Episode 14: Playing with the Big Kids

In this week’s episode of Off the Rails with Rowdy and Bethan, Rowdy and Bethan are back to the usual shenanigans, with a bit less food-centered content than "the talent" prefers. They detail activities where they're parading around undercover, hanging out with the "Big Kids," a.k.a. freight folks. 

1.) Recapping the ASLRRA Conference that was held in Minneapolis from April 12 through 14. 
2.) The current state of our CRISI application. The scope of our project has increased from a mere $20 million to $29 million, and Bethan is definitely feeling the pressure. 
3.) In the News! Our weekly news segment is a bit self-serving, featuring the start of our 21+ event series! Also covered, the magnificent debut of the newly restored Cheney Depot.  Check it out here: https://www.cheneydepot.com
4.) Our Frequently Asked Questions – like, what the heck is behind you guys? 

Got a question or topic you want us to cover? Send it our way- we’d love to hear from you. 

So grab your coffee, crank up the phonograph, and let’s go Off the Rails.

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Thanks to Huffman Machining Solutions is proud to sponsor this Off the Rails podcast.  See how we can help with your next challenge at huggmanmachining.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Welcome to Off the Rails, the podcast where steam locomotives meet modern matters. Joint executive director of the Mount Rainier Sponge Railroad, Bethany Marr, and Rowdy Pierre Superintendent, Professional Catherine, and occasional out a coach tour. Together they pull back the curtain on the wild, weird, and often hilarious world of tourist steam railroad. You'll get a front row speak to the ins and outs of this truly unique business. So grab your ticket, hold on to your sense of humor, and join us for a ride into the unpredictable world of Steam. This is Off the Rail.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Hello and welcome.

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Oh to Off the Rail.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

They started us.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

I was doing my New York Times crossword. How's it going?

SPEAKER_00 0:50

It's going.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

That's what you say every week.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Yeah. It's going.

SPEAKER_02 0:57

What's new?

SPEAKER_00 0:59

Oh, just same shit, different day. Same turd, different toilet.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

We had another staff meeting at our new shop.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

We did. And um whoo, per the talking points. It is not a shop. It is a restoration facility.

SPEAKER_02 1:16

That is fair. Per the meetings, talking points, and per our grant funding applications, it is a restoration facility, which is serving as a very large parking garage at the moment. For every company vehicle.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

And then some. And then some. And then some. Everything we didn't want it set outside in the rain, which the rainy season is pretty much over.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Yeah, because it it uh until we have rails in the building and until we move our machine shop. It's a large storage facility, which is also needed.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:47

So uh yeah, we had staff meetings this morning. 70 work continues.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Rolling and beating.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

It's kind of the work continues faster than it seems like anybody can really keep caught up on it on the like regulatory side. Like, well, we have some questions, you know. I know you're on a uh expediated timeline. And it's like, yeah, the tubes are in it and they're almost damn near done being beaded. Oh what? Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Yeah. Um the regulators are slower than the work. The yes. Uh which is probably not an uncommon concept, but yeah, Chris and Chris and Nate are really they're killing themselves keeping that thing going down the down the track.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

And uh technically, right now, I would say it probably is a pressure vessel again, because all the tubes are in it, all the tubes are rolled, and the firebox side is done being beaded, needs to be seal welded, and I'd say almost 50% of the um smoke box side is beaded over. Yeah. So in the next few days it'll be w rowdy just in there welding the seal welds.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

Seal weld and then put water in it, yeah?

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:59

And then squeeze it.

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Squeeze it, and then steam test it. Yeah. And if the FRA says, bless you child children, on the paperwork side of things, then we run steam. We run a steam engine.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

We need to do a little bit of paint work first.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Paint work, and we got some running gear stuff to hit real fast, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:20

So that's what's going on. I am in grant season. Um, except there have been so many distractions that I haven't gotten the focus on grants. So at some point I'm going to go dark. And like I'm gonna move to an undisclosed location uh away from all of my responsibilities. Someone's gonna have to sign me out of my email inbox.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

Including the three that are on flat cars and on their way.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

The Ratting cars are rolling.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

They're they were caught on a virtual rail fan camera.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

As of today, they'll be somewhere around Birmingham.

SPEAKER_00 4:01

They're heading into the south, that's all I know.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Yeah. I was told that Adam Rail, Adam McDowell, put Waffle House in them for me, so they should be here exp in time.

SPEAKER_00 4:16

That's gonna be disgusting when it shows up, you know that, right?

SPEAKER_02 4:19

I think you might have been just telling me that to make me feel better. Anyway, um, yeah, it's a lot of the same old, same old. It sort of feels like we're in this uh like infinity loop of work and it's the same stuff over and over and over again.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Groundhog day.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

It was groundhog day. It was really exciting for a while because like I had all sorts of updates happening, like boom, boom, boom. And then we get back in this loop where it's just it's the grind. Same thing. And it's the grind, and the grind grind, grind, grind, grind. And then eventually, hopefully, we will have done enough grinding that exciting things happen. And then we rinse and repeat and we go back to the grind. Yep. Yep. Uh the I think that one thing uh the general public and the foaming public underestimate about railroading and tourist railroads is the sheer amount of monotony.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Yeah. Like it's the same thing every day.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Uh I am struggling on the social media to put anything exciting out. Like, I'm and part of that is probably just me, because I'm tired and I'm not a marketing professional. I just do our marketing. But I am struggling to make this stuff.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

No, come on over, come on over to YouTube, Land, and we'll keep things exciting for you. Calvin's laughing. Let's um I'm on a roll with the YouTube.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Thanks for joining us with Off the Rails. On to the segment. Recapping the American Short Line Railroad Conference in Minneapolis. From April through April, something through something. It was a Saturday through a Wednesday.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:07

I think we went to the American Shortline Railroad Association, A-S-L-R-R-A conference in Minneapolis.

SPEAKER_00 6:16

We did. And we did an ungodly we walked six and a half miles one day.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

Yeah, that was our own fault.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Um, I got to look in the door of gay 90s and watch somebody ride the giant mechanical uh pink penis. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

Is it pink or is it purple?

