Iron Horse Roundup For July/August 2013

AFP Photo

MONTREAL, MAINE & ATLANTIC- In the wake of last month's deadly runaway train wreck that devastated the southern Quebec town of Lac Megantic, Hermon, ME-based Montreal, Maine & Atlantic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal bankruptcy court in Bangor, ME.

The MM&A has also petitioned Canadian civil courts for relief under that country's Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. The company appears to have set aside nearly $786,000 as “indemnification and/or contribution in connection with wrongful death litigation and other claims,” according to a listing of the company’s 20 largest creditors.

MMA still owes $27.5 million of a $35 million loan it received from the Federal Rail Administration in 2005, according to Gardner’s affidavit. The railroad also has a $6 million line of credit with the Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway Co. issued in June 2009. That company has sought to protect its security interest, the affidavit said.

Other creditors include JD Irving subsidiary New Brunswick Southern, a subsidiary of San Antonio, TX-based Valero energy [NYSE- VLO], Minneapolis, MN-based Flex Leasing LLC and the Canadian Pacific railroad [NYSE- CP; TSX- CP].

Although a federal bankruptcy judge ruled that the MM&A could continue to operate under Chapter 11 reorganization, the line through Lac Megantic is still closed, effectively severing the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic in two. At the end of July, Maine state officials had entered into talks with four other unnamed railways to continue service in anticipation of the MM&A shutting down.

The MM&A laid off 79 workers in the wake of the Lac Megantic disaster. Meanwhile, Canadian officials have raised the death toll in Lac Megantic to 47 during the July 6th derailment.

Xoan Soler- La Voz de Galicia

SPAIN- The driver of a train that derailed and killed 78 passengers in northwestern Spain has been provisionally charged with multiple counts of negligent homicide, although he wasn't required to post bond or sent to jail because he wasn't considered a flight risk.

Garzon was questioned for almost two hours at the court in Santiago de Compostela, the northwestern town near where the accident occurred.

Garzon was driving the train carrying 218 passenger in eight cars that hurtled far over the 80-kph (50-mph) speed limit into a high-risk curve on Wednesday evening, tumbling off the tracks and slamming into a concrete wall, with some of the cars catching fire.

The Spanish rail agency has said the brakes should have been applied four kilometers (2.5 miles) before the train hit the curve

However, a local resident who rushed to the scene of the accident said in an interview broadcast Sunday that minutes after the crash Garzon had told him he had been going fast and couldn’t brake.

The resident, Evaristo Iglesias, said he and another person accompanied the blood-soaked Garzon to flat ground where other injured people were being laid out, waiting for emergency services to arrive.

“He told us that he wanted to die,” Iglesias told Antena 3 television. “He said he had needed to brake but couldn’t,” Iglesias said. He added that Garzon said “he had been going fast.”

In its report about the accident, Antena 3 television showed a photograph of Iglesias in a pink shirt and cap helping to carry the driver after the train accident. The station also aired television footage of Iglesias working beside the wrecked train to help other survivors.

Garzon was reportedly on the phone with an agent at the next station to determine which track his train was to come in on. While in the USA, train crews are now prohibited from talking on the phone while operating the train, Spain's state-run RENFE uses what's referred to as 'tren-tierra' or train to land lines to communicate between stations and crew. Shortly before the accident, the train passed from an area where computers control most of the train's functions to one where the driver has to brake and accelerate accordingly. It's believed that Garzon may have missed this transition point while he was on the phone.

ARGENTINA- Transportation officials in Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires have released in-cab CCTV footage of engineers reading, napping or playing on their phones while the train is in motion.

In one clip, the driver is seen stepping up to the camera in his train cabin, attempting to obscure the lens so his activities cannot be seen. Other drivers are more overtly distracted, with some taking a nap, reading a book or playing on their mobile phone.

Argentina's Interior and Transport Minister Florencio Randazzo has since vowed to lead a crackdown on dangerous train drivers.

He plans to ban phone calls and unauthorised people in the cab

Mr Randazzo has introduced daily medical checks on all drivers to gauge their fitness to drive and to reduce the risk of them falling asleep at the controls.

Under the new system, all those caught distracted on camera will either be disciplined or fired.

The release of the footage comes more than a year after a commuter train plowed into a terminal in Buenos Aires, killing 49 and injuring hundreds.

FRANCE- Investigators in France believe a faulty switch system was to blame in a deadly derailment that killed six passengers at a station south of Paris last month.

After leaving the tracks, the train crashed into the station at Bretigny-sur-Orge.

A passenger speaking on France's BFM television said the train was going at a normal speed and was not meant to stop at Bretigny-sur-Orge.

He described children unattended in the chaotic aftermath, and swarms of emergency workers at the scene.

Two train cars, numbers 3 and 4, initially derailed, then knocked the other cars off the track, SNCF chief Guillaume Pepy said.

