Interesting.
We have a similar situation up here in North Central Idaho. The local shortline (BG&CM, formerly the WATCO-owned Great Northwestern, formerly the North American RailNet-owned Camas Prairie RailNet, formerly the UP/BN co-owned Camas Prairie Railroad) seems to be serious about resuming log hauling operations from Jaype ID to Lewiston ID, roughly 7 years after RailNet stopped hauling logs. RailNet proceeded to apply for abandonment of the 4th subdivision, WATCO came along and bought out RailNet but proceeded with the abandonment.
As of now, the line is officially listed as abandoned, and several of the bridges have some washout issues from flooding, but the rails are still in place. Ever since the timber company stopped hauling by rail and started hauling by truck, fuel prices have more than doubled, thus the renewed interest in using rail.
The Florida Times-Union - Florida / March 3, 2007
Railroad officials and log truckers said they hope the test aimed at reducing log-truck traffic on Florida A1A passes muster and the practice becomes a part of the way commerce works in Nassau County.
Between Feb. 12 and Wednesday, loads from as many as 18 log trucks a day were shipped 18 miles from a railside yard 6 miles north of downtown Yulee to one of Amelia Island's two mills, said Murray Benz, First Coast Railroad project coordinator.
Under an agreement between the railroad and the mill, First Coast Railroad cannot identify the mill, Benz said.
As part of the test, the railroad operated between 6 a.m. and 1 p.m. weekdays, using its own equipment to unload log trucks and load the logs onto specialized rail cars leased from CSX, Benz said.
"We have a very reasonable cost to them [the mill] to handle cars from Manley [the transfer site] to the mill and to take the empty cars back," Benz said. "But we're trying to determine whether it's ever going to be economically feasible. They have to pay us an additional cost to move these rail cars, and we don't know whether the economics will work out to the point where they can afford to do this."
Full story here
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