AUTO/ BOX TRAINCARS....INDIANA UPDATE (With News Source)

www.indy.com...


NEW CASTLE, Ind. — When she moved into a house across the street from a railroad track, Rebecca Collier knew she’d have to tolerate the occasional passing train.

But she wasn’t counting on idled freight cars, lined up as far as the eye can see.

The yellow boxcars sit on a siding owned by C&NC;, a small railroad line that receives rent for storing them. For a year now, a wall nearly two miles long has split New Castle, a city of 17,500 where the high school was named Chrysler, for the automaker that was the area’s main employer until leaving in 2003.

The freight cars are sitting there for a reason that New Castle understands all too well: They were used to haul automobiles, but sluggish sales have rendered their services largely unneeded.

“The owners of the (rail) cars would much rather have them out there hauling automobiles,” said Spencer Wendelin, president of Transmark Associates, a Corydon company that manages the C&NC;and other small railroads.

“Those cars represent the potential to help the automobile industry whenever they get back to making automobiles that people are buying.”

Nationally, about 450,000 empty boxcars are sitting idle, according to the Association of American Railroads. Communities in Colorado and New Jersey have made news with protests against their effect on nearby neighborhoods.

“It’s like the Berlin Wall,” said Lesley Reece, 82, who has lived in her New Castle home for 46 years. “Every day when I go out to get my paper, I get madder and madder.”

Collier, 45, feels the same way.

“I used to be able to look across the street and see the kids playing at the elementary school. Now, this is all I see,” she said. “I don’t even open my curtains.”

Before auto-parts supplier Visteon Corp. closed its New Castle plant, the tracks might not have been available for storage. Trains once ran in and out of the factory and used the side tracks as a loading area.

To suggestions that the freight cars should be left on tracks in less-populated areas, Wendelin notes that the side routes most available for storage are usually near industrial areas such as New Castle.

Railroad companies are losing money and employees as a result of the recession, he said. The railroads and warehouses that he helps to operate, including the 28-mile C&NC;, have shrunk from about 75 employees to a dozen. Transmark Associates has reduced its staff from 12 to eight.

Wendelin sympathizes with people who don’t like the look of idled rail cars, but he thinks economic recovery is the ultimate answer.

“I’m sure people would rather look at trees and bushes and grass than they would railroad cars,” Wendelin said. “On the other hand, the railroad has been there a long time — 130 years — and it should not surprise anybody that it’s going to have railroad cars on it.”

New Castle Mayor Jim Small isn’t pleased but said he has little power to get the freight cars moved.

“It divides neighborhoods,” Small said. “It’s a nuisance, (but) they’re train cars sitting on a train track. They’re protected by the federal government.”

It’s not that he hasn’t tried.

First, Small complained to federal railroad officials that the train cars posed safety hazards, providing places where children might get hurt and blocking the view at intersections. A federal inspector came and declared the boxcars posed no threat.

Then Small tried another tack, ending the city’s courtesy of mowing and trimming grass along the track.

“If they’d have let the grass get too tall, we’d have cited them,” Small said. “We’d have harassed them until maybe they would rethink keeping the cars there.”

But railroad officials didn’t bite. They just started doing their own mowing.

If anyone is injured on or around the cars, the railroad company can expect legal action from the city.

“They’ve been warned,” Small said.

An executive at the Association of American Railroads expects the complaints to evaporate — and the freight cars to move — when the economy recovers.

A reinvigorated railroad industry has been one of the nation’s economic success stories, and the current recession is simply a storm to be weathered, said John Gray, the organization’s senior vice president of policy and economics.

“We remain very optimistic about the future of the industry,” Gray said. “It’s certainly healthier than it’s been in some time, even right now, and there are a lot of things that could be very positive for us going into the future.”

Front Page of the Indianapolis Star Newspaper today.


www.indystar.com...


For all it's worth, I know ATS has discussed this subject in detail, and I myself posted a video of the AMTRAK facility in Beech Grove. Just check my previous post out. I thought getting everyone here this story was worth while.

Glen Beck now covering FEMA camps? Say what?

Well it's true, and so are several other news outlets. It's funny, it's scary, and who knows.

Peace to ATS....thanks for everybody who post on these forums, you guys are great!

hopefully they wont start converting them to " people" boxcars. unfortunately, the auto industry is sinking very fast. and its a very bad sign for the whole world, not just indy, or the north american union. how far is the rail yard from the proposed north to south superhiway?

These are for cars , car sales down 59% , gotta park em somewhere

The same types of auto max train cars have been idle on the tracks in a small upscale suburb West of Cleveland for at least 2 months now.

No one is buying cars. Have you seen the latest numbers? I believe it was stated that Feb was the worst month in auto sales since 1982.

If the govt. wants to move the masses, they will use any means possible. Not just empty auto max train cars. Good old fashioned box cars will work just fine as will semi tractor trailers.

Oh for sure. I know people are not buying cars, and that's what the rail cars are for. However, when you no longer use an item for it's original purpose, you can then use it for something else.

Just because I have a chicken shed, does not mean I keep chickens in there now. Follow me?


I just thought it was Ironic that this story is front page, when it is an open conspiracy that Beech Grove, Indiana may be a FEMA Holding Center.

As a matter of fact, this very newspaper has an online forum where some normal guy a few months back, had a very long post about Beech Grove and FEMA camps. Kind of funny.

reply to post by The_Brave


The Box cars in my hometown of New Casstle , Indiana have NEVER hauled ANYTHING built in NEW CASTLE. These cars are from out west and MEXICO. The tracks that they are now stored on have not been used for over thirty years now , and then one day these bright yellow trains cars show up with no warning or explanation to local officals.

The owner of the track has REFUSED to work with local officals to get the train cars moved out of town . The owner has 28.7 miles of track but has choosen to park this junk in our town ,next to two schools and in our back yards with no regard to safety.

We as a community will stand up to CORPORATE AMERICA and say NO MORE ! We will not allow CORPORATE AMERICA to dump its junk in our communities. PERIOD . We plan to take this to Washington DC right to the Presidents DESK !

Originally posted by branty
These are for cars , car sales down 59% , gotta park em somewhere

Then we can count on you to have some parked next to your home? We'll be glad to move them out of New Castle to your town ! Let me know where you would like them, your front yard or your back yard.

Originally posted by OPENED EYES
reply to post by The_Brave

 

The Box cars in my hometown of New Casstle , Indiana have NEVER hauled ANYTHING built in NEW CASTLE. These cars are from out west and MEXICO. The tracks that they are now stored on have not been used for over thirty years now , and then one day these bright yellow trains cars show up with no warning or explanation to local officals.

The owner of the track has REFUSED to work with local officals to get the train cars moved out of town . The owner has 28.7 miles of track but has choosen to park this junk in our town ,next to two schools and in our back yards with no regard to safety.

We as a community will stand up to CORPORATE AMERICA and say NO MORE ! We will not allow CORPORATE AMERICA to dump its junk in our communities. PERIOD . We plan to take this to Washington DC right to the Presidents DESK !

See you at the Public Forum tomorrow night. Should be a big turnout.

[edit on 4/8/2009 by Possum Roadkill]

ok guys this is getting way too insane. as soon as i'm able to drive long distances again i'm going to go down and investigate this. if this is indeed what i believe it to be. these are going to be prisoner transport cars. if there is any relation to fema camps in CRANE


i seriously fear that end is near. and especially scares me since this is in my state.