Train to keep using wood pellets Locomotive fuel for overnight idling reduces smoke July 17, 2007 By Chuck Slothower | Herald Staff Writer A faint scent of hickory and cherry smoke has settled over south Durango on recent evenings. Neighborhood residents know that it's the smell of compromise. YODIT GIDEY/Herald photos Michael Mahaffey, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad watchman, loads wood pellets into engine No. 482 at the depot on Monday. Mahaffey loads wood to last all night and workers go back to coal as morning nears. Wood pellets are used to lower emissions. Each locomotive needs a different amount of fuel, Mahaffey said. Engine Nos. 482 and 478 require a little more fuel, he said, while the Nos. 480, 481, and 486 require less. In an expensive concession to south Durango residents, the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad recently began burning wood pellets in its locomotives while they idle overnight. The historic railroad began burning the hardwood pellets June 29 after owner Al Harper reached an agreement with the Train Smoke Mitigation Task Force, a group examining ways to reduce the train's emissions. Harper pledged in January to spend $1 million during the next five years to reduce the coal-fired train's emissions. The railroad owner has given the task force a significant say in how to spend the money, according to interviews. The railroad now burns about 1,000 pounds of wood pellets every night in each of the four locomotives it keeps "hot," or ready to run the next morning. The pellets are manufactured by Muscanell Millworks Inc. of Cortez and cost more than twice as much as coal. The pellet effort follows recommendations from a feasibility study facilitated by the Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest Colorado. Harper's commitment to use the pellets represents a significant investment in community relations by the railroad, a linchpin of Durango's tourism economy that draws regular complaints about its coal emissions and noise. The pellets cost about $150 a ton, while coal costs only $59.80 a ton, said railroad spokeswoman Andrea Seid. The railroad has worked to maintain its historic character - its locomotives date from the 1920s - during a period of growing pains for Durango. In recent years, complaints about soot and ash have clashed with widespread recognition of the railroad's outsized role in the town's economy and history. The railroad began using pellets - one recommendation from the study - "to reduce the smoke for Durango, for the southside residents," Seid said. But the railroad has no intention of abandoning the use of coal for its trips to Silverton. "Al Harper is very committed to keeping this railroad as coal-fired," Seid said. Harper, who purchased the railroad in 1998, values historic accuracy, and that means using coal, she said. The compromise between the railroad and residents seems to be working. "There's a huge difference in the all-night emissions," said Sarah Wright, a south Durango resident and member of the task force. Wright said the locomotives still emit a significant amount of smoke when they start up in the morning, but she expressed appreciation for Harper's cooperation. "I think we're lucky that Al Harper has committed this money and is helping," she said. Another resident and task-force member, Jessey Tase, agreed. "I think it's great," she said. "It has helped a lot with the smell. It's a much less offensive smoke, and it doesn't seem as strong." Muscanell Millworks, located about 10 miles north of Cortez, makes the pellets from wood waste from the manufacturing of flooring. The volume of waste had become an issue for the mill, and the train's purchases have helped, said Karen Harbaugh, co-owner of Muscanell. "It's just a great match with the train and their needs."
Good to see people working on a solution that meets everyone's needs. :lightbulb: :lightbulb: :lightbulb: :lightbulb:
I fail to understand any reasoning behind the city not completely funding this project. It's a problem created by the city. :thumbs_down: Boxcab E50
That would require government to take full responsibility for their actions. They might consider that bad precedent. No one else does it. Frank
:confused2:I don't know. I didn't see a mention of a government entity here, just a task force. The task force could just be a bunch of neighbors who were choking on coal smoke all night. Again, I wish I had all the facts. Could it be that Durango & Silverton only recently took to firing locomotives in town all night? Maybe they used to run them up the line a mile or two and do it there, and then decided that was a hassle so they brought them back to town and now everyone is gagging on coal smoke, particularly bad for some allergy and asthma sufferers. If the factory across the street from my house decided that it needed its own power generation plant and was looking at coal as a source I would be fighting that decision the best I could. My house is 85 years old. That factory dates from about the 1940s, and they border two older neighborhoods. When I moved in they weren't burning coal and never have, and owing to my inability to breathe well when the air is bad, I checked that out before I moved into the place. If that were to change, I would be contacting the owner and asking for reconsideration, and if he told me to step off, I would get a task force or whatever and go after another solution. Harper may see it as a concession to the neighborhood in order to engender good will and cooperation in the future. There may be some enlightened self-interest in play here, instead of just bare, reptilian self-interest. :lightbulb:Maybe what we need to do is get Harper to burn coal anyway, and then funnel the savings into a fund that will airlift non-railfans OUT of Durango and into some parallel looking town fifty miles away, and then convert their former homes into cottages for foamer vacations. What do you say, Boxcab?