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Oh, it was pink that night, unless it was purple, unless it was pink under the black lights, but it looked like they were having a good time in there.

SPEAKER_02 6:39

Alright, so we flew in Saturday, and flight was uneventful. You um read it. I will say this.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Like I keep telling everybody and they get a chuckle out of it. The entire flight, most of it, I was reading Run Silent, Run Deep, which is one of my favorite books. And on the way out and the way back, between the turbulence and the kids kicking the back of the seats, it made the depth charging points of that book feel very real. Read World War II submarine books on planes. It's it's a it's a treat.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

And you ignored me the whole time.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

I did. I had my headphones in and I just sat there and read.

SPEAKER_02 7:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

I did my customary, there's nothing on the wing because we were sitting too far forward of the wing.

SPEAKER_02 7:19

And that was that. Yep. Uh so flights were pretty uneventful. Uh we got there Saturday, and you walked into the hotel lobby and immediately looked at your boots.

SPEAKER_00 7:38

My boots.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Yes. You walked into the lobby, you looked around, and then you went like this.

SPEAKER_00 7:47

Are you talking about all the wannabe wannabe country people that were there? Yep. Oh, yeah, there was the Morgan Wallen or Wayland, whatever.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

Morgan Wallen was whatever the hell his name is.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

I don't know. So the hotel lobby was chalk. Chalk full. Chalk full of wannabe rednecks and mud crickets. Uh and um It's okay, Calvin. I'll tell you what a mud cricket is after the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 8:12

Um there was a lot of fake hair and a lot of fake other parts.

SPEAKER_00 8:17

There is a lot of fake everything. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

And a lot of couples fighting in the lobby when we walked in. It was phenomenal. Uh so anyway, we flew in.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

Um that happens when you get that hip-hop country crowd involved.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

We went to, it's not. Anyway. Um the first night we were there, we went to the Mall of America.

SPEAKER_00 8:41

That was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 8:43

And we went to the Rainforest Cafe. And it was your first time at the Rainforest Cafe.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

Mm-hmm. We waited, so this is how long we had to wait to go to the Rainforest Cafe. We all ate.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

We ate first dinners, which like that is my ideal way of living my life. Is I had first dinner.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

And then we waited two hours before we could get into the rainforest cafe.

SPEAKER_02 9:03

And then I know, and we were there late in the middle of the day. And we didn't do anything.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

We should have gone to freaking, we should have gone to the played putt-putt golf, because of the folks that don't know what the Mall of America is, it's freaking huge and it's got this amusement. It is my worst nightmare.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Did you ride the roller coaster? No, we productions asking about the roller coasters.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

No, we didn't ride any of the roller coasters, but I noticed that above the roller coasters, above, no, no, that above the roller coasters was a putt-putt golf course, and we didn't take it.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

It is my idea of hell. That is like late stage capitalism and like filtered air systems and like artificial lighting and two cold stone creeneries. That part of capitalism's alright, but like, oof, that was.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Did you notice that there was a Radio Shack?

SPEAKER_02 9:50

I didn't.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

Radio Shack's out of business.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

I was really, really delighted to spend time with uh the Nogatuck.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:59

Uh we had we had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe with um Alex, Matt, and Dave from the Nog.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

The gorilla really wanted to square up and fight somebody.

SPEAKER_02 10:08

Yeah, the gorilla. Matthew was sitting seated right under the gorilla, and the gorilla would randomly square up and not make noise and just square up like it was wanting to fight. But like that was a genuinely lovely and fun time. And the poor waiter who we exercised pretty well ended up did end up finding us the party hats.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

So we wore those back to the hotel. Um Dave dropped us off like a good little soccer mom. Like he dropped us off at the hotel, and we went into the lobby with our safari-colored safari hats on.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

Went straight to the bar.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

Sat down at the hotel bar and then for the second time that day. For yeah, but um, it was amazing. People found us very easily. Like there were industry friends that walked into the bar and went, I was wondering how I was gonna find you both.

SPEAKER_00 10:55

And we're sitting there with safari hats on.

SPEAKER_02 10:57

I was like, I shouldn't have wondered.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

But the the the the core memory from the first day was sitting at the bar point one and you saying, We're gonna have to drink these fast because they're on their way. And I got a crown and seven, a small one.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

And I shotgunned it right in front of most of the safety folks for ASLRA.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

And the look on their the look on their face was like, Well, I told the guy at the hotel, I was like, So there's a railroad conference in town this week. Like, you you're gonna have to make sure your whiskey stock is well supplied. Yeah. Um, so Shortland Associate, the first day there was an operation, lifesaver training.

SPEAKER_00 11:33

That Beth and thought would be a good idea for me.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

That I did think was gonna be a really good idea, the go-to, and well, I believe that they do really, really, really good work. Um we did the training and we got our certificate. And we know that trains don't stop very quickly. And we practiced how to talk to the public.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

Uh one guy came up to me and looks at me and goes, you were voluntold to be here, weren't you?

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Yeah, so we practiced how to talk to the public, and most of their advice on talking to the public is maybe not the typical mount reinier scenic railroad way. Well, I mean, for one It's a little bit more polished.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

For one, to pass the certification, you cannot answer any of the questions like a railroad.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

Yeah. So You gotta be a little bit more it to me professional. To me, it was ambiguous. They don't want they like they don't, I mean how do you how do you common semantics they don't want you without sounding like you're shitting on Operation Lifesaber because they do good important work?

SPEAKER_00 12:54

They do good important work. It's I think that they would have much more engagement with it if they figured out a way of getting with the times and their messaging.

