Northern Central, Stewartstown, and Deja Vue all over again

scratchyX1 · **Joined:** Tue Jul 14, 2020 12:17 pm **Posts:** 154

PrrOpCrew wrote:

scratchyX1 wrote:

Wait, is this the guy who wanted to either put track back on the mapa in baltimore or at the end of the north central in Cockeysville?

The timing of this makes it like a really bad Halloween horror movie, but yes, its that same guy.

It's like our version of Bob diamond

Ed Kapuscinski · **Posted:** Fri Oct 15, 2021 11:47 am

Eric S Strohmeyer wrote:

... I speak with Mr. Riffin often ...

Have you thought about being a good guy and trying to convince him of the pointlessness of his continued tilting at windmills?

ctjacks · **Posted:** Sat Oct 16, 2021 7:09 pm

Mr. Strohmeyer,

I frequently see your name connected to Mr. Riffin.

What is your role in these cases? And if Mr. Riffin does prevail on one of his STB cases, how would you be involved?

Thanks

Chris J.

o anderson · **Posted:** Sun Oct 17, 2021 12:40 pm

ctjacks: You may want to read the article in the third link by Randy Gustafson that included this quote:

Quote:

Riffin’s enemies have said many negative things about his railroading aspirations, but he has at least one friend: Eric Strohmeyer, vice president and chief operating officer of CNJ Rail Corp. of New Jersey. Strohmeyer calls Riffin “a very nice guy, and an extremely smart guy. He’s arguing the case extremely well. It’s an amazing transformation from having an interest in railroads to being a full-fledged railroader.”

“Our interest,” Strohmeyer continues, “is we have rail properties up in New Jersey, and we control some New Jersey track, and we got involved with James Riffin when Norfolk Southern had tried to abandon the Baltimore light-rail line to Cockeysville. Our firm would be an independent, third party to operate the line, should it be returned to freight service under Riffin.

Meghan · **Posted:** Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:47 pm

Ed Kapuscinski wrote:

Eric S Strohmeyer wrote:

... I speak with Mr. Riffin often ...

Have you thought about being a good guy and trying to convince him of the pointlessness of his continued tilting at windmills?

That might be an interesting conversation. I'm certain Eric has thought about it, but, even though I really do enjoy the discussions with him here, he was on our radar because of some New Jersey shenanigans where he used the "I filed a Notice of Exemption therefore I own the real estate" theory almost 5 years before Mr Riffin first appeared. The rail properties he is claiming in the 2007 article cited by Randy appear to be the Somerset Terminal and some pieces of New Jersey Transit yard trackage which he had filed exemptions for but seems to have never actually acquired any title to.

If you check the STB's website you will see Eric's CNJ Rail show up in 523 filings and Eric personally in 594 because of the number of cases he has entered an appearance in. Mr. Riffin is only slightly in the lead with 897. Eric just may not be the person to give that advice.

I hadn't even started law school when this began...

Trainlawyer · **Posted:** Mon Nov 08, 2021 2:28 pm

To quote Capitaine Renault, I'm shocked, Shocked..."
Rather than precis the decision I am going to simply post the entire text. It is probably shorter than my precis would be.

Quote:

51011 SERVICE DATE – NOVEMBER 5, 2021
DO

SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD
DECISION

Docket No. FD 36548

JAMES RIFFIN—ACQUISITION AND OPERATION EXEMPTION—IN YORK COUNTY, PA.

Decided: November 5, 2021

On October 7, 2021, James Riffin (Riffin) filed a verified notice of exemption under 49 C.F.R. § 1150.31 to acquire and operate approximately 5.53 miles of rail line between milepost 7.53 and milepost 2.0, in Hellam Township, Pa., and approximately 180 feet of rail line between milepost 0.034 and milepost 0.0 in New Freedom, Pa. The bases for Riffin’s acquisitions are two state court actions in which, Riffin alleges, he has been declared, or seeks to be declared, the owner of property on which he claims there are Board-jurisdictional rail lines. Riffin’s notice includes an extensive narrative regarding the history of each line. (See Notice 5-10.) The exemption is scheduled to become effective on November 6, 2021.

