FGLK to store cars north of Penn Yan

Flat-Wheeler wrote:At any rate, here's an aerial view showing a long cut of old "Twin 45" TOFC's already being stored on this line.
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v ... &encType=1

TOFC = Totally Overgrown Flat Car?

Hey Folks.This is all about staying afloat, The railroads are losing there ass in these times and they are trying anything they can dreamup to raise revenue to stay in business.Ask anyone way more knowledgemore then myself to get the facts.
Tom

The town won't win.

Heck - maybe bringing the line back to a condition where it's usable may spur some industrial development at the end of the line.

"More rail cars on way to Benton," Finger Lakes Times, July 15, 2009:

http://www.fltimes.com/articles/2009/07 ... 329424.txt

BENTON — About 50 cars have already been moved onto railroad tracks in the town, and more are coming.

Despite the town’s discontent with the move and its cease and desist order to stop it, Finger Lakes Railway plans to keep moving in the third-party cars, which are stored on tracks the railway leases to companies that need somewhere to put extra cars.

Mike Smith, railway president, said it plans to move in about 200 70-foot-long centerbeam cars, which once hauled lumber but aren’t in use because of the slump in home construction.

oh poor baby the big bad railroad cars in the way of the residents don't fit in with the hay fields in the valley.

The RR cars fit in fine with the hayfeilds, as the hayfeilds don't argue. Its just that they don't fit in fine with the people who think railroads and railroad tracks have only been put there to annoy them, with no other idea in mind. These people figure that if there's no action on a line like this, it automatically becomes theirs and they can tell anyone when and where to go. Hey, its on MY land!!! Its kinda like trucks on the road, 85% of the take-for-granted type just think these trucks are there to get in their way and thats all. Not enough room for anything else in their world. These people better thank the railroads, truckers and farmers, without them... NOTHING happens.

anyone see in Mondays Finger Lakes Times on 7/20/09 that Schumer is ordering Finger lakes Railroad to Remove all of the Railroad Cars stored in Benton?

http://www.fltimes.com/articles/2009/07 ... 736391.txt

BENTON — U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has called on the federal Surface Transportation Board to get Finger Lakes Railway’s cars off the tracks in Benton.

The railway recently moved 50 third-party center beam lumber cars onto track space being leased by other companies that aren’t currently using the cars. The railway plans to move about 200 into the town.

The town has issued a cease and desist order to the railway and asked it to file for a use variance, but an attorney for the railway has stated the company doesn’t have to follow local codes because the Surface Transportation Board has jurisdiction over the tracks.

Again, they're all up in the railway's face like they own it.

Schumer pulled the same stunt when CSX stored some surplus box cars at the end of the Charlotte Runner in the Town of Greece after some neighbors called his office and complained. Strangely enough - the cars were gone shortly thereafter - not sure if it was because there was capacity at Frontier, or CSX was just being "neighborly" and didn't want to get into a PR battle with him.

Either way, as far as I know there's no federal law banning rail car storage at the end of unused trackage.

Of course FGLK can just go ahead with abandoning the line, salvage the rail, have the property re-assessed and pay the town even less $$$ in property taxes.

http://schumer.senate.gov/new_website/r ... ?id=315976&

Official press release posted on Schumer's website. That title makes me ROFL every time I read it!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 17, 2009

SCHUMER TO DOT: HELP GET THE TRAIN MOVING; IDLED LUMBAR CARS IN BENTON ARE AN EYESORE AND THREATEN PUBLIC SAFETY

What the heck is a freakin lumbar car?? And why is it idled?? And to prove it isn't a typo:

Unhitched, Idle Lumbar Cars Are Parked in Benton Despite Community Protests with No Indication of When They will Be Moved

Good ole Chuck, anything he can get in the press about.

nessman wrote:Of course FGLK can just go ahead with abandoning the line, salvage the rail, have the property re-assessed and pay the town even less $$$ in property taxes.

um the county's own the tracks... I thought that FGLK was just the operator meaning that they pay no taxs on them.

Scarnhorst... I'm not so sure about that. The trackage was conveyed from Conrail to FGLK. Looking at the abandonment decision from June 2007 for the trackage north of Penn Yan - no where does it state that the trackage is owned by Yates County. So I don't think a designated operator or tenant can just go in and start tearing out tracks they do not own (someone please correct me if I'm wrong and quote chapter and verse).

I think the only publicly owned trackage on the FGLK system is the ONCT which is owned by Ontario County.

roadster wrote:Good ole Chuck, anything he can get in the press about.

That's why he wants the cars moved, they might get in the way of him getting to a microphone or camera.

Someone aught to point out that if the railroad makes more in income, they're subject to pay more in taxes, too.

I've always been a railfan... but am probably naive regarding what happens behind the scenes concerning railroad activities such as this. Is it normal for juristictions to put up such a fuss?

Regardless of what's normal for railroads, it is perfectly normal behaviour on the part of the Town of Benton; it's the way they treat (at least) most of the farmers and businessmen who are not "on the inns" with the town.

It is also representative of the disparity of interests between the town and many of the residents: all the residents I know (and all the ones they talked to so far) are very glad to see activity on that section of track again! The only disappointment they mentioned about the activity is that all the cars look the same, and the behaviour of the town!