A Family Visit to the Garden Island of Kaua'i in 1988

In 1988, I vacationed with my daughters Tracy and Robyn in Kaua'i, Hawaii. At the time, they were thirteen and ten years old. Airfares were inexpensive and my father, Dr. Loron McGillis arranged for us to stay at a friend’s Poipu Shores condominium, on the south side of the island. We had a week on the island and planned to make the most of our time and available funds.

On the morning of our first full day, we drove west, stopping first at the famous “Spouting Horn”. Near the shore, on a lava bed, was a blowhole. There the surf would fill a void in the lava rock and spew seawater up and out like a humpback whale, spouting in the sea. My guess is that as the hot lava flowed, the surf crashed in, creating the void before the lava could cool. Now, tens of thousands of years later, the surf still surges and the water and wind make a whooshing sound like no other.

After passing through Waimea Town, we drove toward the southwestern end of the island. We were heading to Barking Sands Beach at Polihale State Park. While the North Shore of Kaua'i is often cool and wet, this windward beach was hot and dry. With a deserted seascape before us; the wind blew onshore. As we walked, friction between the porous grains of sand amplified the sound, creating the barking sound that we expected full well. To me it sounded more like crunchy cereal, but my faded memory of that moment is now twenty-seven years old.

The next morning, we set out for the north side of Poipu to ride horses at CJM Country Stables. After saddling up, we rode in a line toward Māhāʻulepū Beach. There, we enjoyed unspoiled vistas and crashing surf. Several years later, developers built the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort on that beach. As we crested the hill in 1988, the old Gillin Beach House was the only structure in sight.

In 1992, Hurricane Iniki hit Poipu, causing lasting destruction to homes and businesses. Beach-side amenities at the Grand Hyatt disappeared under a huge, wet sand dune. Had Apukohai, the Shark God of Kaua'i taken revenge against the destruction of such a beautiful natural area? While on our return trip to the stables, we rode through cane fields and could smell the pungent odor of a nearby sugarcane mill. Twenty-one years later, in 2009, the last sugarcane mill on the island closed for good.

The following day, we headed north, to Princeville. There we boarded a large motor yacht and set out for the Na Pali Coast. As our boat cruised at high speed, we stood at the bow and tried to warn the captain whenever we saw a sea turtle sunning itself in our path. With spinner dolphins riding our bow wave, the time clicked by. Soon, we arrived at the entrance of a large sea cave, cut into the wall of a cliff. There we spotted intrepid tourists, riding on the side-tubes of inflatable boats. Overloaded for the conditions, they were rocking in the surf. I was happy we had opted for the larger boat.

After waiting our turn, our boat entered the sea cave, known as “The Bright Eye”. After a dark entry, we soon discovered that the interior of the cave was open to the sky. By this time, we had rocked and rolled in the surging ocean for quite some time. After eating lunch, Robyn said that she was not feeling well. As happens on so many coastal voyages, her lunch did not stay down. After alerting the crew, they entered into a familiar drill, cleaning everything up in less than two minutes. I had a feeling that they had done this before. The moral to the story is to take a Bonine tablet in the morning, before your voyage. As Robyn had learned, it is “better to be safe than sorry”.

Undaunted, but chastened, on the next day we headed for the benign surf at Salt Pond Beach Park, just west of the Port Allen Airport. The red clay there, inland from the surf line comprises acres of salt flats. Over millennia, the surf sometimes flows inland on a storm tide. Trapped there, the salt water evaporates, leaving a salt bed. To this day, natives of the island stake out an area on the salt flats, using small trenches and pits to harvest the rich, natural sea salt from Salt Pond Park. Like a community garden, each harvester respects his or her neighbors. As always on this Earth, abundance creates cooperation.

After seeing the beauty of the unspoiled Māhāʻulepū Beach while on horseback, we decided to hike over the hill from our condominium and enjoy another day at that beach. When we arrived, the trade winds blew and the ocean looked impossibly blue. Even in June, the shallow water near shore was cool to cold. Since the tide was out, we decided to build a sand fort that could withstand any wave… or so we thought. Once again, with the entire beach to ourselves, we built higher and higher, until the tide turned and swamped our fortress. That is the way of all sand forts. You build, you enjoy and then the Shark God takes them away.

