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| APRIL 27, 1998 |
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EASTERN RAILROAD NEWS
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CIR-101 SCHEDULE
The Ringling Brothers
Barnum & Bailey Circus Blue Unit train departed Philadelphia this morning
at 05:30 ET. Conrail CIR-101 with Conrail C40-8W 6153 and SD50 6783
will operate to Worcester, MA and be interchanged to the Providence
& Worcester. CIR-101-27 was last reported
by CP-35, NY at 12:35 ET. The proposed schedule for operations is
as follows:
| Philadelphia-Greenwich |
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| Croxton, NJ |
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| Croxton, NJ |
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| CP-SK, NY |
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| CP-SK, NY |
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| Worcester-P&W, MA |
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OCS TRAIN BUSY WEEK- Both OCS trains are out
and running. OCS-402 departed westbound this morning with Conrail
E8A's 4022 and 4021 with 9 cars. The OCS-403, by Thompsontown at
17:15 ET, has E8A 4020 in charge of two business cars. The two car
train will be utilized to take Norfolk Southern officials on tours of various
facilities.
You can also view the other Office Car Specials on tap for all of next week:
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NEW OPERATOR FOR MT. UNION INDUSTRIAL TRACK
On April 30 at midnight, control of the Mt. Union industrial track will be transferred to the Kovalchik Corporation. Kovalchik Corporation has become the designated operator from MP 0.20 to MP 1.60. Conrail will retain an easement between MP 0.70 and MP 2.00 for the purposes of storing maintenance equipment and seasonal camp trains. The single customer on the line, Bleyer Industries will be served by Kovalchik Corp.
FOUR CONRAIL OFFICIALS JOIN CSX
Four senior Conrail officials have been appointed to key positions at CSX Transportation Inc. (CSXT) to lead the smooth integration of processes related to the joint acquisition of Conrail by CSX Corporation and Norfolk Southern Corporation, announced Carl N. Taylor, executive vice president-operations.
James J. Kasprzycki has been appointed general manager-Conrail engineering; Timothy K. Male has been named assistant general manager-Conrail crew management; F. W. "Rick" Wilson will become general manager-Conrail locomotives; and Carl C. Yount has been named assistant general manager-Conrail customer service.
"Collectively, these key leaders represent more than a century of Conrail experience," Taylor said. "As we plan for and execute the integration, their knowledge of Conrail and their experience within their respective areas of responsibility will help us to achieve superior levels of safety and customer service."
Kasprzycki will be responsible for managing all engineering functions for the portion of the present Conrail territory that will be allocated for operation by CSXT, as well as CSXT's present line between Greenwich, Ohio, and Chicago, including Chicago terminal. He will report to Roger A. Cross, chief-track maintenance, and will be based in Philadelphia.
Reporting to Susan O. Hamilton, general manager-train crew utilization, Male will be responsible for directing crew management in the Conrail territory to be operated by CSXT. He will remain in Dearborn, Mich.
Wilson, who will report to W. Michael Cantrell, vice president-mechanical, will be responsible for maintenance and performance of the Conrail locomotive fleet that will be operated by CSXT. He will be based in Philadelphia.
Remaining in Pittsburgh, Yount will oversee customer service operations in the current Conrail territory, reporting to Jack Piatak, CSXT's assistant vice president-customer service operations.
Because their responsibilities are critical to the successful integration of Conrail, Taylor said these positions will report jointly to Gerald T. Gates, vice president-transportation-Conrail field operations, as well as within their respective areas. Gates, a former Conrail vice president who led Conrail's operating team in the acquisition, now leads the team responsible for integrating the portion of Conrail that will be operated by CSXT.
"We are delighted to have these Conrail leaders on our team, as we strive to maintain the high standards of safety and service performance throughout the Conrail integration effort," Gates said.
Kasprzycki joined a Conrail predecessor in 1970 and has served in numerous operating capacities. His most recent position was director-asset optimization. He earned a bachelor's degree at Eastern College in St. Davids, Pa.
Male, a 24-year Conrail veteran, is presently general superintendent-workforce management system based in Dearborn.
Wilson joined a Conrail predecessor in 1970 and has served in numerous positions in locomotive operations. His most recent post was general manager-locomotive assets.
Yount has devoted most of his 29-year career with Conrail to its customer service area. He presently serves as National Customer Service Center director-planning and transition coordinator. -CSX Corporation
MUSEUM DISPLAY "ON TOUR"
Through early next month, visitors to the Defiance County Court House will have the rare opportunity to experience the great traditions of the nation's first railroad through a display of 19th century artifacts and photographs from the Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) Railroad.
