't worked out that way. Timber sales on the Wallowa-Whitman and Umatilla national forests never recovered, leaving timber hauling at a standstill.
Seasonal excursion trains for tourists and fishermen, meanwhile, average 85 riders, said Mary Ann Keyser of Wallowa, the railroad's excursion coordinator. "We figure we are breaking even at 75 riders, so we are making a little bit," she said.
As a result, the counties still owe $898,000 -- plus interest that could total $800,000 -- to the Oregon Economic & Community Development Department, said Mike Hayward, a Wallowa County commissioner.
The counties took Union Pacific's offer "so we could pay off the debt," Hayward said. "The other option was to sell the line or part of the line."
The idled Union Pacific railcars are most visible between Lostine and Enterprise on a stretch where the tracks run along Oregon 82, the most common route into sparsely settled Wallowa County for its estimated 1 million annual visitors.
County residents live with the view full time.
Doug Fowler, 55, owner of Our Little Store in Joseph and whose father was a rail-line agent, said a long line of centerbeam railcars "doesn't do a thing for the beauty of the county. I'll be glad when they're gone."
Hundreds of railcars, idled by the poor economy, are parked on unused tracks in northeast Oregon in the shadow of the Eagle Cap Wilderness. Wallowa and Union counties, which own the tracks, struck a deal to store the Union Pacific cars for $59,000 a month.
Hah? Grafitti? I thought it was called "urban art".
For a stalwart Liberal state like Oregon, I find it surprising they consider it "blight".
I wonder who O-regon voted for.
It's an Obamanation I tell you!
You’d be surprised how conservative rural Oregon is. We’re just outnumbered by the population centers of Portland and Eugene.
Retiring debt should be paramount.Why dont the get out there and clean off the urban art from the cars.Do something positive.
Disgusting urban graffiti blighting your view of the Oregon mountains. Kind of funny actually
Be looking for a rash of doctor-assisted suicides.
Conservative rural areas voted for McCain, a poor choice but better than the alternative. Liberals up in Portland voted for Obama.
The good guys are outnumbered here, but almost everyone in the rural areas is conservative.
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