38 search results for "carver lumber"

  Trail proponent David Pittman assured supporters at Wednesday’s press conference that despite the Pioneer Industrial Railway having run a locomotive up the Kellar Branch Friday, January 18, ”no freight was ran on the line.” But railroads don’t run locomotives just for fun and the first revenue carload was due in a week. As of today, and...
Read more »

I can’t find a clip on the Web, but I think I must have heard it on WCBU. State Sen. Dave Koehler attended the rally in support of turning the Kellar Branch into a walking/biking trail. Sen. Koehler was indignant over the fact that the Surface Transportation Board wouldn’t let the City of Peoria and...
Read more »

  Pioneer Industrial Railway engine gives a friendly toot as it passes in back of the Journal Star today. Photo by David P. Jordan The Pioneer Industrial Railway operated its locomotive the length of the Kellar Branch this afternoon, the first known to do so since August 2005. No revenue carloads for Carver Lumber have arrived,...
Read more »

The Journal Star reports today that Central Illinois Railroad (CIRY) and Pioneer Industrial Railway (PIRY) have come to an agreement as to when each can operate on the Kellar Branch.  If you’ll recall, the Surface Transportation Board decided last Friday to mediate the dispute between the two carriers. If an agreement was not reached by...
Read more »

Today’s links via the Journal Star, unless noted: Kudos to Terry Bibo for finally getting into print what I had been wondering all along. WTVP has never missed a payment on the debt it incurred on it’s new studio. Instead, Bank of America has demanded full payment immediately because the number of pledges differs from...
Read more »

Central Illinois Railroad  confidently asserts that Pioneer Industrial Railway has “misled” the Surface Transportation Board regarding the fight over the Kellar Branch, yet themselves need to confess those same sins. Case in point: yesterday’s Petition to Modify and Hold in Abeyance the Board’s Nov. 19 Decision to restore PIRY’s operating authority on the Kellar Branch. CIRY...
Read more »

Central Illinois Rail has filed a motion with the Surface Transportation Board asking the STB to modify its recent ruling upholding it’s denial of an the City of Peoria’s request to have Pioneer Rail kicked off the Kellar branch. The motion by CIRY also asks the STB to: “… hold this decision in abeyance...
Read more »

I’m not a lawyer, nor am I a rail fan, but it reads to me that the City of Peoria has failed in its effort to get the Surface Transportion Board to keep Pioneer Railcorp from serving customers on the Kellar Branch. Basically, Peoria’s application for an “adverse discontinuance” was denied effective today, and...
Read more »

Never hesitant to let accuracy to get in the way of its opinions, the award winning (snicker) editorial page of the Peoria Journal Star today asserts that there are “no obvious customers” on the Kellar Branch* line. Really? Lets count them: Carver Lumber, Obrien Steel and the ready mix plant on Van Buren (the name...
Read more »

Central Illinois Railroad Co., is now planning to run the entire Kellar Branch, thus allowing for the restoration of rail service to Carver Lumber. This development is hilariously ironic since CIRY was hired by the City of Peoria to replace the uncooperative Pioneer Industrial Railway so that most of the Kellar Branch could be...
Read more »

C.J. Summers has the scoop and the background. It looks like we can kiss goodbye ANY hope that the Union Pacific could help provide rail to Carver Lumber.
Read more »

Friends of the Rock Island Trail, Inc. (FRITI) filed on March 28 with the Surface Transportation Board a motion/petition/request that rehashed old, failed arguments but also made many laughable misstatements of fact. Among them: FRITI: “ would eliminate the responsibility Peoria maintain 24 street crossings…” FACT: I count 18 grade crossings on...
Read more »

Watching O’Brien Steel Service Co. President J. P. O’Brien’s presentation before the Peoria City council on Tuesday, February 13, was painful and infuriating. Hearing someone, in 2007, state that (paraphrased) “no one needs or wants rail service” is so uninformed it makes one wonder what cave he’s been living in the past decade or...
Read more »

Pioneer Railcorp is paying off bloggers who “drone” on endlessly in opposition to converting the Keller Branch into a walking/biking path. Likewise, the Peoria Park District is paying the transportation costs for former Mayor Richard Carver’s as he works behidn the scenes to promote a “Y” connection to the west, which would make it...
Read more »

I sat through a surprisingly short Peoria City Council meeting during which the many, many sides of the Kellar Branch debate were heard. Were I writing a lede for a newspaper article on the meeting, I start with former Mayor Dick Carver saying that he wouldn’t be surprised if, maybe in a month or...
Read more »

Not surprisingly, the Peoria City Council deferred discussion of the Kellar Branch one week to Tuesday, February 13. The reason: former Peoria Mayor, now resident of Arlington, Virginia, Richard E. Carver couldn’t make it to the meeting. Carver has sided with the Peoria Park District so naturally, his traveling and lodging expenses are being...
Read more »

When the Central Illinois Railroad filed with the Surface Transportation Board December 5, 2006 asking them to withdraw their Petition for Discontinuance Exemption (filed September 12, 2005, granted December 23, 2005 and then withdrawn January 12, 2007), everyone, including myself, was ecstatic as it appeared that they had “mutinied” against the City of Peoria...
Read more »

The Peoria City Council will hear trail proponents’ gripes about the lack of progress on their trail extension February 6 so it’s important that they are prepared to hear misinformed, cliché-ridden, railroad-ignorant rhetoric that has already been debunked in the local blogosphere. Some blog readers may tire of this issue, but the issue is a...
Read more »

The Journal Star’s Editorial has weighed in on the Surface Transportation Board’s January 12 decision, which granted the Central Illinois Railroad’s request to withdraw its petition to discontinue service on the Kellar Branch, and also granted Pioneer Industrial Railway’s request to have the Board’s August 2005 decision (allowing the city to evict them from...
Read more »

Saturday’s Journal Star had a forum letter submitted by Recreational Trail Advocates Vice-President Mike Rucker. Rucker begins by responding to an earlier letter by Frank Hubbell, who mistakenly believed the JS was “anti-trail,” reminding him that: The Journal Star has seen the importance of recreational trails from the beginning and is fully supportive. A letter to...
Read more »