Items ranging from antique lanterns to conductors' caps, on loan from the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, will be on display until early May, courtesy of CSX Transportation Inc. (CSXT). The display will continue its tour throughout Ohio and Indiana, along the historic rail route that stretches from Baltimore to Chicago, through Defiance, Henry, Wood, Seneca and Hancock Counties in Ohio.
"This display presents communities along this historic rail line with a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with their lineage as railroad towns," said Stephen L. Watson, CSX regional vice president-state relations. "It also serves as a reminder of just how vital freight rail transportation remains today throughout the country and the state of Ohio."
CSXT traces its roots back to the B&O Railroad, the nation's first freight railroad, which was chartered in 1827. CSXT is sponsoring the display in part to showcase the importance of this critical rail route. Last year, CSX and Norfolk Southern filed an application with the federal Surface Transportation Board (STB) to jointly acquire Conrail.
"The historic Baltimore to Chicago line is a prime example of CSXT's commitment to the future of freight rail transportation," Watson said, noting that the railroad is investing approximately $220 million to modernize and transform its existing rail line into a high capacity, double-track railroad.
"This will provide the region with a direct freight link to key consumer markets in the Northeast and the port centers of Boston, New York and Philadelphia," said Watson.
"This is an opportunity to celebrate our long and proud rail history. CSXT's new double-track line soon will be creating exciting opportunities for economic growth throughout Ohio," Watson said. "Businesses can expect to reap tremendous benefits resulting from greater access to one of the nation's premier rail routes, providing links to critical markets throughout the United States."
The display, which is located on the first floor of the Defiance County Court House, is open to the public from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. -CSX Corporation
CPR DEMANDS PUBLIC RELEASE OF AGREEMENT
Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) is demanding public release of a secret agreement between Canadian National (CN) and the Canadian Wheat Board (CWB), at public hearings that resume here today.
``The principles of transparency and fairness demand that the secret pact between CN and the CWB be released for all grain industry participants to see,'' Rick Sallee, vice-president of agri-products and coal at CPR, said.
CPR is seeking disclosure of the CN-CWB settlement at ongoing Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) hearings into a CWB complaint about railway performance last winter. The hearings began March 30.
CN and the CWB announced April 17 they had reached a confidential commercial agreement. As a result, the CWB discontinued its level-of-service complaint against CN. While CN is no longer a party to the public hearings, the CWB has not withdrawn its complaint against CPR, even though the complaint cannot be separated.
A fair hearing depends
on disclosure of information that has a bearing on the case, Mr. Sallee
said, adding the CN-CWB pact also has a bearing on the commercial relationships
of the participants in the grain handling and transportation industry.
``The success of the
Canadian grain economy hinges more than ever on the co-operation of all
system participants. In partnerships of a common enterprise, there must
be a reasonable degree of transparency and openness. As a result, it's
imperative that the CN-CWB pact be disclosed not only to CPR and the Agency,
but to producers and grain companies alike.''
Mr. Sallee added that since announcing its confidential agreement with CN, the CWB has made public selected details of the settlement while choosing to withhold other details that may have an impact on the rest of the industry.
As well, he pointed to the fact that in its role as complainant at the CTA hearings, the CWB has demanded the release by CPR of hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, some of which are confidential, yet now is attempting to withhold relevant information of its own.
If the hearings proceed, CPR will demonstrate the damaging impact of relentless, record-setting weather last winter. As well, it will show how employees endured the ordeal, endeavoring to overcome the debilitating effects of blizzards, avalanches, rock and mud slides, severe cold and, eventually, flooding.
That evidence, which has yet to be presented at the hearings, proves without a doubt that CPR spared no effort or expense in recovering from the worst winter it has ever experienced, Mr. Sallee said.
He added that while the CTA case has been compromised by the recent CN-CWB pact, raising doubts about the fairness of continuing the proceedings, CPR intends to provide the grain industry, including farmers, with insight into the winter of 1996/97 and, in particular, its impact on railway service to its customers. -Canadian Pacific
CANADIAN WHEAT BOARD FIGHTS FOR SECRECY
The Canadian Wheat Board (CWB) has backtracked on its previously reported intention to disclose parts of a recent deal with Canadian National (CN), now announcing it will instead attempt to maintain a shroud of secrecy over a pact that compromises the fairness of public hearings under way here, Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) announced today.
In an affidavit sworn on Saturday, the CWB announced it no longer intends to disclose pertinent financial details of the April 17 agreement with CN, despite previously reporting to media that some parts of that agreement will be disclosed in its upcoming annual reports.
