Saw this. With the strides they've made, who knows what they'll acquire next

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/ ... 10,5952644

https://theashlandchronicle.com/oregons ... d-history/

https://www.trains.com/trn/news-reviews ... hort-line/

I wish them well. They have a lot of work to do to get the "Excepted" track upgraded. FRA rules prohibit operating live passenger trains over Excepted track. Really, the whole thing needs to be brought up to Class II standards for any kind of public operation.

Congratulations to all the organizations in and around the ORHC.
Good luck for the future...

quote
"Really, the whole thing needs to be brought up to Class II standards for any kind of
public operation"
Maybe you share your thoughts why "2" = 30mph passenger train on a 3+ mile
long track? Equals a 6 minute ride...
"1" = 15mph not fast enough for you? And quattruple the cost. I am sure the ORHF
is grateful for your donations.

:-)

Depending on the heaviness of the equipment, I hope some serious consideration will be given to doing better than Class 1 Safety Standards for tie condition:

Starting ~ page 130 in this PDF

https://railroads.dot.gov/sites/fra.dot ... 281%29.pdf

Scattered marginally good ties surrounded by brown colored moss will not do a good job at keeping proper gauge for very long. Then what?

Brian Helfrich

You really want to operate the Daylight and SP&S 700 on Class I track? Just because it would nominally be good for 30 mph doesn't mean they have to, I was thinking more like 25 mph so passengers think they are actually going somewhere.

FRA track classes are safety limits, not a maintenance standard. If you maintain your track so it just barely meets Class 1, you are in danger of being just one broken bolt or one defective crosstie away from dropping down into Excepted Track status, at which point your passenger operations are shut down until you fix the problem. Alternatively, if your track meets Class 2, you have a substantial cushion against falling into Excepted Track status.

If achieving Class 2 is deemed too pricy, you need to be both very particular about tie conditions and other 49 CFR 213 parameters and extremely diligent about track inspection and maintenance. Not to mention also being prepared to be shut down by the FRA inspector at a inconvenient time - such as the day before your Santa Express trains are scheduled to run.

Preventative maintenance is less costly than cleaning up a derailment and performing corrective maintenance under emergency conditions. Since not many museums have more than two or three volunteers who actually like working on track, whenever money is available for track rehabilitation, it behooves you to rehabilitate to a higher standard than you need for the intended operation.

/s/ Larry
Lawrence G. Lovejoy, P.E.

This would have been a good place to run an ex-SP&S Alco FA, had they not sold it for scrap, along with a number of stored passenger cars, without offering any of it to other organizations first, or even informing any other organizations.

I live around six miles from the locations in question, including the place where the FA was scrapped.

Are you aware of the abandoned UP crane in that same general area?

Yes: viewtopic.php?p=302664#p302664

Even though it won't be a done deal for a while and it will be a LOT of work and money to fully realize, this is very exciting. Especially If the OPR shop is included. I'd heard for years that they really need a satellite workshop location. I don't know how spacious the shop is, but looking at google earth, if you really wanted to, you could probably add on to the building enough that you could squeeze a coach inside and at least have it be secure and out of the rain while worked on. Is there a full list of what locomotives, rolling stock, and MOW equipment are included in this?

My many years of railroad preservation in an organization that currently lacks operations has made me a leading expert on this subject. What I have found through training and experience is that it is infinitely more difficult to upgrade track to class 1 or 2 or 8 standards, when there is no track nor land to put it on.

If someday we can actually scam our way into a 100 foot wire strip of land a few miles long through a populated area without incurring an angry mob with torches and pitchforks, I'd be happy if it was excepted track or one corkscrewed rail or 10 miles of landfill trash, because the hardest part of the job would be over.

Congratulations to ORHF on swinging this and I hope this provides a lifetime of opportunities for excursions, outreach, and maybe even some profit to roll back into the mission!

Exactly! They're absolute minimum requirements, not suggested standards to build/maintain to. Basically they're so minimal that it's easy for everyone to agree that if you can't even meet this standard, you shouldn't be running on it.

Here's an example: Class 1 Track: Each 39 foot segment of: Class 1 track shall have five
crossties (that will provide support and hold gauge). That's one good tie every 8 feet, give or take a a couple of inches. Do you really want to run SP&S 700 hauling passengers over track with one good tie every 8 feet? As Larry mentions, maintain to at least Class 2 standards, even if you only officially designate it to Class 1 and you have a good margin of error.

Umm…. Have you seen photos of TVRM and Strasburg when they acquired their right of way?

This is great news and pretty much a dream outcome for the ORHF.

I love how this is one of the first thoughts. How quickly people forget that they have switcher diesels operating at various times during the year, plus a Shay (which are well known for nimbly going down some of the worst track conditions) and a 4-6-2 which is doing well in its own restoration process. There are smaller locomotives to run on this line, and the bigger locomotives can still be used out on the mainline...

When's the last time either one made public excursions? Mainline trips are few and far between these days. Providing a place for the 700 and 4449 to run on a regular basis is not an unreasonable goal.