"Some cars simply derailed, others are leaning, others fell over," he said

A spokesman for the French state-run railway- SNCF- said the train was carrying an estimated 350 passengers when it derailed at 5:15 PM local time at Gare Bretigny sur Orge. The official death toll from the accident was 7 with more than 20 injured.


CALIFORNIA- Governor Jerry Brown has ordered a 60-day 'cooling down' period between San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit and workers threatening to strike over an expired contract with the transit agency.

Last month, a 4-day strike had left Bay Area commuters scrambling for alternate transportation. It was the first strike for BART since 1997.

Prior to Brown's announcement, both the Service Employees International Union and Amalgamated Transit Union were hoping the looming deadline of Sunday, Aug 11th would be sufficient to pressure BART management to agree to a renewed contract on the union's terms. Prior to Brown's intervention, the unions had threatened to resume their strike after this weekend.

The two month delay would take away some leverage from unions representing BART employees as it would allow the agency time to recruit replacement workers from out of retirement. An odd clause in the contract originally signed in 1979 would have prevented BART from hiring replacement drivers until the workers actually went on strike, and even then the replacement workers would only after completing a 15 week training course.

Reuters/Denis Balibouse

SWITZERLAND- Transportation officials in Switzerland are investigating the cause of a head-on collision between two passenger trains in the western part of the country. The crash killed the driver of one of the trains and injured at least 35 passengers.

The two Swiss Federal Railways regional passenger trains collided with one another head-on at Granges-Marnand in the Vaud Canton outside of Lucerne on July 29th. Although some press outlets have speculated that one of the trains left the Granges-Marnand station too early and collided with an incoming train, officials have yet to determine the exact cause of the crash and are moving both wrecked train sets to another location to closer examine the wreckage.

SOO Line SD60 #6053 leads an SD60M over county highway G38 outside of Washington, IA with a northbound Kansas City-St Paul manifest freight train on June 2012. Eric Rasmussen photo.

CANADIAN PACIFIC- In a surprise move, the Canadian Pacific Railroad announced that they are seeking bids for more than 40 former Soo Line SD60s and SD60Ms. The solicitation comes as the CPR is more than halfway through an extensive rebuild of their SD60 fleet. Some of the units are being stored at CP's St Luc yard in Montreal. All of the overhauled units have been rebuilt to Tier 0+ EPA compliance and feature AESS Locomotive Automatic Engine Start/Stop and Positive Traction Control in compliance with an upcoming PTC mandate expected to take effect starting in 2015- several more are supposed to undergo rebuilding at Montreal's CADRAIL facility.

The Soo Line ordered the SD60s from EMD in 1987 and with CP Rail's takeover, the burly 3800 HP six axle EMDs could be found anywhere from the Canadian Rockies to upstate New York although they were (and still are) outnumbered by CP Rail's far more prolific fleet of SD40-2s.

Canadian Pacific has also started putting up their fleet of former Milwaukee Road GP40s for sale- Respondek Rail Corp and United States Sugar Corp have already purchased a pair.

With the arrival of rebuilt GP20C-ECO and SD32C-ECO from Caterpillar [NYSE- CAT] subsidiary Progress Rail, Canadian Pacific returned their only two Gensets to National Railway Equipment in Illinois in July. The two Gensets- #2100 and #2101- were largely paid for by a province of Ontario 'green energy' intiative.

Dozens Killed in Spanish High Speed Derailment

At least 80 people are feared dead after an express train derailed at high speeds in the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia on Wednesday. Dramatic images from a trackside security camera show cars beginning to lift off the rails as the train enters a curve on outside of Santiago de Compostela at a high rate of speed before the locomotive plows into the camera sideways.

The train derailed shortly before 9pm local time as it sped along a curve in the tracks approaching the cathedral city of Santiago de Compostela, in Spain’s northwestern region of Galicia.

Even several hours after the accident rescue crews were still trying to reach passengers trapped in the wreckage. Photographs of the scene showed rows of corpses covered in blankets on the ground next to derailment site.

The accident occurred on the eve of the feast of St James, a regional bank holiday in Galicia, and a festival which attracts hordes of pilgrims to the ancient city.

The train and track were operated by Spain's state-run RENFE rail network. While the train in Wednesday's derailment is not part of Spain's high-speed AVE [Alta Velocidad Española- NANESB!] fleet, the conventional trainset is capable of reaching speeds of 155 MPH.

Investigators combing through the wreckage have found the train's black box/event recorder and the Guardia Civil is also questioning the driver, who escaped the train wreck with relatively minor injuries. Pope Francis extended his condolences and Spain's King Juan Carlos visited some of the survivors who were being treated at a hospital in Santiago de Compostela on Thursday.

This week's derailment is the worst rail disaster in Spain since a 1945 collision between a passenger train and a freight train in Las Acubillas, south of Madrid.

Spanish Moms: Mothers of Spanish Schoolchildren Attempt to Counter Austerity Measures with Sultry Calendars

Apologies to The Clash, of course.