Our next day, we were off to Waimea Canyon, west of Poipu. From sea level, we took a road that climbed straight up a ridge, then turned into switchbacks and then again up another ridge. This went on for quite a time, until we crested yet another ridge and saw the Grand Canyon off to our right. The Grand Canyon… what was it doing here on Kaua'i? Last time I visited, it was in Arizona. Then I discovered that the Menehune had dug this version of the Grand Canyon. I have to give them credit. It is a good copy of the original.

No trip to Kaua'i is complete without a visit to Brennecke’s Beach at Poipu. Although there is always a crowd, the beach itself never seems overcrowded. The water is warm, the waves are gentle and the place is family friendly. After swimming, you can use the freshwater shower and head for Brennecke’s Beach Broiler, right across the road. In 1992, Hurricane Iniki partially destroyed the restaurant, but it was rebuilt and lives again in Kauai history. There, you can sit upstairs and look out over the beach park and enjoy lunch or Champagne at sunset.

Although it costs a lot more now, in 1988, a helicopter ride for the three of us was only a few hundred dollars. In an hour or so, we saw all of the places we had visited earlier that week, including the cane fields, Waimea Canyon, Barking Sands Beach, the Na Pali Coast and even the extinct volcano that is Mt. Wai'ale'ale, also known as the second wettest place on Earth. Since half of the volcano had blown away in the distant past, we were able to fly “inside the mountain”, even having a waterfall drop a stream of water on to our helicopter. As with our boat trip to the Na Pali Coast, remember to take your Bonine well before departure or risk feeling squeamish as you fly.

After a week on Kaua'i, my money was running low and it was time to return to Los Angeles. While sitting on a bench at Brennecke’s Beach on our final afternoon, we met a man who had sold everything he owned, moved to Kaua'i and bought a hulk of a boat. He told me that he planned to refurbish the boat and create a sport fishing enterprise. Running low on money himself, had not yet started the refurbishment. As his two small children played, sunburned at the beach, he and asked if I would like to partner with him on the venture.

Back home, I had a career, many obligations and a sense of duty to my children and other family members. Something inside me wanted to stay in Kaua'i forever, but my rationality returned and I gently refused his offer. My guess is that the shell of that boat still sits in a yard somewhere on Kaua'i, waiting for the next dreamer to buy it and try to start a new fishing business.

They say that you cannot go home again, but you can always go to Kaua'i and enjoy the time of your life. Since 1988, I have returned to the Garden Island many times. Although there is some new development and other amenities, most of what you see here remains as it was, many decades ago.

In the past decade, I have purchased Kauaijim.com, Kauaihike.com, Kauaijeep.com, and Kauaisea.com. Please join me as I write about each Kaua'i subject listed above.

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By James McGillis at 04:39 PM | South Pacific | Comments (0) | Link

Watch, as the Cow Springs Trading Post Changes Before your Eyes - 2016

 

Watch, as the Cow Springs Trading Post Changes Before your Eyes

For over a decade, I have traveled north or south on U.S. Highway 160 in Arizona at least twice each year. Known also as The Rainbow Trail, the highway closely tracks the trail of the Ancients through Navajoland. On that trail, in Tonalea, Arizona is the Navajo settlement of Cow Springs. Although the closest thing to a commercial establishment in Cow Springs today is the Navajo Nation Head Start preschool, there was once a thriving trading post in the area.

When the Arizona Department of Transportation realigned Highway 160 in the 1960s, the new route bypassed the old Begashonto Trading Post. With all of the optimism of that time, the Babbitt Brothers Trading Company moved its previous operation to a knoll beside the new highway. The new building’s construction was robust, with a poured concrete floor and cinder block walls all around. Although similar construction supported the fireplace and chimney, their faces featured Navajo Sandstone. With its large open floorplan, vast wooden trusses supported its roof.

Out front, a sign supported by two thirty-foot poles read, “Cow Springs Trading Post”. Apparently, the name was not much of a draw. Sometime later, the owners painted over the original sign. From then until today, it features a brown background and white lettering. The “new” sign presented the phrase, “Standard Oil Products”. Even the lure of brand name petroleum products was not enough to draw sufficient customers to support the operation. At an unknown time, probably in the 1970s, the Cow Springs Trading Post closed for good.

