Featured Blog Posts - Northwestern Pacific Railroad Network2024-03-28T14:26:14Zhttp://nwprr.net/profiles/blog/feed?promoted=1&xn_auth=noSMART Pilot Car Arrival Ceremony, part 1tag:nwprr.net,2015-04-08:3290209:BlogPost:1437702015-04-08T00:00:19.000ZWilliam "Burr" Wilsonhttp://nwprr.net/profile/WilliamBurrWilson
<p>Well, the first DMU cars for SMART are on the property, and were officially presented today for public inspection and guided tours at the Cotati station. A grand affair, well-attended by public representatives big and small; local mayors, city council members, county supervisors, transportation committee, safety officials, state elected officers, Congressmen Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman, and of course SMART directors, managers and employees. Also present were representatives of major…</p>
<p>Well, the first DMU cars for SMART are on the property, and were officially presented today for public inspection and guided tours at the Cotati station. A grand affair, well-attended by public representatives big and small; local mayors, city council members, county supervisors, transportation committee, safety officials, state elected officers, Congressmen Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman, and of course SMART directors, managers and employees. Also present were representatives of major vendors and contractors to SMART with exhibits and handouts, including Nippon Sharyo (carbuilder), Sumitomo Corp. (of America), LTK (Signalling), Shimmick Construction (bridges) and Stacey and Witbeck-Herzog (construction). <br/> Under the threat of brief rainfall, the catered affair attracted members of the news media, printed press, and railfans. Here are some candid photos of the exhibits, media circus and some attendees:</p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1977728719?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1977728719?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a>Facing East Cotati Avenue.</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1977731048?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1977731048?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a>Before the crowd swelled and filled the tented area. SMART director Debra Fudge at center.</p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1977733338?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1977733338?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a>Television news crew (Channel 7, ABC-TV)</p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1977733548?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1977733548?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a>DMU trainset slowly rolls in to the station</p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1977733897?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/1977733897?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a>DMU stopped behind podium with the railfans' photo line.</p>
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<p style="text-align: center;"></p>Setting Up at the Great Train Expo - Santa Rosatag:nwprr.net,2014-02-13:3290209:BlogPost:1173642014-02-13T11:30:00.000ZChristopher Palomarezhttp://nwprr.net/profile/ChristopherPalomarez
<p>Putting out a note to the forum: I will be actively setup and demonstrating a fully operation HO Free-mo layout with Northern California Free-mo (<a href="http://free-mo.org/norcalfreemo" target="_blank">http://free-mo.org/norcalfreemo</a>) this weekend in part for the Great Train Expo in Santa Rosa. If you are in the area please drop by and say "HI!"</p>
<p>We plan on setting up in this configuration:</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/files/users/shoofly/Santa%20Rosa%202014c.jpg" style="width: 700px; height: 430px;"></img></p>
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<p>A couple photos of our layout:…</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/files/users/shoofly/ATSFWarbonnet.jpg" style="width: 700px; height: 467px;"></img></p>
<p>Putting out a note to the forum: I will be actively setup and demonstrating a fully operation HO Free-mo layout with Northern California Free-mo (<a href="http://free-mo.org/norcalfreemo" target="_blank">http://free-mo.org/norcalfreemo</a>) this weekend in part for the Great Train Expo in Santa Rosa. If you are in the area please drop by and say "HI!"</p>
<p>We plan on setting up in this configuration:</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/files/users/shoofly/Santa%20Rosa%202014c.jpg" style="width: 700px; height: 430px;"/></p>
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<p>A couple photos of our layout:</p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/files/users/shoofly/ATSFWarbonnet.jpg" style="width: 700px; height: 467px;"/></p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/files/users/shoofly/ATSFSD40-2.jpg" style="width: 700px; height: 461px;"/></p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/files/users/shoofly/McCloudSD38-2.jpg" style="width: 700px; height: 485px;"/></p>
<p><img alt="" src="http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/files/users/shoofly/SSWSD45CrewChange.jpg" style="width: 700px; height: 428px;"/></p>
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<p>Will see you there! <img alt="cool" src="http://model-railroad-hobbyist.com/sites/all/modules/ckeditor/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/shades_smile.gif" title="cool" height="20" width="20"/></p>
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<p>Chris Palomarez</p>Alternative Future: A Contemporary Interurbantag:nwprr.net,2012-10-17:3290209:BlogPost:826252012-10-17T16:29:28.000ZDavid Edmondsonhttp://nwprr.net/profile/DavidEdmondson