I realize it's a touch late [or REALLY early- NANESB!] for another 'amateur women strip for calendar to raise funds' blog entry replete with some gratuitous eye candy, but I came across this story from December lurking in a sidebar during an unrelated search for an article about Russia's partially privatized GAZPROM of all things and since the fruits of these women's labor is apparently still available I figured it would be worth a mention.

With an unemployment rate topping 26% and austerity measures in place thanks in to the ongoing Eurozone crisis, some women in rural Spain are getting creative when it comes to ideas for raising funds to restore services that were cut.

In the eastern village of Montserrat, regional authorities decided to suspend school bus services to children that lived within 1.8 miles of the school. But due to the mountainous terrain and twisting roads in the area, some children end up having to walk more than twice that distance from school to home even if they only lived a mile and a half from the school as the crow flies.



After some brainstorming, Maria Gilabert and other local moms came up with the same idea that certain out-of-work stewardesses in Mexico came up with- take off their clothes for a sexy calendar.

The calendar, which shows the mothers in various states of undress posing along the bus route, has already sold thousands of copies and raised awareness of the cuts to the education system across Spain.

In September authorities cut public school bus services for students living within a 1.8 mile radius of the school but parents argue that has left many students having to walk almost four miles over unpaved roads to get to class.

The project aims to raise some of the 43,000 euros (£35,000) needed to restore the bus service and has already raised enough to pay for three months of daily buses.

This isn't strictly a Latina or Iberian phenomenon, as there are a number of fundraising calendars featuring amateur pinups in the UK designed to raise funds for everything from cancer research to the Royal Marines Charitable Trust.

The women decided to incorporate some of the terrain that their children had to negotiate on the walk to school with the bus services slashed. Included with some of the images of the saucy, lingerie clad Iberian cougars are spanish-language slogans such as "Scale the mountains of Montserrat to go to school".

The calendar emulates earlier fundraising calendars that feature amateur models posing nude or topless, such as the laid off stewardesses at Mexicana airlines or University Equestrian clubs in England. However, similar efforts have backfired- in 2008, a group of housewives in the rural Spanish village of Seradilla del Arroyo embarked on a similar effort as the moms of Montserrat. However, the women in the mountainous region along the border with Portugal quickly found themselves owing a printer roughly €10,000 and stuck with 5000 unsold copies after sales of the calendar quickly dried up.

Sports Chowdah Update- King Felix's Perfect Day; Tainted Melk- Giants Slugger Tests Positive for Banned Substances; USA Wraps Up Olympics Golden

SEATTLE MARINERS- Starting pitcher Felix Hernandez threw the first perfect game in the Mariners history on Wednesday afternoon at SafeCo Field in Seattle's 1-0 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.

The only run Seattle would get came in the bottom of the 3rd on an RBI single from DH Jesus Montero, but it was all the Mariners would need as 'King Felix' went all nine innings and struck out 12 batters on 113 total pitches.

Hernandez's brush with perfection is the first time in MLB history that there have been three perfect games thrown in a season- the White Sox Philip Humber had thrown a perfect game against the Mariners back in April while San Francisco's Matt Cain struck out 14 Houston Astros in mid-June while throwing a perfect game of his own. Hernandez's perfect game was the 23rd one in the history of the big leagues.

So far in the 2012 season, there have been six no-hitters with half of them taking place at Seattle's SafeCo Field. In addition to the perfect games thrown by the Humber and Hernandez, the Mariners pitching staff combined for a no-hitter using six pitchers against the Los Angeles Dodgers on June 9th.

Currently Hernandez holds an 11-5 record with a 2.60 ERA.

SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS- San Francisco Giants outfielder and 2012 All Star Game MVP Melky Cabrera has recieved a 50 game suspension after testing positive for performance enhancing drugs on Wednesday.

Unlike the Ryan Braun announcement in which Braun immediately challenged the results and it was subsquently learned the sample was improperly handled before testing, Cabrera admitted to taking a banned substance and issued an apology to fans and teammates.

With the suspension, Cabrera's season if effectively over. Should the Giants make it to the playoffs, he will still be under suspension. If the Giants miss the playoffs, Cabrera will serve out the remainder of his suspension for whichever team he is playing for, since he's a free-agent at the end of this season.

Cabrera went 2 for 3 with a homer and 2 RBI at this year's All Star Game in Kansas City, garnering MVP honors at the Mid-summer classic. The National League handily beat the American League by an 8-0 final this year, but Cabrera's drug test results have led to calls from some to invalidate the results of the game. Since 2003, the winner of the All Star game determines who recieves home field advantage in the World series. The exact date of when Cabrera underwent the drug test hasn't been released by MLB.

This season, Cabrera has been batting .346 with 11 homers and 60 RBI for the Giants. After losing to the Washington Nationals at home on Wednesday, the Giants presently trail the LA Dodgers by a game in the NL West and will be harmed by Cabrera's abesence from the starting lineup. Cabrera has also harmed himself due to the fact he was slated to be a free agent at the end of the season. If he did manage to sign with another team next season, he would miss time with them should the Giants not make the postseason this year.