SPEAKER_02 13:05

It's I think they're trying to be very, very careful about not probably a about being politically correct, about being sensitive to people that have experienced incidents along railways, railroads. Um, it's sort of a situation where you don't talk about current events, you don't you never use the word accident, you don't talk about some of like the realities behind what we do.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

It's it's very, very, very talked about removes all sense of danger in it. So so when the if if I were somebody sitting in the public listening to the way that they talked to us, because they talked to us the same way that they would talk to people that they would be doing this in front of. It would be a for me, it would be a Charlie Brown situation, uh because they're so careful to avoid actually talking about what they're doing. Yeah. I mean, they don't want you to say that if you screw around on the railroad tracks and a train hits you, you're gonna get killed.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

Yeah. Well, just think something bad could happen.

SPEAKER_00 14:23

But you can't they don't want you to say tracks are dangerous.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

Yeah. It's I mean it was it was yeah. Anyway, it was what it was. Um what else was day one? It was Operation Lifesaver. We did a couple of seminars. Committee meetings. We did a couple of committee meetings, we did a couple of seminars. And then the terrorist working group. So it was the first in-person meeting of the excursion railroad working group, which is newly formed within the American Shortline Association. It's something that we asked them to do, and they were very accommodating. And then I Alan Maples was voluntole to chair it. So there's your Alan Maples uh mention of the day.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Take a shot. Um probably not gonna be the last one since we're talking about the conference.

SPEAKER_02 15:17

No. Um and I think there were like it was good. It was some of the players in the room are really, really legitimate folks. Like Patriot Rail is getting into excursions. You had Jaguar there, um Mendocinos there, Durango. I mean American Heritage. I can't just say Durango, American Heritage.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

And then you know, those were the people sitting at the table, but the people that were kind of sitting back in the audience, like Bob Franzen and them, you know. I'd I'd never seen Franzen at something like that before.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:51

So I mean you you got some pretty good-sized players in in the tourist railroad world.

SPEAKER_02 15:56

A little heavier hitting than we've seen at HRA.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

The thing of it is it was really surprising to me to see the folks from a roaring camp there. Yep. And the the topic of your your favorite topic being discussed in the rails to trails.

SPEAKER_02 16:10

Um you know, we talked about the um obviously the mendocino ruling came up and what the implications of that are. There was discussion about the rail to trail movement, you know, and why what the ramifications on the industry could be, and how you know we as a community and industry try and safeguard against some of that.

SPEAKER_00 16:32

And to the folks at home, the two-hour special edition podcast of Rails to Trails with Beth and is in the works. It's just probably a year out.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

I just I have so much trauma. Yeah. I mean, sort of. Um I don't want to get that one wrong. I think that's it.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

You can't get that one wrong.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

And there's a lot of- You don't want to say anything incorrect.

SPEAKER_00 16:57

There's a lot of things that you can get wrong in that. Um Yeah, that was brought up.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Um the you know, the how it relates to the STB, how railroads that don't have STB jurisdiction might be affected. So that was really important. Um the FRA liaisons were there, so um I'm going to gloss over 20 minutes of the working group that was discussing issues with the FRA. Um I'm gonna fast forward over that because I don't know that that's the same.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

It was it was a good, it was a it was that those things were were in their own special way, good. And you know, there's there's work that needs to be done to improve, but you know, for the most part, the first sit down was a good one.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

Yeah, and a big thing.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

I stayed quiet the entire time.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

You you did. Um there, you know, like it was a good opportunity for like part two for a new part of the CFR. And um, one of the folks in the room asked for clarification as how as to how part two for volunteers, because they have volunteers sometimes working in their museum on railroad projects. So is part 243 applying to a volunteer sanding a locomotive in a car shop? Um, so I think that those are really good things that when the rules are being written, um it's impossible to think of every eventuality.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Um so those are the things that it's really good to get everyone together and talk about how these impacts affect the industry as a whole. So that was good. Um I'm interested to see where the group goes.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

And then the rest of the conference, it didn't have the same energy that it did last year.

SPEAKER_02 18:51

Yeah, we both said that.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

And I think it didn't have it. I mean, it it was very well done. They did it's always well done. They they do a very good job putting them together. I think that it's always incredibly well coordinated.

SPEAKER_02 19:04

It's very well coordinated. Folks from the Shortline Association are so knowledgeable about what they do and their specialties, and they've got their hands on the pulse of everything happening in the railroad world. I mean, that team is incredible, incredibly skilled. It's just the energy inside the room.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

The energy inside the room from all the not the ASLRA itself, but all the short lines that were there. The energy inside the room was just like down.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

So there's two huge things happening in the industry.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

One is the UPNS merger, which all of the Borg assimilating the rest of us.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

Yeah. And you know, there was like the first open general session day, BN was there, and Katie Farmer talked about how bad the merger was gonna be for the industry. The second day, um oh gosh, what's his name? Uh from NS was there.

SPEAKER_00 20:03

Boy George.

SPEAKER_02 20:05

Uh yes. Uh and was talking about what the benefits are.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

It took me a minute to remember his first name because everybody that we were hanging out with was just calling him Boy George.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

Yeah. Um Sorry, Mark. Um The UPNS merger is a point of stress for shortline railroads. Because anytime there's a merger, there are complicating factors as to how business gets done and whether it's gonna there are gonna be growing pains associated with it. Um the shortline railroads are struggling with being able to get cars to the class ones that are handled efficiently, uh, with answers and way billing. I mean, a lot of that stuff, the efficiency of the railroad system has largely been lost in the last few years because, in my opinion, because of the bureaucracy, the paperwork, and sort of these megalith companies associated with it.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

And to a certain extent, there's certain things that class ones just don't want to touch that there is a market for there. And you know, how do you how do you touch it? Because they they consider it all specialty. Well, then the rates go up because it's specialty, and you know, they the the class ones, this is the disclaimer, this is just my opinion. The class ones are driving more stuff off the rails and onto trucks because of the service provided at the first and last mile, which 90% of the time now is a short line handling that, not the actual class one. So, I mean, there's a lot more lumber that could move by rail, but the class ones really don't want to touch it. You know, you want to move logs by rail. Look at how hard it is to get log cars onto a train because it's considered a specialty item. You know, it it there's a lot of this stuff that the class ones are in a way, and they don't think they are, but they are. They're driving a lot of consumer products off of rail traffic and onto trucks. And a lot of that consumer product, which they're driving away, is the stuff that the short lines thrive on.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

Yeah. And like, you know, Bien argues that, hey, this giant merger is just gonna create a larger monolith of a company that's been going to become less and less efficient, efficient, and um less able to service customers. And shortlines and UPNNS are arguing that, hey, this is gonna allow us to integrate systems and improve efficiency. Y'all can make your own decisions. I would just say that from a conference and industry mood perspective, the shortline railroads are stressed and a little bit scared.