Because of its existence in the pre-internet era and its brief existence as a place of business, there are no published pictures of the Cow Springs Trading Post while in operation. In fact, there are no published pictures of the building while its roof still sheltered it. If anyone has such images, we hope that they will publish them.

In 2015, Sandi Haugen commented on a previous article I wrote about Cow Springs - “Jim, how sad these pictures are to me, my parents Charles and Vaughntrebia Kinser were the original traders who were employed by Babbitt Brothers in this trading post - in fact prior to this new trading post being opened they ran the Old Cow Springs Trading Post. We were the first family to live in the house attached to the Trading Post. I still remember when the fireplace was built. It saddens my heart to think about all the good years spent there and to see it now in ruins.”

From the images on this page, it is obvious that the Cow Springs Trading Post is now a ruin. What is not obvious, however, is that the landscape there and the artworks displayed on the few remaining walls continue to change over time. Although I had driven by the ruin for almost a decade, I did not stop and walk through the place until 2012. By that time, a local artist who goes by the moniker “Jetsonorama” had created several generations of wheat paste art on the walls.

Wheat paste is just what it sounds like. In a bygone era, a concoction of wheat and water supported handbills on temporary construction barriers, utility poles and many other smooth surfaces. Today, artists like Jetsonorama use large-scale printers to blow up digital photos, and then piece them back together on walls such as those at Cow Springs. Although these postings appear permanent to the casual observer, the wheat paste melts in the rain and the paper deteriorates over time. While it is visually arresting art, by its very nature it is temporary.

Although I missed some of Jetsonorama’s most famous pieces, I began documenting what still existed of them in 2012. For the past four years, I have returned to see what is new there. Other than the innovative wheat paste art, many of the recent artistic flourishes are spray-overs of more gentile subject matter. Since much of what endures at Cow Springs is graffiti or spray-painted, I also documented its changes, additions and slow fading of several scenes.

In order to show how much things have changed in the art scene at the Cow Springs Trading Post, I have organized time-lapse imaging into “animated GIFs”. Introduced by CompuServe in 1987, the animated GIF predates, yet is now ubiquitous on the internet. Most of the moving ads you see on webpages are animated GIFs. An animated GIF is a silent slideshow, using “lossless compression” to limit file size, so as not to slow the loading of a webpage.

In order of their appearance on this page, I have titled the animated GIFs as follows: “The Brave”, “The Front Wall”, “The Eagle”, “The Princess and the Sheepdog” and “The Broken Sun”. In 2016, the Brave is now gone, the Front Wall is painted over and the Feather is all that remains from the front wall of a decade ago. Remember is a recent addition to a short section of wall, while the Prophet has been hammered into smithereens. Graffiti has obliterated the Eagle, while Lola! has endured through several iterations. The mirror reflects the transience of all that still exists at Cow Springs Trading Post.

If you stop and visit, please view the Cow Springs Trading Post in Tonalea, Arizona as sacred ground. Park your vehicle off the highway and away from the adjacent cattle guard, which delineates a roadway often used by local Navajo residents. Wear sturdy shoes and beware of boards with protruding nails. Although I have never seen a snake there, their presence is possible. Touch nothing, add nothing and take nothing but photos. If Native Americans are present, please show your respect for their culture by staying away from the building. Cow Springs is part of Navajoland, not Disneyland.

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By James McGillis at 01:02 PM | Fine Art | Comments (0) | Link

Inadequate Track Maintenance Puts Metrolink Passengers At Risk - 2016

 

Inadequate Track Maintenance Puts Metrolink Passengers At Risk

On June 24, 2016, I drove to the Metrolink Station in Chatsworth, California. My mission was to drop Carrie McCoy off for her Metrolink ride from Chatsworth to Los Angeles Union Station.

Since early 2016, all of the Metrolink trains that I have observed at the Chatsworth Station have been “double-enders”. By that, I mean there is a locomotive at each and of the train. On this occasion, the train arrived in Chatsworth with a locomotive at the “head end” and a Hyundai-Rotem cabcar at the trailing end.

In late 2015, as an interim safety measure, Metrolink instituted a second locomotive on each of its trains. The decision resulted from an equipment failure on a Hyundai-Rotem cabcar. In a February 2015 collision in Oxnard, California, the “pilot”, a debris-clearing blade at the front of a Metrolink cabcar, detached. As the pilot disappeared beneath the cabcar, it contributed to the derailment of the cabcar and several other Metrolink coaches. Because of that collision, thirty passengers were injured and Metrolink Senior Engineer Glenn Steele lost his life.