RED SOX- I guess it was too much to ask to have two no-hitters in one day on Wednesday.

Following a report from Yahoo.com sports that a number of players had met with Red Sox management to demand that manager Bobby Valentine be fired immediately, the travelling soap opera took to the field at Camden Yards on Wednesday after dropping the series opener 7-1.

Red Sox starter Aaron Cook appeared to be cruising, getting a 2-0 lead in the top of the 5th thanks to an RBI ground-rule double from Jacoby Ellsbury and a sac fly from Carl Crawford. Cook threw five innings of no-hit baseball, but in the bottom of the 6th inning, the wheels came off as he led off the inning with a walk to Nick Markakis then gave up back-to-back singles to JJ Hardy and Nate McClouth to break up the no hitter and the put the O's on the board. Cook then air-mailed a comebacker to him from Adam Jones into center field. Cook would then give up a ground rule double to Matt Wieters before being pulled by Valentine. Mark Reynolds then belted a 2-RBI double off of Junichi Tazawa to make it a 5-2 Baltimore lead. Although a run would come home for Boston in the top of the 7th on a Carl Crawford groundout to make it a two run game, Baltimore's pitching staff was able to hold on to the lead and shut the Red Sox down by a 5-3 final.

The Red Sox will try and avoid the sweep on Thursday night when Clay Buchholz [10-3; 4.24 ERA] will take to the mound against Baltimore's Chris Tillman [5-2; 3.40 ERA]. The game gets underway at 7:05 ET and will be televised on NESN and MASN.

SUMMER OLYMPICS: BASKETBALL- Team USA held off a late challenge from Spain in the gold medal game. Once again, Kevin Durant led the scoring for Team USA with 30 points.

In the second half, Spain had whittled down the USA lead to just one point, but USA started to pull away late and win by a final of 107-100 in the gold medal game for their second consecutive gold medal.

SUMMER OLYMPICS: VOLLEYBALL- After Brazil's womens volleyball team gave away the first set in the gold medal game thanks to a series of unforced errors against Team USA, the Brazilians stormed back to win three straight sets to clinch the gold medal for the second straight summer Olympics.

SUMMER OLYMPICS: TRACK & FIELD- The American quartet of Bianca Knight, Allyson Felix, Tianna Madison and Carmelita Jeter broke a world record in the women's 4 X 100M relay with an official time of 40.82 seconds.

The Jamacian women's team finished at 41.41 secinds while the Ukranian team finished at 42.04 for the bronze. The previous world record was 41.37 seconds held by East Germany, which was set in 1985.

Spanish Conservative Party Ousts Socialist Zapatero in Landslide Election

Spain's conservative Popular Party won at least 186 of the 350 seats in Congress during elections throughout Spain over the weekend, sweeping aside the Socialist government of Luis Zapatero. Zapatero had been PM since shortly after the deadly 2004 terrorist attacks on Madrid's commuter railways that killed 191 people.

Incoming Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy tempered his party's win with caution, stating that "there will be no miracles" in dealing with Spain's ongoing economic crisis. The wide margin of victory- the most lopsided since Spain resumed elections in the 1980s- is seen as giving the incoming Rajoy government a mandate to implement new austerity measures and avoid any kind of a bailout altogether.

Last weekend's elections took place amid a backdrop of Spain having the EU's highest unemployment rate- nearly 23%. Last week, Spain's borrowing costs spiked to their highest levels since 1997.

Earlier this year, Portugal's socialist PM Jose Socrates resigned and his party lost the majority in Parliament after snap elections gave the PSD Social Democrats the majority.

More recently, Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi resigned after the Italian Parliament approved his austerity package while Greece's socialist PM George Papandreou stepped down to make room for a new coalition after narrowly winning a no-confidence vote from Parliament the second week of November. Papandreou's resignation came a few days after his defence minister dismissed senior level Greek military commanders from their respective posts.

Iron Horse Roundup for June-July 2010

SWITZERLAND: A Japanese tourist was killed and 40 others were injured when the last three cars of the 6-car Glacier Express derailed on July 23rd in Fiesch Switzerland. Sometimes known as 'The Slowest Express Train in the World', the Glacier express travels between Zermatt and St. Moritz, Switzerland at an average speed of 30km per hour with coaches featuring specially designed panoramic windows.

Authorities have yet to determine a cause of the derailment, although there is speculation that a heat kink (where a small portion of the track is warped by a dramatic change in temperature) could've played a role. The line remained shut down while authorities continue to investigate the scene. This is the most serious rail accident in Switzerland since 2006, when three people were killed in a collision with a runaway train.

Photo: Xinhua

CONGO: At least 76 people were killed and more than 700 injured when a passenger train travelling Pointe Noir and Brazzaville in Congo (the marginally more stable and less strife torn Congo as opposed to the much larger and more dysfunctional People's Democratic Republic of the Congo immediately to the South and formerly known as Zaire) derailed and four cars plunged down a ravine. According to a state radio broadcast, the cause of the derailment was excess speed while the train was entering a curve.