SPEAKER_00 23:02

Um it's you got the two lowest-rated you know customer service and efficiency class ones trying to merge together. And they're trying to say that that's gonna improve their customer service. I just don't see it.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

Yeah, I was trying not to give an opinion because my opinions are pretty strong.

SPEAKER_00 23:20

But I'm just coming from a side of looking at it from a wide angle. It just to it to me, it just sits back and it just it could be really good, and I hope that it is, but on the other side of it, it could be really bad. I think that everybody in that room just kind of was sitting there in the middle going, which way is this going?

SPEAKER_02 23:38

Yeah. Without feeling like there's a whole lot of ability to affect a situation. Yeah. So it's a lot of what is happening to us without feeling like there's agency in the ability to affect change.

SPEAKER_00 23:52

It's gonna happen whether we like it or not. And so we're just all sitting there waiting for the shoe to fall.

SPEAKER_02 23:56

The same the other thing I alluded to is there were there are two things sort of hanging over the industry's head. The other one is just the general situation with the FRA, with railroad funding, with Chrissy. I mean, Chrissy is released now.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

It wasn't uh then. And you know, and you can tell that watching the FRA folks. The FRA folks are just sitting back going, but what are we doing? I think it's a good thing. One second they're going this direction. I mean, we I mean it's it's for example, the regions. They well, we're getting rid of the regions because we're getting rid of all the kingdoms. And that's what they said to us last year. They said this is this is why we got rid of the regions.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

And because you had eight different kings and eight different kingdoms, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then this year they're telling us, well, be prepared to go back to the regions in the next couple of years. Yeah. Because it didn't work out.

SPEAKER_02 24:39

It's I think that there's a lot of folks and individuals within the FRA that are not necessarily sure how to regulate as a regulator.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

Um, and how you know, there there were very few answers to things. I the Chrissy Grant team was great. They had open office hours there where they made friendship bracelets, and I got a friendship bracelet. Very exciting. Um, but you know, a lot of the questions I asked, they sort of weren't able to answer because they hadn't gotten that far in the process yet. Or there's enough uncertainty at the federal level that they just didn't know. Um so it's just it's a very uncertain time for the industry with the future of funding, with the regulatory environment, with the bigger. There were open bars.

SPEAKER_00 25:34

I just I don't think they started really. They started at like an hour before the conference shut down every night versus right at lunch.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

Ah well. Ah well.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

A lot of business deals were not.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Um you know, the networking in these things is always fantastic. Yeah, the networking is the most important reason to go to. We got a lot done networking-wise that we just can't talk about.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 26:01

So maybe in a future episode, we'll talk about those things. Uh Alan Maples.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

There's your second one.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Uh told me, and here's the thing. Apparently, if Alan Maples tells me to do something, I do it. So he said, You need to introduce yourself to David Fink. Or I will introduce you to David Fink. And I didn't have that. And I was like, what the hell am I gonna do talking to the administrator of the FRA? And he's like, You will tell him you were applying for a Chrissy grant. And I was like, So we went to have dinner with our insurance people, and you're all waiting by the insurance booth, and I see David Fink.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

David Fink happens to walk right back.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

Happens to walk by, and I did like derail four circles like a shot while other people uh were talking to him, the poor guy, and then I was like, Hi, I'm Bethan. I'm with Matt Rainier. I just want to thank you for the Chrissy program. We are applying, blah, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

And then it's mind you, she makes it sound like she was halfway put together. This was like a total fangirl situation of not of talking to somebody and not like, hello, how you doing?

SPEAKER_02 27:13

Ha! I was very nervous. Very, very nervous. And then the problem is there was an audience of like 15 people watching too. Because we're all ready to go to dinner. We're all ready to go to dinner, and I was like, hold on, wait.

SPEAKER_00 27:31

You walk back up, and I was just like, what the fuck was that?

unknown 27:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Well, that was David Fink. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

And Alan told me.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Standing between me and my steak.

SPEAKER_02 27:40

And then and then the thing is, I was so nervous that I totally blanked out because he told me that Chrissy was gonna be released Wednesday. This was Monday. And I totally blacked out, blanked out, and then in the middle of dinner, I went, ah he said, and then in his speech, he announced that Chrissy would be released unless the federal government made a liar of him and it didn't quite get signed, and then it was not released until the following Monday.

SPEAKER_00 28:06

Yeah. The federal government made a liar out of him. And that steakhouse was very good.

SPEAKER_02 28:12

And yeah, the ladies from Lincoln Insurance. We've gone over the audience. Um and we let's see. So that was the eggplant was excellent. And then I had a really, really good burger our last day when we walked around. I had an excellent veggie burger.

SPEAKER_00 28:29

Did you think I could walk that far and not die? Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 28:33

We've just, I don't think we've ever gone for a walk that didn't involve looking at railroad track.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Kind of gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 28:40

I've just never seen you walk that far, not on a railroad.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

It's like six and a half miles by the time it was.

SPEAKER_02 28:47

As we went and we looked at the, you know, the Mississippi and the old mill and the bridges and all the stuff that was closed that night.

SPEAKER_00 28:54

While we waited for our five o'clock flight. Um But no, to me, the whole the whole mood of the thing was just like down. It was just like It's a challenging time in the industry. It is a massively challenging time. I mean, last year everything was going really good for everybody, and then this year it's just like, oh God.

SPEAKER_02 29:10

I mean, and the the Chrissy seminars were super valuable. I sat in one on Nipa, um like a Seven County Nipah thing. That was a that was valuable. Um the networking always is. We got to see, you know, industry friends. Shout out the Kevin Sweat.

