Yucca Mountain Railroad announced

LVRJ article

Federal Register Statement

Yucca Mountain website

The rail plan is finalized. I'll try to locate a map. The only Nellis range related issue is how it will effect access to the border and perhaps camping. This is probably a bigger deal for those that snoop on the Tonopah Test Range more than Groom Lake.

The NTS set up a KMZ for Google Earth to view the rail.

NTS Google Earth KMZ

After unzipping the file, click on CRC_All.kmz, which is the Caliente alignment.

The department also formally confirmed it will open the rail line for business to ranchers and farmers when it is not in being utilized for nuclear waste.

Do Nevada farmers have that much nuclear waste lying around?

Of course I suppose it could also be used to haul mutilated cattle.

[edit on 10/21/08 by emsed1]

The department also formally confirmed it will open the rail line for business to ranchers and farmers when it is not in being utilized for nuclear waste.

The Nevada rice farmers will now be able to open their market with this new transportation system.

There are times you can just tell a bureaucrat with no clue as how smart people really are, write some fairly stupid press releases. Your tax dollars at work....

Originally posted by gariac
The rail plan is finalized. I'll try to locate a map. The only Nellis range related issue is how it will effect access to the border and perhaps camping. This is probably a bigger deal for those that snoop on the Tonopah Test Range more than Groom Lake.

gariac, I found this in my collection. Not sure how current it is.

Nice find with the kmz files. If you into Places of Interest, Transportation, then click on Rail, you can see where they connect to the existing rail lines.

I notice they went out of there way to circle around the Rachel valley?



[edit on 21-10-2008 by FosterVS]

[edit on 21-10-2008 by FosterVS]

Load the KMZ files provided by the DOE and you can see why the route is the way it is. I thought it looked odd myself until I saw the route in relationship to the terrain.

The DOE KMZ also shows the train service locations.

Regarding the ranchers using these rail lines, about all they export is alfalfa and "glad to be dead" cattle. The alfalfa shipments are routinely seen on the ET Highway. I've never seen a cattle truck in the area. BTW, they do the round up with helicopters. I saw one of those cheap Robinsons being trucked in.

reply to post by gariac


I have about four hours of stick time in a Robinson R-22. There is no way in hell I would want to be in one while trying to sling-load a cow.

That pilot is earning his money!

My understandings of helicopter round-ups is that the chopper acts more like a border collie than a cowboy with a rope. I've seen cattle round-ups done with dirt bikes using a similar border collie technique.

new report on helicopter herding

mustering cattle

These links are about as good as I could find on helicopter round-ups. It's really a shame there isn't better footage.

Drifting off topic a bit, I had the opportunity to watch the local power utility carry workers from tower to tower to do repair (change insulators I presume). This pilot flew under the wires just for yucks are far as I could tell. The workers don't even get in the cabin. They just hang on the rails.

reply to post by gariac


I've seen some video of that. Those guys are FEARLESS.

I saw one where they were in an MD500 I think with a little platform on the side. The pilot would edge up to the wires and the guy in the back would hook on to the wire with a ground pole and wire connected to the helicopter and then inspect everything.

scary

interesting Yucca mountain geoscientist interview, Abraham Van Luik

Here

reply to post by beaumont


many thanks for this link ...great reading.
cheers
snoopyuk