There are only a limited number of highways linking Congo's main port of Pointe Noire and the capital city of Brazzaville. The 502km Chemin de Fer Congo-Ocean (Congo-Ocean Railway) was completed in the 1920s using conscripted labor. To this day, the line sees significant freight and passenger traffic through the mountains and equatorial rainforest while a Chinese-backed $500 million highway project is in the planning stages. This is the African nation's worst rail accident since 1991 when a collision between a freight train and passenger train just east of Pointe Noire killed at least 100 people.

SPAIN: 13 partygoers were killed on June 23rd in Castelldefels, Catalona, Spain while en route to a St. John's Eve beachfront party. The deceased, identified as immigrants from different parts of South America, were struck by a high-speed train passing through the station when they tried crossing the tracks between platforms to avoid using a crowded pedestrian underpass. At the time of the collision the high-speed RENFE train was travelling at 85 MPH, which was actually below the speed limit.

Photo: The Hindu

INDIA: A collision between two passenger trains in West Bengal on July 19 left 66 dead and 165 injured. The Uttar Banga Express slammed into the rear of the slower moving Vanachal Express in Sainthia station. Eyewitnesses estimated the Uttar Benga express was travelling anywhere from 80-90 km per hour upon impact when the station's track speed was only 30 km per hour. The impact sent the three rear cars of the Vanachal express crashing into an adjacent pedestrian bridge over the tracks.

At this time, investigators are still attempting to determine a cause. One theory was that the crew in the locomotive was drugged or unconscious, although a post mortem didn't indicate any traces of drugs. Eyewitnesses at the Uttar Benga Express' previous stop- just 10km away- saw nothing out of the ordinary with the crew there. However, the head end crew did not apply the brakes or attempt to jump when a collision was imminent.

An India Railways investigation found that the brakes were in working order. Some media outlets have speculated that the Vanachal Express was running behind because the crew was offloading some off-the-books freight at Sainthia. However, this would not account for the Uttar Benga Express travelling nearly triple the speed limit and making no attempt to stop immediately before the collision. The Sainthia station master unsuccessfully attempted to contact the head end crew of the Uttar Benga Express via radio, but that was only 30 seconds prior to impact.

More recently, investigators are looking at whether or not the signals immediately before the Sainthia station were working properly.

Photo: Lucas MR

BRAZIL: ALL Logistica [BOVESPA: ALLL11] and Cosan ltd. [NYSE: CZZ] have announced a joint venture in Rumo Logistica, a multimodal logistic system for the storage and export of bulk quantities of sugar (and byproducts such as ethanol) produced by Cosan to export at the port of Santos in São Paulo state. To accommodate the anticipated increase in carloadings, Cosan and ALL have purchased some brand new GE C44-9Ws painted in this striking sliver and blue scheme.

The Brazilian government has also entered into talks with ALL Logistica, MRS Logistica and VALE S.A. [NYSE: VALE] over proposed rules designed to increase capacity and competition and cut freight costs. Transportation minister Paulo Passos says President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva plans on issuing a decree calling for an increase sharing of assets and put idle or abandoned right-of-ways back in operation in order to sharply reduce the price of hauling freight. Under this agreement, the Brazilian government would be responsible for building any new right of way. The transportation said that President Lula's plan would further reduce the nation's dependence on freight hauled by truck [No word on if any of VALE, ALL or MRS's representatives sent a Portuguese-language edition of Atlas Shrugged off to Lula's office in response- NANESB!]

SOUTH AFRICA: A Father's Day steam-powered excursion train derailed on a branch line between Pretoria and Cullinan, South Africa. None of the 627 passengers on board were seriously injured and were subsequently bussed to their destinations from the derailment site. Investigators and railway officials almost immediately noticed some 50 ties missing from the tracks near the Cullinan station and believe that to be the cause as the train was operating at low speeds on the branch.

South African Preservation Group Friends of The Rail is putting forward an appeal for funds towards repairing some of the coaches involved as well as 4-8-2 #3117, built in 1947 by the North British Locomotive Company in Glasgow, Scotland.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first accident of the year involving restored rolling stock and equipment in South Africa. Three workers were killed when coaches from the Rovos Rail luxury train rolled away from the locomotives that were being swapped at a station stop in Pretoria back in April.

More recently, an ore train on the Saldhana line in Western Cape province derailed on July 24, closing down the iron-ore hauling route until repairs could be made. There were no reports of injuries, although it was anticipated the mishap would affect iron ore output over the next several days.

Photo: Jim Spears

CANADA: In a surprise move, the Canadian National purchased 35 GE C40-8s secondhand from Union Pacific. Canadian Railway Observations reports that the CN paid near-scrap prices for the 20 year old six-axle 4000 HP units and they will be repainted and overhauled in the former Illinois Central shops in Homewood, IL and Centralia, IL for DPU service systemwide. This was followed up by the purchase of 30 former Santa Fe/BNSF C40-8Ws that had been idle for nearly a year with the downturn in traffic. The purchases of the secondhand GEs coincides with the retirement of most of the ex-IC SD40-2s that CN 'inherited' with their 1998 acquisition of the Illinois Central.