SPEAKER_00 29:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

He's a Jen. And the Nogatok. I mean, you know I love it, but that's that's unabashedly.

SPEAKER_00 29:36

The second biggest fan, the second biggest fan club there was Nagatak.

SPEAKER_02 29:39

Nogatok. And uh we did have dinner with Alan Maples and Jamie Winters.

SPEAKER_00 29:44

We did. Who we adore.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

They are lovely, lovely lovely.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

Lovely, lovely people.

SPEAKER_03 29:53

Hi, we're the production team. Welcome to Off the Rails with Calvin and Jared taking over for Rowdy and Bethan, who are no longer in the studio. So, what do you think? Well, my friend, I I don't think it's as hard as what they make it out to be, huh? I think we're doing a pretty good job so far. So I kind of like it on this side of the lights. Yeah, it's kind of nice. Behind the camera is cold, in front of the camera is warm, and nobody's yelling at us. Exactly. Nobody's insulting us while they're you know benefiting from our production. Exactly. Now I can actually defend myself every time Rowdy says Calvin's trying to cut. Yeah, right? Exactly. And how like how many beeps do you have to like how many nights is it 10 o'clock at night? You're editing a video and you're like, insert beep. No, guys, these are hour-long episodes, and I have to go through that hour-long episode about 50 times. So you can imagine how many times I have to watch that over and over again. Over and over and over. But we're really here because we have a message. Um something really important. I'm wondering if you're still watching, why have you not sponsored this podcast? I'm talking to you. We're talking to you guys right there. Off the rails doesn't make itself. Calvin makes off the rails with the talent. The talent. We need you guys. We need you guys. So sponsor, get your sponsorships in. You guys got a business, you got something you want to highlight, anything like that. You guys reach out to us, let us know. We'll put a little 30-second, one-minute spot, whatever it is that you guys are looking for. Yep. Check out the website. You can check out Wiffem.org or leave a comment in this podcast or on this YouTube. Premier sponsorships are available, standard sponsorships are available. If you were interested in getting rail fans to know your business, you want to be on the podcast. And we want to get our next paycheck. Now's the time, guys. Make it happen. Make it happen. Rowdy!

SPEAKER_02 31:46

So Shortland Association conference is done. We got home on a Wednesday and the no fo was not released. Thursday, it was not released. Friday, it was not released. Saturday, Sunday, not released. Monday morning, it was. And I went to click on the link and it didn't work. So I immediately called the business card from the gal that was doing the Chrissy open hours at the conference and was like, the link isn't working!

SPEAKER_00 32:20

And she said it's probably because our system crashed from everybody pushing the link.

SPEAKER_02 32:24

I mean, probably all of the everybody finally got it. Um so we are Chrissy is underway. Um I have not had as much time to work on it as I would like. I need to scroll myself away and really start on that project narrative. Uh David Anzer is working on the BCA. And what did you do to that BCA? Torpedoed it.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

Um, I so you're gonna have to go in a great context about that because you requested me and Toby to be in that meeting.

SPEAKER_02 33:01

I did. So what happened is the NOFO was released, and I have had a project budget together for a long time that I started second guessing, and then second guessing some more, and then second guessing some more. And then one of the mills in Morton has expressed support, but also concern that the railroad track is like eight feet from the front door, and they were like, if there were ever a way to realign that situation so that we don't have the safety concerns and implications there, we'd be interested. And then we got talking about the rail that exists east, sort of southeast, mostly east, of the depot in Morton. And we did some research and we bought a little bit more railroad than we thought we did. So there were some things that we changed on the grant application, like we added more money for cleaning up the cutting back of the right-of-way and some of the logging work that we need to do because the railroad's overgrown. There are trees growing through the middle of it down by Morin. So we added funding there. We changed around some of the surfacing and the tie per mile counts. I created a larger bush buffer for bridge work. And uh we had a debate on if this thing gets going about 2.7 miles past the depot in Morton, there are parcels that are owned by Northwest Fiber and Alta and Hampton, who would be the customers for the grant. And we said, you know, it would make a lot more sense to try and build a transload situation out there rather than trying to get it all done on the small footprint in the Morton Yard and contend with the highway across the street for Hampton. So it turns out that we bought more railroad than we thought we did. So we went into the deeds and we're like, oh, it doesn't end at the depot. It extends past it. So you and I went down and walked it. And the rails are still in the ground.

SPEAKER_00 35:35

Right up to a piece of property that Hampton owns.

SPEAKER_02 35:39

There's not much evidence of ties. Uh the rails, 85-pound rail, and you think the last time a train was there was when?

SPEAKER_00 35:47

1981.

SPEAKER_02 35:49

1981, and I don't think it's been touched since.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

It hasn't been touched since. The Milwaukee went went tango uniform, and and Warehouser never did anything out there.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

Yeah. So we went round and round and round at a four-hour conference call with Toby, David, you and I about the scope of the work. And there's a few things happening now with Chrissy. One is there's more funding available because it's two years condensed into one. Two, the future of Chrissy funding is very uncertain. We don't believe that this much money is going to be available in the future.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

No.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

Three, this is a year one project, so we have all of the BCA benefit of adding carloads to the system. So that's trucks off the road, um, more goods moving via the rail network, which makes for a better benefit cost analysis. So we have that going for us. Um we have support behind it now. Now with Chrissy, the federal government funds 80% of the project, and we have to fund 20%. 20% of a multi-million dollar project is still a lot of money. So we are planning to make up some of that match by doing the work in-house. So doing our own tie inserting, doing a lot of our own um brush cutting, clearing, uh, running rock trains um to ballast and surface the railroad. So doing a lot of that to make up a good chunk of that match. But I have been really, really nervous about the match, and I still am because no matter which way we slice and dice it, we are still going to need to raise money. But the outcome of the conversation that the four of us had was increasing our total ask by nine million dollars.

