Port Jervis Line back in service

Some press from the Times Herald-Record today:

Port Jervis Line back in service after suspension
55 trees fell on train tracks; signal system lost electricity

By Judy Rife
Times Herald-Record
Posted: March 02, 2010 - 2:00 AM

Regular service resumed on the Port Jervis Line Monday after a three-day suspension that was unprecedented in Metro-North Railroad's history.

"We were dealing with extraordinary circumstances," said Bob Lieblong, Metro-North's vice president for operations, on Monday as he recounted a recovery effort that began early Friday and continued through late Sunday.

Lieblong said the last time the railroad had significant outages in service was in 1999 with Hurricane Floyd, but even then, they only involved portions of Metro-North's five rail lines — not an entire one. He predicted the bill for cleaning up throughout the system will easily top $1 million.

Rest of article:
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.d ... 21/-1/NEWS

Jesus Christ. 55 trees? Mother nature must not be happy with the earth, especially if she's hurting her own kind. Now as long as it doesn't effect me on March 18/19 I won't worry

Yup, it was nasty up here in the O.C. Thank God we didn't have any of the winds the outside edge of the storm got or we'd still be running the chainsaws!

The great majority of the county lost power on account of the heavy, wet snow the first half of the storm. Not just branches but whole trees were dropping left and right. (Side note - on Monday you couldn't go much more than 100 yards without seeing a tree down along the Thruway between Newburgh and Woodbury -- and that was after an aggressive pruning campaign this fall!)

My power was out a day and a half, which was far less than most. As with the signal system, local cable service was out for me until Sunday night -- account of lack of power to repeaters between me and the Central Office.

Some areas -- like Maybrook --never lost power, though they were few and far between.

As to all the talk about "back in the day the trains always went through", also consider that back in the day you had section gangs out tending not only to their given piece of the tracks and ballast, but they were also were out cutting back the foliage to the edge of the right-of-way. That helped avoid travails such as were encountered this time around!

(Yeah, but that sort of labor does not come cheap these days! Just see what Asplundh or such vendors get per mile to clean up a right-of-way--and make sure there's someone trained in CPR nearby to revive you!)

Nearby, the Catskill Mountain Railroad's annual Volunteer Meeting notice was superceded by a call for members with skis and snowshoes to dig out the Phoenicia Yard, which got even more snow!

http://naphotos.nerail.org/s/?p=163802
http://naphotos.nerail.org/s/?p=163806

55 trees.... I knew there was something to amtrak clearing the wayside aside from lessening slippery rail. Maybe they will clear some more trees, plant some new ones to offset the loss.

- A

TREnecNYP wrote:55 trees.... I knew there was something to amtrak clearing the wayside aside from lessening slippery rail. Maybe they will clear some more trees, plant some new ones to offset the loss.

- A

No. Besides, that's Metro North's problem.

cruiser939 wrote:

TREnecNYP wrote:55 trees.... I knew there was something to amtrak clearing the wayside aside from lessening slippery rail. Maybe they will clear some more trees, plant some new ones to offset the loss.

- A

No. Besides, that's Metro North's problem.

Sorry, i should have been more specific. By "they" i refer to any/all rail operations ROW owners etc in the region. Obviously the trees that fell over will not be an issue, but how many had part of themselves fall, and the rest remains rooted in the ground? What kind of priority is there to clear the waysides of these potential problem trees/limbs? I know the harlem line has its own tree issues, they had some serious problems last year with track obstructions due to the heavy tree growth or forested land the ROW runs through. Back to the topic at hand.... Is there any way funds can be secured for continued tree management, or is it all out the window due to the state fiscal issues?

- A

tree managment only goes so far, you can't cut outside your right of way and tree's are usually much taller than RoW is wide.

Roadgeek Adam wrote:Jesus Christ. 55 trees? Mother nature must not be happy with the earth, especially if she's hurting her own kind. Now as long as it doesn't effect me on March 18/19 I won't worry

The Earth is not a sentient being. "She" merely follows the laws of science.