<div class="wp-caption alignnone" id="attachment_1621" style="width: 640px;"><a href="http://thegreatermarin.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/nwp-new-map-new-style2.png"><img alt="" class="size-full wp-image-1621" height="630" src="http://thegreatermarin.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/nwp-new-map-new-style2.png?w=630&h=630" title="NWP New Map New Style" width="630"></img></a><p class="wp-caption-text" style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-1">Click to enlarge, or click <a href="http://thegreatermarin.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/nwp-new-map-new-style.pdf">here for PDF</a>. This map assumes other lines are operating around the Bay Area, but that map will have to wait for another…</span></p>
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<div id="attachment_1621" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 640px;"><a href="http://thegreatermarin.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/nwp-new-map-new-style2.png"><img class="size-full wp-image-1621" title="NWP New Map New Style" alt="" src="http://thegreatermarin.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/nwp-new-map-new-style2.png?w=630&h=630" height="630" width="630"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text" style="text-align: center;"><span class="font-size-1">Click to enlarge, or click <a href="http://thegreatermarin.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/nwp-new-map-new-style.pdf">here for PDF</a>. This map assumes other lines are operating around the Bay Area, but that map will have to wait for another time.</span></p>
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<p>Let’s say for a minute the Interurban hadn’t stopped running in 1941. It was bleeding money, but its parent company, NWP, was a for-profit entity. What if the Interurban had somehow survived?</p>
<p>For the sake of this exercise, I’m taking a few liberties. First, that the Bay Area had valued its rail transportation system from the 30s to the present, but had consolidated it all, as well as the Golden Gate Bridge, under the single umbrella of the MTC. Second, that European best practices had been implemented at least in this corner of the country. Third, that the Interurban could now survive on a 50% subsidy. And fourth, that Marin and Sonoma have their current populations, though with less sprawl.</p>
<p>Though I had originally intended for this to be a bit more a light post rather than something more data-driven, a Twitter conversation with Dan Lyke motivated me to put some numbers behind the costs of an Interurban.</p>
<p>Costs per vehicle-kilometer (vkm) vary widely based on the system. Vancouver’s automated Skytrain system costs $2.18/vkm, BART costs around $3.50/vkm, and New York’s subway costs $5.81/vkm. Using quite a few assumptions, I get an average annual operating cost between $43.2 million and $111.6 million. If we assume an average fare of $2.50 and a 50% farebox recovery rate, total ridership would need to be between 8.6 million per year, roughly the same number of transit trips on today’s GGT system, and 22.3 million. With the Geary and North Beach extensions (Muni’s 38-Geary alone carries over 13 million weekday passengers per year), it’s entirely feasible for the system to meet BART’s 80% farebox recovery.</p>
<p>Alas, reconstructing the system would be prohibitively expensive and politically impossible. Large portions of some major roads (Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, Fourth and Third Streets, Magnolia Avenue, Miller Avenue, and others) would need to be converted back to rail, wealthy homeowners would need to accept trains running behind their back yards, Sausalito would need to take a new elevated railway along the waterfront, Geary and North Beach would need to be torn up for a new subway, and over $10 billion would need to be spent. While the San Francisco part of the project might be worth it, for 8 million riders per year, most of them already served by transit, the cost and pain of the Marin Interurban simply wouldn’t be worth it.</p>
<p>This map, along with all my other Interurban maps, is <a href="http://nwprr.net/photo/photo/listForContributor?screenName=1gt6msc4gyuhf" target="_self">posted in my photo gallery</a>. The post <a href="http://thegreatermarin.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/alternative-future-a-contemporary-interurban/" target="_blank">originally appeared</a> on <em>The Greater Marin</em>.</p>A Million Dollars a Miletag:nwprr.net,2010-04-10:3290209:BlogPost:65532010-04-10T00:45:30.000ZPaul Gardnerhttp://nwprr.net/profile/PaulGardner
<p>I've be watching a lot of train videos since recuperating from foot surgery and I came across an estimate by Union Pacific Railroad in one of the videos that mentioned that they spend a million dollars a mile to add first class trackage to their system. One day last month at BART's Richmond Yard I watched their track crew in action replacing cross ties and reballasting their mainline. Everything was automated.</p>
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<p>Anyway, I've heard estimates to repair the NWP at 500 million…</p>
<p>I've be watching a lot of train videos since recuperating from foot surgery and I came across an estimate by Union Pacific Railroad in one of the videos that mentioned that they spend a million dollars a mile to add first class trackage to their system. One day last month at BART's Richmond Yard I watched their track crew in action replacing cross ties and reballasting their mainline. Everything was automated.</p>
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<p>Anyway, I've heard estimates to repair the NWP at 500 million dollars which seems way out of line with the UP's estimate. Who 's behind this misinformation campaign? The Eel River section is only 90 miles long. Maybe their estimate includes daylighting or heightening tunnel bores, earthquake retrofitting trestles, and using concrete ties in ecological sensitive areas. Still seems like a lot.</p>