To provide sufficient time for full consideration of the issues presented, the effective date of the exemption will be postponed until further order of the Board.

It is ordered:
1. The effective date of the exemption is postponed until further order of the Board.
2. This decision is effective on its date of service.

By the Board, Scott M. Zimmerman, Acting Director, Office of Proceedings.

GME

Ed Kapuscinski · **Posted:** Mon Nov 08, 2021 5:29 pm

Trainlawyer wrote:

To quote Capitaine Renault, I'm shocked, Shocked..."
Rather than precis the decision I am going to simply post the entire text. It is probably shorter than my precis would be.

Quote:

51011 SERVICE DATE – NOVEMBER 5, 2021
DO

SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD
DECISION

Docket No. FD 36548

JAMES RIFFIN—ACQUISITION AND OPERATION EXEMPTION—IN YORK COUNTY, PA.

Decided: November 5, 2021

On October 7, 2021, James Riffin (Riffin) filed a verified notice of exemption under 49 C.F.R. § 1150.31 to acquire and operate approximately 5.53 miles of rail line between milepost 7.53 and milepost 2.0, in Hellam Township, Pa., and approximately 180 feet of rail line between milepost 0.034 and milepost 0.0 in New Freedom, Pa. The bases for Riffin’s acquisitions are two state court actions in which, Riffin alleges, he has been declared, or seeks to be declared, the owner of property on which he claims there are Board-jurisdictional rail lines. Riffin’s notice includes an extensive narrative regarding the history of each line. (See Notice 5-10.) The exemption is scheduled to become effective on November 6, 2021.

To provide sufficient time for full consideration of the issues presented, the effective date of the exemption will be postponed until further order of the Board.

It is ordered:
1. The effective date of the exemption is postponed until further order of the Board.
2. This decision is effective on its date of service.

By the Board, Scott M. Zimmerman, Acting Director, Office of Proceedings.

GME

Is this the STB telling him to get stuffed?

jayrod · **Posted:** Mon Nov 08, 2021 5:33 pm

Nah. Looks like they’re postponing the stuffing date until they can read the whole submitted narrative and ponder it a while.

Ed Kapuscinski · **Posted:** Mon Nov 08, 2021 5:44 pm

jayrod wrote:

Nah. Looks like they’re postponing the stuffing date until they can read the whole submitted narrative and ponder it a while.

What a colossal waste of time and money.

Alexander D. Mitchell IV · **Posted:** Mon Nov 08, 2021 7:05 pm

Your government at work.

Unfortunately, it matters not one iota what WE think of the proposal. "The government" is obligated to take this proposal just as seriously as, say, the current efforts to take over the KCS or the efforts to re-establish Amtrak service on the Gulf Coast.

It is the extremely lucky branch of any government that doesn't have at least one "nutcase" badgering them frequently--daily, in a few cases--over some perceived grievance, offence, miscarriage of law, or injustice.

Trainlawyer · **Posted:** Tue Nov 09, 2021 12:03 am

Many many years ago when the discussion was about the PRR not properly abandoning Ma & Pa trackage which could sort of be accessed with a multi-gage tractor from the Baltimore Streetcar Museum, I calculated what the responses were costing the affected parties. The amount seemed to be approaching the gross national product of a small country.

What is remarkable is that there have been no replies, comments, motions, environmental comments, or even Section 5 summaries whatsoever posted. Hence there is no controversy which would normally mean that the notice would be published and we would be done with it. That has not happened.

None of the current commissioners have much, if any, experience with Mr. Riffin (or what ever his name really is), however senior staff are rumored to keep Voodoo dolls and hangable effigies of him just in case.