The CWB has declared in
its affidavit that regardless of its statements to media, ``there will
be no need for separate disclosure of the benefits derived'' from its commercial
settlement with CN, and that it therefore will
not reveal the terms
of the agreement.
``The CWB apparently is determined to maintain the cloak of secrecy, backtracking from its previously stated intention to disclose at least parts of its secret agreement and, as a result, further compromising the proceedings it has initiated against CPR,'' Rick Sallee, vice-president of agri-products and coal at the railway, said.
CPR said it will continue to seek disclosure of the CN-CWB settlement at ongoing Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA) hearings into a CWB complaint about the performance last winter of both railways.
CN and the CWB announced April 17 they had reached a confidential commercial agreement. As a result, the CWB discontinued its level-of-service complaint against CN. While CN is no longer a party to the public hearings, the CWB has not withdrawn its complaint against CPR, although the complaints cannot be separated. The hearings began March 30.
CPR will argue at the hearings today that the principles of transparency and fairness demand that the secret pact between CN and the CWB be disclosed, not only to CPR and the Agency, but to all grain industry stakeholders, including producers.
``While CPR is seeking to bring a greater level of transparency and openness to the hearings - and to the grain handling and transportation system - the CWB is at the same time seeking to maintain secrecy. That erodes the fairness of the hearings,'' Mr. Sallee said.
CPR will argue today that since announcing its confidential agreement with CN, the CWB has made public selected details of the settlement, while choosing not to reveal other details that may have an impact on the rest of the industry.
It will point out that in its role as complainant at the CTA hearings, the CWB has demanded the release by CPR of hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, some of which are confidential, yet now is attempting to withhold relevant information of its own.
While it has yet to present evidence at the current CTA hearings, CPR has built a case that demonstrates the damaging impact of relentless, record-setting weather last winter.
Mr. Sallee said the railway is eager to show how CPR employees endured the ordeal, endeavoring to overcome the debilitating effects of blizzards, avalanches, rock and mud slides, severe cold and, eventually, flooding. -Canadian Pacific
AAR AND GE ANNOUNCE OUTSOURCE PROJECT
Today, at Gartner
Group's Internet & Electronic Commerce Expo, the Association of American
Railroads
(AAR) and GE Information
Services (GE) announced that AAR has outsourced its RAILINC data center
operations and managed network services to GE. RAILINC provides electronic
commerce support to
process more than 4,000,000
transactions per day, including settlements, bills of lading, ship notices,
equipment tracing, rates, and other business transactions between 500 member
railroad companies of the AAR. GE Information Services will now manage
RAILINC's data center operations which include hardware operations and
mainframe processing activities. Also, as part of the contract, GE
Information Services will launch a new message switch capability that will
become the standard way to exchange mission critical business documents
for the rail industry in the U.S. in a real-time fashion.
"GE is proud to further strengthen our relationship with the rail industry by assuming responsibility for the EDI data center operations for RAILINC and the Association of American Railroads," said Harvey F. Seegers, president and CEO of GE Information Services. "GE has a long heritage of delivering state-of- the-art technology to the railroad industry to help them improve both their bottom and top lines."
"We are very excited by
this new technology alliance with GE Information Services, because it will
enable RAILINC to reduce costs while expanding our service offerings to
the railroad companies, who in turn will be
able to create greater
efficiencies for rail shippers across the nation," said Jim Gardner of
RAILINC. "GE demonstrated the commitment to make the technology transition
happen while maintaining the required
levels of quality and
customer service."
By the end of second quarter
this year, GE Information Services will have moved all RAILINC computer
and network operations to GE's Ohio Super Center in Brook Park, Ohio.
GE will operate, manage, and monitor
the RAILINC proprietary
and third party EDI software, equipment and their wide area network on
behalf of RAILINC. GE will also provide mainframe processing, technical
support, capacity planning, production
control, and wide area
network management for the RAILINC applications. The RAILINC applications
are central to the twenty-four hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week operation
of the rail industry. RAILINC's services
support the real-time
exchange of business documents (settlements, bills of lading, ship notices,
equipment tracing, rates, etc.) between the railroads, their customers,
customs, and other third parties in the rail industry.
In addition, GE will be developing a new message switch as the backbone software for electronic commerce in the rail industry. This innovative use of messaging technology will further advance RAILINC's industry-leading use of real-time EDI documents between trading partners.
"We are proud that RAILINC had the confidence in GE to turn the operation of such a large scale, 24x7, mission critical data center said Otto Kumbar, vice president of the new RAILINC division at GE Information Services.