Photo: Kevin Madore

USA: 'Endless Mountain Rails', the 2010 NRHS convention in Scranton PA, has wrapped up [which doesn't make it so endless, I guess- NANESB!]. A series of excursions were run out of the Steamtown National Historic site in downtown Scranton, although complications arose on June 24th when a truck collided with the Delaware-Lackawana bridge south of Moscow, PA, bending the rails prior to a Delaware Water Gap excursion. The excursions were initially powered by former Canadian National 2-8-2 Mikado #3259- Steamtown's workhorse- but the decision was made to use diesels like the Delaware-Lackawana RS3s and a duo of restored former Reading Railroad FP7s (neither of which were too far removed from the steam era themselves) which would've made it easier to pass the affected trackage than with the #3259.

Here, Reading FP7 #902 is seen charging past the former Delaware, Lackawana & Western depot in Moscow, PA with one of the Delaware Water Gap excursions on June 26th.

Two Photos: Mitch Goldman

Not one to be outdone, the Reading and Northern also ran concurrent excursions out of their Jim Thorpe, PA depot to wrap up the end of the NRHS convention and in preparation for the busy 4th of July weekend. Here, the R&N's stunning #425 is getting ready to head out over the former CNJ line out of Jim Thorpe and through Lehigh Gorge State Park on the 4th of July.

Sports Chowdah Weekend Re-Cap; Orange Crushed in World Cup; Sox Overcome Shadowy Charachters, Pick Up W Before All-Star Break

It's over.

At long last, the FIFA 2010 World Cup is mercifully over. Marred by questionable officiating and incessant vuvuzelas throughout, the 2010 tournament was put out of it's misery with a final showdown between the Netherlands and Spain on Sunday.

Now granted this was between a team that hadn't advanced to the finals in over 30 years versus a team that had never finished better than 4th place making an appearance in it's first-ever World Cup final, but neither one of them really seemed like plucky underdogs that had overcome long odds to get where they were. Then again, that's probably why they got as far as they did in the first place.

Andres Inesta scored the game's only goal with 4 minutes left in injury time, breaking a scoreless tie and negating the need for a penalty shootout at Johannesburg's Soccer City. Spain beats the Netherlands by a final of 1-0 to win its first ever World Cup title.


As for the Dutch....umm....well....at least those sea walls are holding up well and the North Sea hasn't reclaimed 2/3rds of your country.

Other World Cup News: Oracle Paul has been getting death threats from irate fans. Some of those death threats have taken the form of calamari recipies. Paul is an octopus residing at the Sea Life aquarium in Oberhausen Germany who went 8-0 in his World Cup picks. Paul would 'predict' the winner of an upcoming match by having his food lowered in two seperate boxes throughout the tournament- each marked with the competing nation's flag. Whichever box Paul went into first was deemed his pick, and much to the chagrin of German, Dutch and Argentine football fans, his 'predictions' have come true. Aware that Paul's safety could be in jeopardy due to his accurate but unpopular picks, some Spanish officials have offered Paul sanctuary in the Iberian peninsula while some Spanish businessmen have made a €30,000 offer for 'Pulpo Paul'.


MLB: The Red Sox came into Sunday's game losing 5 out of their last 6 contests, so Sunday was as good a day as any to try and stop the bleeding heading into the All-Star break.

Getting no-hit for the first five innings probably wasn't the best way to go about it. To make things even more interesting, there were mechanical problems with the retractable roof at the Rogers Centre, leaving much of the infield in shadows for the first 4 innings, making it that much more difficult for batters to see the ball leave the pitcher's hand [this didn't provide the Jays with that much of an advantage, either- NANESB!]

However, the Red Sox were able to break up Jesse Litsch's no-hit bid in the top of the 6th with a Marco Scutaro double. Darnell McDonald would bring Scutaro and himself home with a homer to deep left to break the scoreless tie with 2 outs before being followed up by a solo-shot from Big Papi to put Boston up 3-0. Toronto's Aaron Hill made it a 1-run game in the bottom of the 6th with a 2-run homer off of Daisuke Matsuzaka. Matsuzaka was good for 6 innings of work, allowing six hits, two runs and five strikeouts while Daniel Bard held the Jays hitless over the next two innings and Papelbon closed it out for his 20th save.

Of course, today's win came with a price. 3B Adrian Beltre- who was named to the All-Star team- left Sunday's game in the 6th inning with what is belived to be a strained left hamstring. Beltre says he is day-to-day and will travel to Anaheim for the Mid-Summer Classic and determine whether or not he should play from there.

The Red Sox will host the Texas Rangers immediately after the All-Star break. Tim Wakefield is tentatively scheduled to be the starter

OTHER RED SOX NEWS: Josh Beckett gave up two hits and one run- a solo homer- in four innings of work during Sunday's PawSox home game against the Syracuse Sky Chiefs at McCoy Stadium. No firm timetable has been set for Beckett's return.