The locomotives that Metrolink leased to ride ahead of the Hyundai-Rotem cabcars are massive Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) freight locomotives.

Such locomotives normally pull heavy freight trains on long hauls. Before the Metrolink lease, nowhere in the country have such locomotives pushed or pulled passenger trains. Because of their size, weight and other factors, Metrolink has struggled to safely deploy their BNSF locomotives. A recent Los Angeles Times report indicated that many trains were still running without a locomotive at each end.

The original locomotive lease from BNSF was for one year. Even at that, Metrolink now operates them on a Federal Railroad Administration temporary waiver, not a permanent operating permit. By leasing the BNSF locomotives, Metrolink made a de facto admission that heading up a train with a Hyundai Rotem cabcar was inherently unsafe. If so, why is Metrolink still running trains headed up by Hyundai-Rotem cabcars?

While at the Chatsworth Station, I walked the platform from south to north. When viewing railroad tracks up close, I like to observe the condition of the infrastructure. Are any of the railroad ties rotten? Are many of the spikes loose? Are palm trees growing up between the rails? At Chatsworth, I found instances of all these deficiencies. Why does any of this matter?

If the Philips 66 Santa Maria Refinery has its way, several oil trains each day could pass through the Chatsworth Station on their way to Santa Barbara County. From the June 3, 2016 oil train derailment and fire near Mosier, Oregon, we now know that failure of even one bolt or rail anchor can lead to a catastrophe.

As I reached the north end of the platform, I stepped up some wooden stairs to better observe the tracks. As I looked down from there, I could see the milepost marker for that location stenciled on the side of the rail. It read “MP 445.4”, with an arrow pointing down to that exact location. In non-technical language, that means that it is 445.4 miles to the northern terminus of the Coast Line in San Francisco. In addition, that spot is where the wheel truck of an outbound Metrolink locomotive comes to rest at the Chatsworth Station.

As I looked more closely, I observed a broken rail anchor lying by the tracks at that exact location. After the Mosier, Oregon derailment, Union Pacific Railroad (UPRR) admitted that despite repeated visual inspections, specifically looking for deficiencies, inspectors missed badly corroded and rusted bolts. In the case of Chatsworth, the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA), better known as Metrolink, owns and operates the double-track through Chatsworth Station.

Allowing rotten railroad ties, loose spikes and small palm trees to grow between the tracks at the Chatsworth Station is ample evidence that SCRRA is not properly inspecting or maintaining its own rail infrastructure. Allowing a broken or detached rail anchor to lie where a 432,000-pound BNSF locomotive comes to rest several times each day is inexcusable. Rather than relying on redundancy to save us all from its next derailment, SCRRA should inspect and repair its infrastructure in Chatsworth and throughout its railroad network.

Author’s Note: On July 8, 2016, just two days after the publication of this article, Metrolink announced the impending replacement of fifty-six failure-prone pilots on their Hyundai-Rotem cabcars. Although the recent lease of BNSF freight locomotives topped $20 million, Metrolink expects to replace the pilot blades for a mere $1.5 million. That would bring the cost of each replacement to $26,785. If the cost to replace the pilots is so low, why did Metrolink not explore that option from the outset?

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By James McGillis at 04:57 PM | Railroad Safety | Comments (1) | Link

 

The Rodeo Drive 2016 Concours d'Elegance Classic Car Show

In the 1960s, my father shared his love of classic cars with me. Each Father’s Day, we would attend the Beverly Hills Concours d’Elegance at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. There we would see well-restored automobiles from the first half of the twentieth century. In those days, just prior to the revolution in automotive horsepower, large saloons and tiny sports cars dominated the show.

As we walked the parking lot, we would see an old Packard here and a Duesenberg there. Later, my father told me stories about Los Angeles in the 1930s. As a teenager, he and his friends would walk to Wilshire Blvd. There, they would wait at a traffic light for a suitably large automobile to stop. Then, without the driver being aware, they would dash out and sit on the wide rear bumper platform. Cars did not accelerate or travel very quickly in the Los Angeles traffic of the day, so there was little danger of ejection from their perch. When they reached their destination, they would hop down and walk away.