SPEAKER_00 37:52

I mean, you know, you you got you got real quiet and and Toby and I were just kind of doing the well, you know, nothing ventured, nothing gained, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Um, but the just the ask increase basically came from the sheer logistics involved of trying to do it.

SPEAKER_02 38:14

And how we get it done to set it up for success.

SPEAKER_00 38:17

Yeah, um, because you know, you got the bridge construction involved in that. Now, I mean, that's 10 months of hell.

SPEAKER_02 38:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:24

Financially.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

You know, because everyone I don't, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:28

Every month you get a bill for $900,000 that you have to pay.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Chrissy pays back once a quarter.

SPEAKER_02 38:35

Yeah. So we're we're gonna have to float a few million. So what is my favorite phrase that happens at the railroad all the time is you're asked to pull miracles out of your ass uh with steam locomotives. Uh-huh. And everyone else goes, well, Bethany'll find money for it. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

Just tell Bethan to find more money. Just tell Bethan to find more money. It's like, uh.

SPEAKER_02 39:02

And that phrase is uh wearing pretty thin right now. So our target asked for Chrissy right now, uh, in the midst of the application, is around $29 million, which means it's uh almost a six million dollar match. So over the course of five years, if we get this thing, I need to come up with like another three million.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

Uh-huh. So gloom and doom aside, because you're starting to make this sound really negative. I'm sorry. Positives. Positives, because this is where we had to go in the meeting. Let's start talking about the positives that come from this. Go to the staff meeting that we had this morning. What was talked about? You want to be a good employer, a good supporter of the community, and you want to be able to leave the railroad in a successful place. You cannot do that without funding like this. You cannot do that without asking for that amount of money. And I mean, had the railroad now the the traffic.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

I love that you're telling me what I told the staff this morning, and I'm sitting here like rocking back and forth. Like, oh god, oh god.

SPEAKER_00 40:12

Use my words against me. Um and the the the the the the ex-employees and people like that that have sensitive feelings are not gonna like what I have to say here. Oh god. Had the railroad been left to us in better condition. Now I'm not saying the steam locomotives or anything like that. The 80s on. Yeah. Right. Had the railroad been left in better condition to where, you know, in the 80s if it was class five, whatever the case might be, if Warehauser had to turn their back on Morton for the first little bit, if Tacoma Rail, now Tacoma Rail put a shitload of money into the railroad and and and opened it up back up and did all the things they did there. But it always seems like you know, you get up, down, up, down, up, and now we're down here. When the railroad used to be up here, and now we're trying to crawl our way back up. The only way that you're gonna be able to get to the goals which we have set for this organization is by asking for things like this.

SPEAKER_02 41:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:09

And you fuck around, you find out, you know.

SPEAKER_02 41:12

And this is how Toby and Rowdy talked me into this.

SPEAKER_00 41:14

You get it awarded and you figure it out once it's awarded.

SPEAKER_02 41:17

Yeah. And I mean, my goal for this organization is that I leave it in a place that it is sustainable, that it exists long after I am here. Long after you are here.

SPEAKER_00 41:30

It's sustainable as long as the two of us are here managing it the way in which we are managing it. If other people were to come in and take our places, the place would not be sustainable in a year, two years. Because common sense corporate business practices don't work.

SPEAKER_02 41:47

We know this railroad really well.

SPEAKER_00 41:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:50

Um, and um we have to invest in infrastructure. If we don't have good track and good bridges, we don't have a business. No, you don't have a business. So this is this is the only path I see forward. Um now, there's a lot of side benefits of a tremendous amount of potential freight on the line, which diversifies your income streams, which allows us to fund more infrastructure projects, which allows us to generate a profit so that the organization is sustainable. So hopefully someday we have an endowment so that we have reserves, so that we are paying people a really good wage, right? So that we're keeping it.

SPEAKER_00 42:31

Because what's the what's the topic that we almost always seem to circle around on to in a month? It's just like, you know, we do have people living here on site. Between me, Chris, and Nate, there are people that live here on site. Now, do we want to live here on site? No, we don't. But here in the state of Washington, yeah, you cannot make what we are making, which is damn good money elsewhere else. And be able to live in a house, commute, and feed yourself.

SPEAKER_02 43:00

Especially in this area where the short-term rental market has like decimated.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

Yep. The short-term rental market around here has decimated that piece of property that we're looking at right now in 2020 was valued at $74,000. And now it's valued at just the one seven-acre parcel on the 35 acres is valued at $349,000. Yeah. And it's driving it that one little piece is driving the price up on the rest of that piece of property. Yeah. And then interest rates and all the other kind of stuff that we could get into talking about by the time you're done trying to pay for a mortgage, it's it's it's not achievable.

SPEAKER_02 43:36

Yeah. So, I mean, it's we have a really pretty steep hill to climb, and I am in a spot right now where I very firmly believe this is the path forward and this is what we need to do. I am also very, very nervous.

SPEAKER_00 43:52

Yeah. Fuck it. Full sand.

SPEAKER_02 43:56

I love that you say that.

SPEAKER_00 44:00

How did you say that? Well, I mean, I I'm coming from where my business was at. Because my business was when when I when I folded it up and came back over here, I was right at that peak of. I mean, mom and I were talking about this while I was over there. I was right at that peak of the next year, it was gonna be the year where it was like I didn't have to worry about really much because we we'd slogged through the year one, year two, year three, which for anybody trying to start a business, year one, year two, year three are your hardest years. Year four, you can start to put your head back up and over the whole year five. If you've made it that far and you still got your shit together and you don't hate it, you could probably be fairly successful after that and actually start feeling like you're getting somewhere. Here, everybody thinks we got handed a plug and play, turn it on, and go railroad. It's not, it's a startup business through and through from the very bottom. And without opportunities like this, the business gets really business end of it gets really, really hard. But I mean, I've I've already been through this once before.

SPEAKER_02 45:07

I mean, I've been through it. I mean, it's not like I haven't done dug in and done hard work and involved. I mean you owe you.

SPEAKER_00 45:19

You owe a lot of money for the lot, first of all.