GE Information Services won the contract in a competitive bid process. No other terms of the contract were disclosed.
GE Information Services
internetworks companies with their business partners through the power
of electronic commerce. As the experts in global electronic commerce,
GE delivers a full suite of solutions
that streamline the extended
supply chain, including Electronic Data Interchange, messaging gateways,
extranets, electronic
catalogues, and electronic marketplaces. GE Information Services
manages the world's largest electronic community of more than 90,000 trading
partners. GE Information Services is one of the twelve key businesses
of the General Electric Company, USA and is headquartered in Rockville,
MD,USA.-Stan Feldman
- STEAMTOWN
STEAMTOWN MEMORIAL DAY CELEBRATION
Steamtown National Historic Site will play host to a Memorial Day celebration on May 23-25, 1998 ath the NHS site in Scranton, PA.
This year's theme is America's Military Reserve Units: Yesterday and Today. Tobyhanna Army Depot will display a helicopter at the Park. The National Guard will provide tanks and there will be representatives from the Navy Reserves, the Marine Corps Reserves, the Coast Guard, the Army Reserves and the Pennsylvania National Guard.
WWII re-enactors will give presentations on military history, equipment and uniforms. The steam excursion to Moscow starts that weekend and re-enactors will be on board the excursion trains on Sunday to tell about military life and the railroads.
Although the full roster of events is still tentative, Steamtown plans slide presentations, videos, a uniform exhibit, a Dixieland Band and a troop train display. Also planned are WWII jeep and staff car rides, combat face painting for the kids, a Red Cross Blood Drive and a hobo camp. The MIA/POW flag will be flying at the Park for the weekend.
There will be a Steam Night Photo Session on Sunday, May 24 from 8 pm to 10 pm. Tickets cost $15. Power will be provided by the CN 3254 and the theme will be military railroads.
All military veterans attending the event may sign a banner in the Visitor Center. A new banner will be created each year and the ones from past years displayed. -Dennis Martin, Secretary Steamtown Volunteer Association
NRHS RAILCAMP '98
NRHS RAILCAMP 1998 - July 19-25, 1998 at Steamtown NHS, Scranton, PA
This is a pilot project hosted by the National Railway Historical Society in cooperation with the National Park Service Steamtown National Historic Site, with assistance from the University of Scranton and the Steamtown Volunteer Association. It is designed to provide a background in rail history, preservation, operations and transportation career opportunities to forty high school students. The tuition of $495 per student includes all meals, activities, lodging, materials and equipment needed. Students are responsible for transportation to and from Scranton.
Activities include tours
of the complex, learning how living history is interpreted at Steamtown,
what goes on in the Backshop and the role of restoration of vintage rail
equipment. On Tuesday, students will work a
half-day in each of the
locomotive shop and the roundhouse. On Wednesday, industrial crafts and
the railroads today will be featured. Thursday involves restoration
of rolling stock with the carpentry shop the main focus. Friday will have
Operation Lifesaver and Railroad Operations activities including preparing
an engine for service. In the afternoon, the students will be with the
Delaware-Lackawanna train dispatcher working the yard and the line to Moscow.
They will also take the steam excursion train to Moscow. After further
field training in railroad operations, there will be an awards ceremony.
On Saturday morning the students will have an opportunity to show what
they have learned.
Included are picnics,
socials, a live steam cab ride, a Red Barons AAA baseball game, the Lackawanna
County Coal Mine Tour, and railfanning as a hobby. Most activities are
hands-on. Be prepared to get dirty. If
there is student interest,
we will create a RailCamp Web site. Some activities are still tentative
and may be replaced by equivalent experiences. The most recent schedule
is available at the SVA Web site.
For more information,
send the following information:
NAME: _________________________________________________________
ADDRESS: ______________________________________________________
CITY: _________________________
STATE: ____ ZIP: _________________
Current year in HS: __ Freshman; __ Sophomore; __ Junior; __ Senior or __ will be a Freshman in Fall 1998.
and mail to
RAILCAMP 1998
NATIONAL RAILWAY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
PO BOX 58547
PHILADELPHIA, PA 19102-8547
Phone: 215-557-6606
Fax: 215-557-6740.
-Dennis Martin, Secretary
Steamtown Volunteer Association
http://www.cs.uofs.edu/~steamtwn
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Please check this location daily, as new information will be posted, as it becomes available. If you have news to report or information regarding railroads in the Eastern United States, please send e-mail to Kevin Burkholder at KBurkholder@psghs.edu |
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