The Classic 1965 Shelby Cobra 289 on Video

Several years ago, I restarted the Father’s Day car show tradition. For twenty-three years now, Beverly Hills has sponsored its Concours d’Elegance on the famous shopping street, Rodeo Drive (pronounced “Row-day-o”). It is free to the public and often includes classic cars and super cars seen nowhere else except a museum. Last year, I saw the same 1915 Cadillac that my father and I had seen in the 1960s. In 2015, it was one hundred years old and arrived under its own power.

This year, I hit Rodeo Drive at eight o’clock. Many of the cars were still arriving and taking their places along the curb. Although the 1915 Cadillac did not show this year, there was a 1933 vintage V-16 Cadillac and a 1930s Packard to ogle. In addition, there were at least a dozen red Ferrari to spice up the show.

Having grown up in Southern California, I was hoping to see the quintessential American sports car – The Shelby Cobra. As a tingle went up my spine, I heard a 289 cubic inch V-8 engine rumbling up the street. I ran to a spot where I was able to capture a classic 1965 Cobra preparing to park in its appointed spot.

With only 150 of the 289-Cobras produced that year, I was looking at a rare automobile. After the driver parked, I stood with him and admired his classic Cobra. He told me that he had purchased it from a private party about twenty years ago. Without my asking, he told me that he had paid $175,000 for the car.

He had repainted it in a dazzling red and done some engine work, but otherwise had kept it in “stock” condition. According to a classic car valuation website, his Cobra may now be worth $1.2 million. If you are in the market for a concours-condition Shelby Cobra, he does not plan to sell.

Although the field of classic cars was a bit smaller this year, the 23rd Annual Father’s Day Concours d’Elegance was as exciting as ever. If you want to see the cars arriving next year, I suggest that you get to the show prior to the 10 AM start time. Perhaps I will see you there.

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By James McGillis at 03:29 PM | Current Events | Comments (0) | Link

As BNSF Freight Locomotives Fail The Test - It's Time to Audit Metrolink Operations - 2016

 

As BNSF Freight Locomotives Fail The Test - It's Time to Audit Metrolink Operations

At 5:39 AM on February 24, 2015, Metrolink Train No. 102 departed the Oxnard Transit Center. Its intended destination was Los Angeles Union Station (LAUS). After negotiating a sweeping arc of track, the train crossed Rose Ave., at Milepost 405 of the Coast Line. Leading the way was Hyundai-Rotem Cabcar No. 645. After negotiating the initial curve, ten miles of straight track lay ahead. Under the control of a student engineer, the diesel pusher train quickly accelerated to seventy miles per hour.

With Metrolink Sr. Engineer Glenn Steele occupying a jump seat behind the student engineer, it would be less than one minute before the cabcar reached Rice Ave. at Milepost 406.23. Unknown to the engineer and his student, an abandoned Ford F-450 work truck lay high-centered on the tracks eighty feet west of Rice Ave. In the early morning darkness, the headlights and emergency flashers of the disabled truck pointed toward the oncoming Metrolink train.

Until it was too late to avoid a collision, neither the student engineer nor Steele determined that the truck’s lights represented a hazard. While traveling at seventy miles per hour, and with less than three tenths of a mile to go, the student engineer saw the headlights looming before the cabcar. Sounding the horn and applying the brakes was insufficient to prevent a collision. On orders from Steele, the student applied emergency braking and both men bailed out, heading toward the rear of the cabcar.

With the brakes engaged, less than 1500 feet separated the cabcar and the work truck. As momentum carried the entire train forward, the impact with the truck was catastrophic. The pilot, a blade intended to clear debris from the tracks, detached from its support structure and disappeared beneath the cabcar. As the wreckage traveled along the tracks, the cabcar and its following coaches derailed and whipped in opposite directions. As the first two cars rotated and toppled on their sides, the whipsaw effect injured dozens of passengers and crew. One week later, Sr. Engineer Glenn Steele succumbed to his injuries.

In early reports, Metrolink touted the crash energy management (CEM) features of the Hyundai-Rotem cabcar. Without its safety features, a spokesperson said, the severity of the incident could have been greater. A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) made such statements seem hasty and ill informed. By September 2015, the NTSB had determined that both the steel within the pilot and welds in its structural supports were deficient. Further, the entire assembly had ripped loose at stress levels below its design criteria.