SPEAKER_02 45:21

I mean, listen, listen to Jackson talk about his family, you know, where they they lived on, you know, they they lived not the way they currently live for the longest time because we've got a lot going on now between the shop, between the locomotives, between these passenger cars, the restoration facility, and our artifacts, our collection, museum collection of steam locomotives that we run every day.

SPEAKER_00 45:50

You didn't think that was gonna come back.

SPEAKER_02 45:54

Talking points. So we've got two major locomotive projects. We've got three passenger cars coming. I am feeling very overextended right now.

SPEAKER_00 46:05

We are we are extremely overextended. And one of the one of the things that sucks about that feeling is that every all the opportunities seem to be happening at the most inopportune times. I mean, there's there's even stuff on the horizon which are gonna be converse conversations later on today. But it's it's it's one of those we we keep getting we keep getting what we want, and when it happens, isn't at the time that we want it. We sit back and say, hey, you know what, we'd really like to have more cars. Oh, three cars just became available for a price that you can't beat. Yeah. You know.

SPEAKER_02 46:37

Now would be a great time to make a donation that we can put in a savings account towards our matching funds. Yeah. Whiffum.org backslash donate. Please, please, please.

SPEAKER_00 46:49

Or we're selling feet pictures, you don't want to see my feet.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

In the news with Gardian Batman.

SPEAKER_00 46:57

I'm not saying shit.

SPEAKER_02 47:00

Breaking news. Matt Rainier Scenic Railroad debuts its 21 plus event series. Kicking off the season with cider trains, beer trains, and whiskey tasting.

SPEAKER_00 47:12

You know, the thing of it is, folks keep asking why no wine trains? I'm just gonna address that here and now. That's a whole different crowd that we don't really want to deal with.

SPEAKER_02 47:23

We have a hard time meeting the expectations of a wine tasting audience.

SPEAKER_00 47:28

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 47:30

We can offer a really good time with alcohol tasting, live music, outdoor environment at the museum, some pretty good like grub, like a little pretzel bun, some munchies. Uh we don't necessarily provide a wine tasting experience.

SPEAKER_00 47:51

It they want it to be a little bit more Gucci than what we can do.

SPEAKER_02 47:55

We can do a really good event. It's just not gonna be fancy.

SPEAKER_00 47:58

Yeah, and that's when we did the wine train, we did one. Yeah, we did shoot. We did two, and by the time we got done with them, we were like, we're not doing that again. Because they want to be sitting at white linen cloth tables on the train and having bouge wave freaking wine, you know, swirled in their glasses and smell it and they also get the drunkest. They also get the drunkest, and they also get the rudest. Yeah, so they want the Napa Valley wine train experience, which we just cannot do. If you would like to taste some hard cider, some whiskey, or some beer this year, come out and just want to be like Cheryl Crow and drink strawberry wine and get banged behind the bleachers, we can do that. No Calvin's dying.

SPEAKER_02 48:47

No, anyway, no, no, we can't. No. It's like I have I am leading the next safety meeting. It's gonna be the OG pizza box conversation. Oh god. But anyway, we're talking about pizza box. Other information in the news is the Cheney Depot. You do it then.

SPEAKER_00 49:13

No, I'm just correcting you because there are people in Spokane, they're gonna be like, it's Cheney. What Cheney. You said Cheney.

SPEAKER_02 49:26

The depot um restoration work is just about complete. Uh doors have been open to the public. It's been a volunteer effort. In 2014, the depot was um facing potential demolition. It was moved across town, and a thousand plus hours of volunteer work have gone into it. The sign is beautiful, like the OG, like wood sign that says and believe it or not, in eastern Washington, everybody Chini.

SPEAKER_00 50:01

Chini. Chini.

SPEAKER_02 50:04

Chi knee. Chini. Chi, like qi.

SPEAKER_00 50:09

Yes, chini.

SPEAKER_02 50:10

Like knee? Monty Python? Not no, not the night, knee. Okay. Um, it looks beautiful. There's a coffee roaster in it now, uh, so you can go have a nice cup of coffee there. And I am really looking forward to seeing what they do with it. The space is beautiful, and it was a really, really cool.

SPEAKER_00 50:33

Well done restoration work. There's a good there's one up in Kettle Falls that was converted into uh a visitor center. Um a lumber company actually owns the one at Northport, and that's their offices. I mean, it they're not just like boarded up and left for dead.

SPEAKER_02 50:50

Yeah, it's a really beautiful uh restoration project. We'll try and put a link to it in the description. And I would encourage folks to give it a Google, check it out. On to listener questions. Now, we don't have to do all of them, Rowdy.

SPEAKER_00 51:07

Um what the hell is behind you guys? Yeah, we asked the same damn question, bud.

SPEAKER_02 51:13

So this is a mannequin that I think when the museum is reopened, we may move away from mannequins on display.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

Because this is Tom.

SPEAKER_02 51:24

This is Tom.

SPEAKER_00 51:25

And what Tom was he was the mannequin that he's wearing Tom's shirt here. He was okay. But he was wearing all of Tom Murray's uh timber cruising gear.

SPEAKER_02 51:36

And um which we can find a much better way to display rather than a mannequin. It's a little creepy when you walk in here at night.

SPEAKER_00 51:47

Um I don't know how many times we walk into a room and that thing damn near gets launched because or you where it was sitting, was it was sitting next to that window, and you'd walk by and be like, whoa, what?

SPEAKER_02 51:56

Yeah, and you'd always think someone was here. So now um production dresses Tom up every episode.

unknown 52:03

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 52:04

Um should I be concerned at how many comments were made on the Facebook post about Chrisco lube?

SPEAKER_00 52:13

Well, I mean, so to the folks at home for the listener question. To the folks at home wondering, uh, we're gonna be almost to the point where we don't need Crisco lube. So if people keep sending us Crisco lube, we're gonna have we don't bake, so we're gonna have more than we know what to do with.