My suspicion is that one of those senior staff members sat down with one of the commissioners and gave him or her a short history lesson and the docket clerk was told to put a review on the calendar. I hope that the date has been set as 'six lifetimes from next Sunday.'

One case per lifetime which involves teleporting rail cars from segment to segment is enough

GME

Eric S Strohmeyer · **Posted:** Tue Nov 09, 2021 4:05 am

Trainlawyer wrote:

What is remarkable is that there have been no replies, comments, motions, environmental comments, or even Section 5 summaries whatsoever posted. Hence there is no controversy which would normally mean that the notice would be published and we would be done with it. That has not happened.

It is the lack of any protest, plus the fact the Director's decision fails to articulate any controversy or other rationale to support the decision to postpone the effective date of the Exemption, that will be the focus of judicial review before the Court of Appeals.

In speaking with Mr. Riffin over the weekend, the next step he will take is an Appeal of the Director's decision to the full Board. His appeal will be very limited in terms of relief that will be sought. He intends to limit the argument strictly to the lack of explanation for delaying the Exemption.

He will give the Board 30 days to fix the issue. If there is still no opposition to the Exemption, and neither the Director, nor the full Board timely articulate their specific objection in writing, he will file a Petition for Review with the Court of Appeals.

Looks to me like the Board doesn't want to grant the Exemption, but they don't know how to stop it in the absence of any objection to the Notice, and State Court's Consent Order which resolved any potential property controversies in Riffin's favor.

We shall see what happens. This is going to get interesting for sure.

Ed Kapuscinski · **Posted:** Tue Nov 09, 2021 10:26 am

Eric S Strohmeyer wrote:

We shall see what happens. This is going to get interesting for sure.

No. It's not "interesting". It's a colossal waste of taxpayer money and time indulging a crank's delusions.

I am dismayed that my tax dollars are going to humoring this stupidity that not only wastes regulators time but also causes headaches, I'm sure, for actual bona fide operators.

I'm sure this entire charade is causing minor annoyances with both the actual operating Stewartstown and Northern Central/Steam Into History folks. What a waste it'd be if either of their operations or progress was negatively affected by someone who thinks they're going the next Cornelius Vanderbilt because they've found some loophole somewhere.

Randy Gustafson · **Posted:** Tue Nov 09, 2021 11:50 am

If you do a flyover of the line toward Wrightsville, there are portions there where the ROW has reverted to plowed and seeded farmland.

Look for 325-328 Ducktown Rd. It's a farm field. And the bridge over Kreutz Creek is washed out. Two areas of ROW are now public and named roads. It's really hard to identify where the track even was, and there may even be a house on it.

I can't believe that nobody has jumped on this as a complaint as obviously there's either no local publicity or the landowners are darn sure they own title if for no other reason than adverse possession, and short of another charter, aren't moving.

The STB just threw out an abandonment in West Virginia as the railroad included a significant portion that had already been abandoned, had converted to private property, and had public roads now on the ROW. It was for trail conversion, but the mileposts included fully reverted ROW well prior to the trails act. I think it was an error of inclusion, but it sure dusted up a lot of reaction from the locals.

jayrod · **Posted:** Tue Nov 09, 2021 3:38 pm

This could get real interesting if York portion gets through the STB. According to the York County Property Viewer, between Pleasant Run Rd and Bairs Mill Rd the easement no longer exists. That’s 15 property owners that have been paying taxes on the land where the easement use to be. So either the easement reverted or there’s gonna be some messy title searches and/or a pant load of law suits. Is it possible that the owners don’t know what is going on?

Interestingly, while cruising around on the viewer, the portion of active rail between Edgewood Rd and E. Market is apparently owned by the adjacent landowners as is the portion west of Memory Ln almost to North Hills Rd.

We may have to make a run on the grocery stores for popcorn….

Northern Central, Stewartstown, and Deja Vue all over again

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