After receiving an NTSB report regarding failure of the pilot assembly, Metrolink officials skirted discussions regarding any potential design flaw or culpability in the collision. Instead, Metrolink management initiated a conference call with its board members. During that call, the Metrolink Board approved a one-year lease of forty BNSF freight locomotives at a total of $20,000 per day. According to Metrolink Chief Executive Art Leahy, the forty freight locomotives would soon head up all Metrolink trains on their return trips to LAUS. Using the “rule of tonnage”, Metrolink management wanted to rule out the possibility of another deficient pilot or cabcar causing injury in a collision. Lost in the publicity regarding this supposed safety measure was the fact that no regional rail carrier in the nation had ever utilized freight locomotives to head up passenger trains.

Citing the unprecedented, yet unspecified safety issues involved with the Hyundai Rotem cabcars, the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (Metrolink) Board sidestepped the California Open Meeting Law. That ill-conceived and illegal action set Metrolink on a path to its potential demise. It also put the executive management team at Metrolink in a position to either defend their actions or place blame on its own board or others yet unnamed.

On December 5, 2015, I attended the “Steel Wheels Conference”, which is the annual meeting for the rail passenger association known as RailPAC. The meeting convened at the Metro Headquarters Building adjacent to LAUS. While on a lunch break, I discovered a long line of BNSF freight locomotives parked on LAUS Track Number 14. With no room to spare in its maintenance yards, Metrolink had redirected at least sixteen of the leased BNSF locomotives to the depot.

In "The Purloined Letter", a short story by American author Edgar Allan Poe, detectives assumed that a blackmailer would conceal a damning letter in an elaborate hiding place. Thus, he hid it in plain sight. In a flash of chutzpah and hubris, the Metrolink executive team decided to hide almost 7,000,000 lb. of BNSF freight locomotives at LAUS.

Soon after their irrevocable one-year lease at $500 per day each ($7,300,000 total), Metrolink discovered that heavy freight locomotives are more expensive to outfit and operate than they originally thought. Although the BNSF locomotives already featured positive train control (PTC), the software version on the BNSF equipment was two generations beyond what Metrolink was using (version 0 vs. 2.0). A new train management computer (TMC) and retrofitted software were required for each BNSF locomotive placed into service. By late December 2015, BNSF locomotives entered into limited service on Metrolink lines. Almost immediately, problems developed with their operation.

With a gross weight of 420,000 lb., an overall length of seventy-four feet and a wheel diameter of forty-two inches, the huge locomotives had difficulty negotiating ten-degree radius curves such as the one approaching Chatsworth Station. As a result, the wheel-trucks on the BNSF locomotives create premature wear on the inside edge of the outboard rail. In a metallurgical process known as spalling, the BNSF wheels shave steel filings off the rails. The dispersion of filings into nearby electrical shunts often shorts out the signal systems along those tight curves.

Although the horns on the BNSF locomotives fall within legal standards, their blaring pitch can make them sound louder than a regular Metrolink horn. With their twelve drive-wheels and massive sixteen cylinder turbocharged diesel engines, the BNSF freight locomotives are louder and create more vibration than their passenger locomotive counterparts. In addition, regardless of their direction of travel, both the BNSF and the Metrolink locomotives generate power, noise and pollution whenever a Metrolink train moves. Despite Metrolink's claims of environmental sensitivity, a double-ender Metrolink train produces almost twice the engine noise and twice the pollution of a single-engine train.

Because of the unprecedented use of freight locomotives in their train consists, Metrolink obtained only a six-month temporary waiver to utilize the BNSF equipment. A stipulation of the temporary waiver was that Metrolink would maintain compliance with all positive train control (PTC) regulations as specified by the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA). With a few of the BNSF locomotives entering service prior to January 1, 2016, their six-month temporary waiver shall soon expire. When the temporary waiver expires, will the FRA recertify the freight locomotives under rules for passenger use or will it require a full audit of their operations?