SPEAKER_02 52:30

Um we are all we are currently supplied with Crisco for tube install in Porter 5. Yes. And we will be upgrading to the butter-flavored Crisco. We have been told by industry professionals that it will make the shop smell like cookies rather than farts. Yeah. So that's really exciting.

SPEAKER_00 52:52

We just have to go to this one. What does it take to be executive director of an operation like this?

SPEAKER_02 53:04

Caffeine. I don't know. Um I don't know. Uh we will determine whether or not I am successful and what the legacy is and whether this organization is sustainable by the time I'm done with it.

SPEAKER_00 53:28

Uh I don't think that you can be too foamy. You can't be too foamy. Because the thing of it is, is that what are you working with? You're working with a group of on-the-line guys that are, you can't even say they're blue collar, because God knows what collar most of them are. But oily. If you were to get if you were to have a corporate mindset at any one of these places, you would probably wind up in a really bad way.

SPEAKER_02 54:00

I think that when people first meet me, like at industry events and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 54:04

People always think I'm the problem.

SPEAKER_02 54:06

They well, yeah, they usually think you're the problem. I think folks think I'm probably a lot more buttoned up than I am. Probably.

SPEAKER_00 54:13

Let your hair down. I'm just saying that to the general people that through whoever the hell it was that answered that, asked that question.

SPEAKER_02 54:24

I think that I think you need to be, it it can't be about ego. It needs to be about the sustainability and the future of the organization, not making yourself feel good.

SPEAKER_01 54:32

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 54:33

You have to be comfortable with having uncomfortable conversations.

SPEAKER_01 54:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 54:37

And I think you need to be able to identify problems, and there's always the question of the urgent versus the important. There are always 500 urgent things on my desk that need addressing. Those may not be the most important things in the long run.

SPEAKER_00 54:54

There's wants and needs.

SPEAKER_02 54:56

So being able to identify what is important for the organization's future. Um probably some really unhealthy work-life balance.

SPEAKER_01 55:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 55:09

Um, I would recommend people have a vice or two.

SPEAKER_00 55:12

Yep. Uh it's uh it's a definite situation of you have long ass hair and I have long ass hair, and we're not the same.

SPEAKER_02 55:21

I would not be successful without you.

SPEAKER_00 55:25

Yeah. The same thing. Simple as that. This is the same thing. I mean, it's yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:31

I would not be successful. Calvin didn't even get that.

SPEAKER_00 55:33

I was waiting for Calvin to freaking fall over lapping back then.

SPEAKER_02 55:36

I just I ignored you and kept kept going on. Um it's what I do is only possible by having a safe, suitable operation that continues to get some really, really, really good. I'm going to and your knowledge of the operation and the history of the railroad is um pretty phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 56:04

Manage. Yeah. I changed the question. I don't know who asked this, but I changed your question to what does it take to manage an operation like this? That is what you need to be asking. Because if you're asking what does it take to be an executive director, you have only one thing in mind. And that is to be the executive director. And if all you want to be is the executive director, you're gonna fail. Yeah. If you're going after the job, not after the responsibilities of the job and what it takes to make the job successful, don't even try it.

SPEAKER_02 56:38

And you can't let the phone get in the way.

SPEAKER_00 56:40

You cannot let the phone get in the way.

SPEAKER_02 56:42

No, it seems like it's too it's too distracting. And I wish I got to play with trains more. But every time I'm playing with trains, there's more important stuff that's not necessarily getting done. Yep. You can take any of the others.

SPEAKER_00 57:01

Uh well, you know, what the hell is behind you guys? We already did that one. What's the service vehicle situation like? Um so I I I saw somebody say something about the brown truck, the war wagon, whatever we were calling it. Well, that's my personal truck. Yeah. So, you know, yes, the hood's up because we're we're fixing it right now so I can send it back home to Hunters so that mom has a truck. Yeah. Um, so that's my personal truck. We have the white truck, which is the welding truck, which was given to us by the farmer that hates us. Um, and then we have the blue truck, which the company bought that's got the fuel tank in it, and I do most of my business in it because it's got Bluetooth and the mobile office. And then um Corey's got the Yukon and now the big high reel crane truck. Yeah. So and we got the orange truck.

SPEAKER_02 57:54

We got the orange truck. We don't have any nice or the nicest rig we got is actually the weak truck. Yeah. We bought the crane truck. Yeah, but that is that's still 1985.

SPEAKER_00 58:08

I mean, nothing is newer than 20 plus years old. The newest company truck is 2002. So um is there any way, any legit way to realign some of the railroads problematic curves? I mean, yeah. Dynamite, dynamite, lots of money. Um more money than we got. More money than we got. Now, I mean, if it were a we were hauling 9,000 cars a year, then we might think about realigning some of the stuff. But the problem is, you uh a lot of these curves, what does the right-of-way do with it? It bends with those curves. So you got terrain you gotta deal with, you got neighboring properties you gotta deal with, and the best thing that you can really do is learn to live with it and how to how to work it without ask us again in 10 years.

SPEAKER_02 58:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:59

Uh and then we'll if you see a curve get straightened out, then you got your answer.

SPEAKER_02 59:04

Yeah. Uh, I think that's about uh it where would we exchange with UPNB and Raddy?

SPEAKER_00 59:13

Technically Eatonville.

SPEAKER_02 59:15

Well, we'd we'd uh Eatonville's our interchange with Rainier Rail.

SPEAKER_00 59:20

And then I think they I think they both now go back to Centralia. Yeah. I know they're for the longest time. Rainier Rail was trying to do one in Shahalas and one in Centralia and it was just like, why are you doing that? Because they both interchange with PSAP at Centralia. So so there you have it.

SPEAKER_02 59:34

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Off the Rails with Rowdy and Bethon.

SPEAKER_03 59:39

And that wraps up this episode of Off the Rails. A huge thank you to our totally real, definitely not made up production crew. Sound design by microphone, catering by Cornelius Cobb, track maintenance provided by Rusty Switches, and marketing brilliance, courtesy of souvenir. I'm your host, reminding you to keep your hands inside the train at all times, because around here, things always go off the rails.