ELSEWHERE IN MLB: Longtime Yankees Stadium PA announcer Bob Sheppard, sometimes dubbed 'the voice of God' by New Yorkers, passed away at age 99 in his Long Island home on Sunday. Sheppard started out with the Yankees in 1951 and during the final year of the original Yankee Stadium Sheppard's voice was recorded and then used to announce lineups over the PA system due to his deteriorating health.

The Texas Rangers- despite bankruptcy and an uncertain ownership outlook- managed to pull off the biggest trade of the season so far with their acquisition of pitcher Cliff Lee from the Seattle Mariners for 1B Justin Smoak and three minor leaguers. Earlier in the week, the Yankees were considered the runaway favorite in the Cliff lee sweepstakes.

NBA: Shortly after LeBron James' announcement of joining the Miami Heat, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert accused the NBA star of quitting in the middle of the playoff series against Boston and claimed Cleveland would win an NBA title before Miami would. Attention whores Mark Cuban and Jesse Jackson have also chimed in on the whole LeBron deal, but I tend to tune them out.....

C Jermaine O'Neal signed a two year deal with the Celtics on July 8th.

Sports Chowdah Recap- Orange You Glad It's an All Euro World Cup Final? Death Rays Strike Again

UPDATE- 7/8: The most highly-anticipated free-agent NBA signing of the offseason took place earlier today with LeBron James announcing that he intends to sign with the Miami Heat, turning down a 6-year $128 million contract with the Cavs to head to Florida. Reportedly, the most that Miami could offer James was $99 Million over 5 years- so James took a pay cut to play in Florida.

The announcement came two days after Miami announced they had agreed to contracts with Toronto's Chris Bosh and the Heat's own Dwayne Wade.

WORLD CUP: And just like that, the World Cup is down to the last two teams.



{Spoiler Alert! Both of them are European}


The last non-EU team, Uruguay, was eliminated by the Dutch on Tuesday night, despite getting an injury-time goal to make it a one goal game. The Netherlands advances to their first World Cup final since 1978 after sending Uruguay packing with a 3-2 win in Cape Town.

Meanwhile, after depriving Paraguayans the spectacle of a streaking lingerie model in their capital, Spain went on to shut out Germany 1-0 on Wednesday night. Carles Puyol scored the lone goal of the game in the 72nd minute off his noggin. After the game, German head coach Joachim Loew said he was certain Spain would go on to win the World Cup at a press conference in Durban.

So there you have it. This will be Spain's first ever appearance in the World Cup final, which is set to take place July 11 at Johannesburg's Soccer City. Uruguay and Germany will play the third-place game in Port Elizabeth the day prior.

And on a personal note, might I add that while the female contingent of Spanish and Dutch fans hardly traipse around in bhurkas, Brazil's female fan base tended to be more abundant, exhibitionist and photogenic....which was all the more reason I was a little sad to see them go.

MLB: Well....I was going to insert some pithy commentary about how the Red Sox seem to manage to find somebody like a Daniel Nava or Darnell McDonald to oh-so-capably step up and fill the void when one of the starters winds up on the DL.....but then Boston went and dropped 4 straight games.

*Ouch.*

Within the division

*Double-ouch*

Which is relevant because not only does it mean Tampa Bay vaults past Boston for 2nd place in the AL East, but because if there's any sort of tie between either the Red Sox and Yankees or Red Sox and Rays for the AL East pennant or Wild Card, one of the tie breakers is going to be that team's record within the division.

Just to add insult to injury, did I mention that Boston lost the final game of their home stand to the lowly Orioles? I did catch some of Tuesday night's game with Felix Doubront on the mound. There was also the intruige of Doubront going up against his former manager in Boston's South Atlantic League affiliate Greenville Drive, Gabe Kapler. Kapler went 0 for 2 with two walks on the night and Doubront was pulled in the 6th in the 3-2 loss to Tampa. Kevin Youkilis

Tim Wakefield was charged with six runs in Wednesday night's 6-4 loss to Tampa Bay while the Rays David Price became the first AL pitcher to win 12 games this season.

Boston will travel to Toronto to kick off a 3-game series against the Blue Jays on Friday night. The probable starters will be Jon Lester (10-3; 2.76 ERA) versus Ricky Romero (6-5; 3.39 ERA).

MLB All-Star Game: Jon Lester, Adrian Beltre, Clay Buchholz, Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz and Victor Martinez have been named to the 2010 MLB All-Star roster. However, at least half of the 6 players named to the All Star game in Anaheim will have to sit this one out, since Buchholz, Pedroia and Martinez have been on the DL.

Kevin Youkilis is in the running for a online campaign to be named to the last AL All Star spot, along with Minnesota's Delmon Young, Texas' Michael Young, the Yankees Nick Swisher and the ChiSox's Paul Konerko.