One requirement of PTC is that the speedometer on each locomotive shall be accurate at any speed above thirty miles per hour. With a freight locomotive geared for long hauls and a top speed of seventy miles per hour, the stipulated variance of five miles per hour (plus or minus) is difficult to achieve. For example, frequent starts, stops and delays for other rail traffic make the use of freight locomotives on the San Fernando Valley line problematic. Often operating at just above the thirty mile per hour threshold, a wide variety of speed sensors can cause the TMC to place the locomotive into “penalty mode”. Once it enters penalty mode, the TMC automatically applies the brakes and stops the train, no matter where it may be along the tracks.

Before the penalized locomotive can resume service, pumps must refill the air reservoirs that supply breaking power to the train. A locomotive that experiences a penalty can stay in service for the balance of that day. However, a penalized locomotive may not reenter passenger service the following day unless Metrolink corrects the anomaly (inaccurate speedometer) and certifies completion of that work. According to the Los Angeles Times, Metrolink was able to average only twelve BNSF freight locomotives in service per day during April 2016. With so few BNSF locomotives in service, the majority of Metrolink trains returning to LAUS are headed-up by Hyundai-Rotem cabcars. This also begs the question; where are the remaining thirty-eight BNSF locomotives?

After the embarrassment of letting the batteries die on the sixteen BNSF locomotives parked at LAUS in late 2015, Metrolink crews jumpstarted those units and repositioned them to the Metrolink Keller Street Yard. To keep their electrical and motive power units in working condition, the non-operating BNSF locomotives remain in temporary storage at the Keller Street Yard. Placed in “automatic mode”, the engines cycle periodically, bringing them up to operating temperature and charging their batteries. Among other things, this periodic cycling of the engines produces wear on the starter motors, flywheels and the diesel engines themselves.

In 2015, a Los Angeles Times article detailed Metrolink’s plans to purchase twenty-nine so-called Tier-4 locomotives. They were touted as state-of-the-art, low pollution passenger locomotives. According to the article, Metrolink intends to replace up to forty-nine of its aging and ill-maintained passenger locomotives over the next several years. Meanwhile, forty BNSF Tier-1 (high powered, high pollution) freight locomotives sit largely idle in the middle of Downtown Los Angeles. Hidden from public view, cycling their massive engines, these locomotives pump out untold amounts of air pollution into the Los Angeles Basin.

Metrolink’s temporary waiver to operate the BNSF freight locomotives will soon expire. When it does, it will be appropriate for the FRA, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) and the Southern California Regional Rail Authority (SCRRA) to conduct a complete audit of operations and practices at Metrolink.

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By James McGillis at 01:04 PM | Railroad Safety | Comments (0) | Link

Fifth Street at Las Posas Road Now the Deadliest Rail Crossing in Ventura County - 2016

 

Fifth Street at Las Posas Road Now the Deadliest Rail Crossing in Ventura County

April 21, 2016, the Fifth Street at Las Posas Road grade crossing in Camarillo, California regained the title of “Deadliest Rail Crossing in Ventura County”. Around 6 PM, Garrett Vongunten, 26, piloted his 2015 Harley Davidson motorcycle south on Las Posas Road toward Fifth Street. On the rear seat, Nadya Unger, 23, rode as his passenger. With the late afternoon sun in their eyes, they approached the railroad crossing at an undetermined speed.

At 4:33 p.m. that day, Metrolink Train No. 117 had departed Los Angeles Union Station, heading toward its final destination at the East Ventura Station. Near 6:00 PM, the train approached Las Posas Road from the east at normal speed, which can be as high as seventy miles per hour.

If the traffic control system operated properly at the grade crossing, the approaching train would activate warning bells, flashing lights and crossing gates to warn vehicular traffic of an oncoming train. According to Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) guidelines, the rail crossing gates should be down at least twenty seconds prior to a train crossing Las Posas Road.

For reasons that included impairment from unspecified drugs and possible excessive speed, Vongunten may have seen the warning lights and gates too late to stop safely. As a result, Vongunten’s motorcycle broke through the crossing gate arm and struck the side of the Metrolink train. Passenger Nadya Unger died at the scene and Vongunten sustained critical injuries, including partial loss of one leg. The motorcycle, missing its operator, its passenger and its front wheel, came to rest upright, facing in the opposite direction of original travel. "You could assume that the motorcycle wasn't in the middle of the track per se because of the location that it ended up," California Highway Patrol officer Gregory Bowcock told the Ventura County Star newspaper.