It may be a friendly gesture. But it's very costly, to only one side of the debate. This whole thing is much like the people who come in and build houses next to railroad tracks. Unthinking. Then turn around and try to sue the noisy railroad. Or regulate the times and numbers of trains. They just plain make themselves look the fools they are. If I recall correctly, the task force did involve local government. In situations such as this, they usually are somewhere in the picture. AFAIK- Their engines have always been hostled and watched on site. Boxcab E50
But what about my suggestion for turning Durango into a free-to-foamers vacation destination? Who knows. I work (but don't live) in one of these phony baloney new "neighborhoods" where a popular pastime is complaining about the actual trains (although vestiges of the rail past are considered gritty and cool). I like to point out that the trains are actually rather infrequent considering and that they proceed through the crossings with reasonable alacrity... and that the tracks have been here since the 19th century and they aren't going anywhere soon. I personally love the fact that I can hear trains running around the North Portland Peninsula. It's a lot more pleasant than those jackasses that burn cookies in the middle of my street. The tire spinning wakes up my kids and scares them and it's just so unnecessary. I'm always afraid that one of those guys is going to spin out of control and come through my living room. I normally try to take a neutral view of things and consider all sides, but the kum-ba-yah would be right out the door if I had to pull one of these fools out from behind his airbag next to the remains of my couch. I was concerned about possible noise when I bought my house in December. I did the basic research, and searched city records for nuisance complaints from neighbors of the property and I also went and sat in my car with the window slightly cracked at various times day and night to check on the traffic noise just so that I would be making an educated guess. Unfortunately, too many people DON'T do even the basic research before committing to such a large thing like buying a house. Adam
It used to be SOP, for any prospective buyer, to check into schools, libraries, medical facilities, grocery stores, crime, etc, etc, etc. Now, they simply jump in, eyes closed. Then, when someone does something they don't like, it's grab a lawyer and sue, sue, sue. Even thought the failure is totally their own. And they win these cases. Disgraceful. Boxcab E50
To me it depends on what they are suing about. If they buy a new house from a builder who warrants the siding for a certain period, and problems pop up the first winter, still within that period, and the builder says "eat my underwear," the owner should sue for damages. If, on the other hand, I were not to have done my research (which I did do, but this is a for instance) and were to find out that they stamp large metal plates at the factory across the street at all hours of night, that would be sort of my own sucks to be me moment. There are a lot of bad lawsuits, and a lot of them never end up getting anywhere. There are some very legitimate lawsuits, and I have no problem with this second category. I still want to turn the complainers' homes into vacation homes for foamers... say discounted or free for those of us with more than 200 posts on Trainboard, and steeply discounted or free with free airfare for Boxcab because he has more than 20,000 posts.
This is what I'm talking about. We've all heard about them going after the RR, instead of looking in a mirror for the real culprit. I've even met an attorney, who was representing such people. And took the opportunity to fry his ears. Left him embarrassed, and unable to do more than fumble for words. Hmmm. Maybe we need to look more closely at this idea! Ha ha ha.... :teeth: Boxcab E50
At the risk of straying REALLY far off topic, I will say that there are lots of dinks out there who really don't know which is their backside or what they are doing who take the path of blaming someone else or complaining before they think about how they themselves could make things better. We were talking about reporters not doing their homework on another thread, and we have touched on homebuyers not doing their homework, and sort of the drone on the set of not-doing-homework bagpipes has been the attorneys not doing their homework. I consider myself fairly progressive in most things, but I really do think that we need to have a little more initiative and a little more personal responsibility at all levels of society, and that goes for reporters, homebuyers, attorneys, architects, small town mayors, Renaissance faire organizers, and the Executive Branch. Okay, back to our regularly scheduled topic. Any more of this and I think we should take it to the Cattle Car.
This is a joke,they knew the rr was there,why buy near the place if the smell offends you????????They should have been made to move!! Nothing like the smell of burning coal on a cold morning!