Tomorrow is the last day for voting *hintity hint hint*

DL Edition Sports Chowdah Recap for June 30 to July 3rd- Depleted Sox Add to O's Woes; Dutch Treat as Brazilians Whacked

Take your pick- the DL could stand for 'Disabled list' or 'Distraught Latinas'.

MLB: For the second year in a row, the Red Sox head into Independence Day with a 49-32 record. Friday night's 3-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles was probably to accommodate all the speed-daters present, since that took all of 2 hours and 7 minutes. Tim Wakefield scattered 7 hits through 8 innings of work while JD Drew had two solo homers and went 2 for 3 on the night with Daniel Nava coming on to pinch hit for Eric Patterson in the bottom of the 8th to break the 2-2 deadlock with a bloop RBI single- not as dramatic as a grand-slam in his 1st ever at bat, but just as effective.

Papelbon came on in the 9th for another 1-2-3 save opportunity, his 19th of the year.

Tonight's game wasn't as brisk, but who am I to complain about the results? Baltimore's Jeremy Guthrie lasted only four innings while giving up nine hits, six runs- including a one out 2 RBI double in the bottom of the 1st to JD Drew- and walking three while Jon Lester improved his record to 10-3 with 7 innings pitched, an earned run, three walks and seven strikeouts. JD Drew has gone 5 for 6 with 4 RBIs in the series so far. Boston wins by a 9-3 final. Game three of the series will have Brian Matusz (2-9; 4.90 ERA) start for Baltimore against Lackey (9-3; 4.46 ERA)at 1:35 PM Eastern time tomorrow.

All this comes with more additions to the DL. If losing Buchholz, Ellsbury, Lowell, Beckett and Pedroia to injury wasn't enough, Sox Captain Jason Varitek was placed on the DL with a broken left foot on July 1st. The same day 'Tek went on the DL, Boston reacquired a familiar name, C Kevin Cash from the Houston Astros in exchange for infielder Angel Sanchez. No State Police escort from the airport this time around, but Cash did a good job of backstopping Wake Friday.

MLB All-Star Game: The rosters for the 2010 American League and National League All-Stars will be announced at noon eastern time tomorrow on TBS prior to their broadcast of the Blue Jays/Yankees game.


WORLD CUP: Well...stick a fork in Brazil- they're done like a churrasco after the Dutch put a wooden clog to their collective backsides...actually the game was alot closer than that, but scantily clad dames of varying nationalities and ethnicities in the stands and snarky hyperbole are typically the only things that can maintain any interest in the World Cup on my part.

Brazil got out to a quick 1-0 lead, but the equalizer came on an own-goal off the noggin of Felipe Melo and the Dutch went up for good on Wesley Sneijder's header for the 2-1 win. My offer to the sultry and no doubt dejected Brazil fanbabes fanbase via backrubs and assisting in the application of sunblock still stands, however.

In other World Cup news....wow....what a bunch of worthless douchebags Spain turned out to be. Screw you, Spain!

[*ring ring* You keep watching the game, Larissa- I'll get it!]

Paraguayan Lingerie model Larissa Riquelme promised to strip naked and run through the capitol city of Asuncion's main plaza should Paraguay win the World Cup (although some variations of the rumor reported she'd be wearing bodypaint in the team's colors). However, in order for that to happen, they had to get past Spain.

OK....Spain...how hard would it have been to take a dive? But nooooooo....what's his name Villa scored in the 82nd minute for the only goal of the match in Spain's 1-0 win. You better have somebody of equal or greater hotness in red & yellow paint willing to do the Lady Godiva thing (sans horse) in Plaza de de España.

[Must...practice...headball....drills]

Of course, on the flip side of the coin it's not often I get to say this, but "Thank you, Germany". Apparently a similar exhibitionist wager was made by bloated, coked-up Argentina coach Diego Maradona. So it seems Maradona promised to run naked around the obelisk in the middle of Buenos Aires' Av. 9 de Julio should Argentina win the 2010 World Cup. The Germans convincing 4-0 on Saturday's rout of the Argentines meant that Maradona would not be able to make good on his threat.

Danke shein, baby!

Also- Uruguay ousted Ghana in a scoreless contest that was decided by penalty kicks. Apparently this was the match that was being watched in that village in the Eastern part of Congo when a fuel tanker crashed and exploded.

So the semifinals will look something like this:
Germany vs. Spain on 7/7 from Durban
Uruguay vs The Netherlands on 7/6 from Cape Town

NCAA Baseball: Shoot....missed that whole College World Series thing. Besides being the home of the AAA affiliate of Kansas City (the Omaha Royals) Omaha's Rosenblatt stadium also hosted the College World Series every year since 1950. The 2010 World Series would be the last one played at Rosenblatt, with South Carolina winning the series 2-0 on a walk-off Whit Merrifield RBI single in the bottom of the 11th to beat UCLA by a 2-1 final. This is south Carolina's first ever College World Series title.

A new ballpark- TD Ameritrade Park- is slated to open in Omaha next to the Qwest Center in the North Downtown area of Omaha.