With the collision unseen by the Metrolink engineer, Train No. 117 proceeded to the Oxnard Transit Center, which was its next scheduled stop. Prior to arrival in Oxnard, a passenger who had witnessed the collision notified the train’s conductor of the event. Metrolink held the train in Oxnard until officials could inspect it for signs of damage. A preliminary report indicated that there was evidence of a side impact, including motorcycle parts embedded into a coach and blood on the side of that coach.

In recent years, there have been multiple train collisions on the Oxnard Plain. In February 2015, a train collision at the Fifth St. and Rice Ave. grade crossing in Oxnard took the life of Metrolink Senior Engineer Glenn Steele. By that time, Fifth & Rice had gained notoriety as the “deadliest rail crossing in Ventura County”. In recognition of the many deaths and injuries at Fifth & Rice, Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-Westlake Village) secured $1.5 million in federal funds for the design of a grade separation at that location.

With the recent death of Nadya Unger, the Las Posas Road and Fifth Street grade crossing now takes the mantel as “deadliest rail crossing in Ventura County”. Here is a chronology of four prior rail collisions at Fifth & Las Posas:

- At 10:49 AM on December 30, 2013, as an Amtrak train passed by, a car entered the grade crossing at Fifth St. and Las Posas Rd. The driver of the vehicle died at the scene and a nearby railroad service worker received injuries resulting from the accident.

- At 10:30 AM on January 24, 2014, crews responded to a train collision at Fifth St. and Las Posas Rd. A seventy-seven year old woman who drove her minivan into the side of a passing Amtrak train succumbed to her injuries at the scene.

- At 8:25 AM on April 23, 2015, a Union Pacific freight train collided with an SUV at the intersection of Fifth St. and Las Posas Rd. The driver, a fifty-seven year old man, drove through the crossing gate arm and into the side of the freight train. The driver succumbed to his injuries at the scene.

- At 10:30 AM on November 21, 2015, a twenty-three year old man drove his car through the crossing gate and into the side of a moving Amtrak train at Fifth St. and Las Posas Rd. At the time of the collision, the crossing gate arm was down and the safety lights were flashing. The driver died days later at a local medical center.

In less than three years, there have been five fatal train collisions at Fifth & Las Posas. The common denominator of all five collisions was that the crossing gates were down, warning lights were flashing and bells were ringing. Even so, each ill-fated vehicle entered the railroad right of way and collided with a moving train. There is no evidence that any one of the five most recent fatal accidents at Fifth & Las Posas was a suicide.

Unlike the Fifth & Rice grade crossing, the Fifth & Las Posas grade crossing has only the minimal safety features mandated by law. At the tracks, Rice Ave. is a divided road, with overhead safety lights, signage, and four crossing gates intended to seal the rail corridor from errant vehicles. At the tracks, Las Posas Rd. is undivided, with no overhead safety signage and only two crossing gates. Even if the gates were down, a driver could cross over the double-yellow lines and drive around the crossing gates. To the unsuspecting driver, the Las Posas Rd. southbound approach to Fifth St. looks like a little-used rural grade crossing.

On Friday April 22, 2016, one day after the death of Nadya Unger and the critical injury to Garrett Vongunten, the Ventura County Transportation Commission (VCTC) voted to support a half-cent transportation sales tax for Ventura County. Nineteen of the fifty-eight counties in California have such a tax, including all the major counties in Southern California. If it makes the November 2016 ballot, the measure will still require approval by a two-thirds majority of county voters. If it passes that hurdle, the new sales tax will provide $70 million annually, earmarked for transportation improvement projects within Ventura County.

Five fatal train collisions at Fifth St. and Las Posas Rd. should be enough to place that grade crossing at the top of Ventura County transportation improvement projects. Suggested improvements include realigning Las Posas Rd. to make it a divided road as it crosses the tracks, installing overhead warning signs and creating a four-gate system of vehicle barriers. Although foot traffic is light at that location, the new safety plan should include sidewalks and pedestrian gates there, as well.

Proposed upgrades to the rail crossing will not stop speeders from trying to beat a train to the crossing nor end inattentive driving, but they will increase the chances that motorists will receive warning in time to stop safely at Fifth & Las Posas for an oncoming train. I hope that public officials throughout Ventura County support a half-cent sales tax dedicated solely to transportation improvement projects.

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By James McGillis at 02:01 PM | Railroad Safety | Comments (1) | Link