Rail Yard

The people managing Baltimore's marine terminals and rail yards feel a headache coming on, and union boss James P. Hoffa is making it happen.The newly elected president of the Teamsters is negotiating his first national contract -- for 12,000 workers in the car-hauling business. He says the negotiations will prove that "the Teamsters are back," and is promising to "shut this industry down" if talks don't go his way.But in Baltimore, the car-hauling industry is a staple of domestic and international commerce.

Norfolk Southern Corp. is leaning toward building a $5 million rail yard adjacent to Dundalk Marine Terminal -- a move that would make the transfer of cargo between trains and ships more efficient and help make the struggling port of Baltimore more competitive.Improvements in the way containers are moved from one type of carrier to another are part of ongoing discussions concerning Norfolk Southern's and CSX's proposed split-up of the 11,000-mile Conrail system. Under a voluminous operating plan -- filed this week with federal regulators -- Norfolk Southern would take over all the rail lines operated by Conrail in Baltimore.

NEW YORK -- For 12 excruciating days and nights, New York clothing executive Harvey Weinstein clung to life inside a tiny dark pit, 14 feet below a secluded rail yard in Upper Manhattan, where a band of kidnappers had left him to die.He survived by eating fruit, mostly bananas, that the kidnappers lowered to him until they received the requested ransom money.The one-time Marine lay in total darkness, his legs in shackles; at times, so were his arms.He made tape recordings at his captors' instruction, pleading with his children to pay a $3 million ransom.

When the Orioles and the Maryland Stadium Authority set out to create an old-fashioned ballpark in Camden Yards, they didn't have to invent history.It was there all along in the form of the B&O Railroad warehouse, the massive, brooding hulk of a building that dates from the era when Baltimore's western edge was a bustling rail yard -- and Babe Ruth's father had a saloon right down the street.Looming behind right field, just 460 feet from home plate, the long-as-a-train warehouse rivals Fenway Park's Green Monster as one of the most distinctive features in baseball.

CSX Intermodal announced yesterday that it will begin offering direct train service from Seagirt Marine Terminal to Cincinnati in January, which should help the port recapture some of the Midwestern markets it has lost in recent years.In addition to the new intermodal service to Cincinnati, CSXI also will move to Baltimore two north-south trains that had been using the CSX's Potomac Yard in Alexandria, Va. The two trains will link Baltimore with Atlanta and Tampa, Fla.Together, the changes will nearly quadruple the number of trains using the state-owned Seagirt rail yard.

The truck pulling a dark green steamship line container came to a halt yesterday morning just inside the chain-link fence at the back of the CSX rail yard. Dockworker Robert Cook quickly checked the identification number of the container and sent the driver on his way.A few minutes later, the driver had delivered his container to the train and was headed back to the adjoining Seagirt Marine Terminal to pick up another box.The speed and efficiency of this operation is helping steamship lines provide better service to their customers in distant markets via the CSX rail system.

CSX Intermodal announced yesterday that it will begin offering direct train service from Seagirt Marine Terminal to Cincinnati in January, which should help the port recapture some of the Midwestern markets it has lost in recent years.In addition to the new intermodal service to Cincinnati, CSXI also will move to Baltimore two north-south trains that had been using the CSX's Potomac Yard in Alexandria, Va. The two trains will link Baltimore with Atlanta and Tampa, Fla.Together, the changes will nearly quadruple the number of trains using the state-owned Seagirt rail yard.

CSX Intermodal plans to close its rail yard in Alexandria, Va., and transfer its business to the state rail yard beside the Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore.Maryland Port Administration officials say the move would cut trucking costs for the port's customers, add work for longshoremen who load and unload the trains, and increase revenues for the MPA, which gets a share of each load placed on the trains.Clarence W. Gooden, vice president and general manager of operations at CSX Intermodal in Hunt Valley, says he has meeting with MPA officials today to discuss details of the arrangement.

CSX Intermodal and the Maryland Port Administration are trying to negotiate an agreement that would triple the number of trains using the port of Baltimore's Seagirt rail yard beginning early next year.CSX Intermodal Vice President Clarence W. Gooden said yesterday that the two sides have been negotiating and expect to meet on the issue again today. He said he doubted an agreement would be reached immediately.CSX would like to close its Potomac Yard in Alexandria, Va., and run the two daily trains that now originate there out of Baltimore instead.

Conrail, one of two railroads serving the port of Baltimore, is exploring the possibility of re-establishing a direct ship-to-rail connection at Dundalk Marine Terminal.In the early 1980s, Conrail operated a railhead where cargo containers were moved directly between rail cars and the marine terminal. The elements of such a rail yard -- the tracks and adjacent storage area -- are still in place at Dundalk and could be used if Conrail decided to reopen a rail ramp there."Conrail has shown enough interest to have people look at it," Milton H. Miller Sr., a member of the Maryland Port Commission, said yesterday.

Light rail riders have been getting to know each other a little more intimately over the past week as increased safety inspections have forced officials to run one-car, standing-room-only trains at rush hour and other times. Jawauna Greene, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Transit Administration, said yesterday that the agency has had to step up its inspections of its 53 light rail cars after a wheel on one cracked about a month ago. The MTA sent out an advisory late yesterday warning customers of possible delays and crowding as the light rail system operates with fewer cars than usual.

She won fans while helping to turn a rail yard into a ballpark. Now, Janet Marie Smith is returning to work in Baltimore and will look to transform some of the city's other industrial remnants. On Monday, Smith, president of Turner Sports & Entertainment Development Inc. in Atlanta, will join Baltimore developer Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse Inc. in an as-yet untitled position. The company's president, C. William Struever, said he envisions his new hire working on several urban renewal projects.

The people managing Baltimore's marine terminals and rail yards feel a headache coming on, and union boss James P. Hoffa is making it happen.The newly elected president of the Teamsters is negotiating his first national contract -- for 12,000 workers in the car-hauling business. He says the negotiations will prove that "the Teamsters are back," and is promising to "shut this industry down" if talks don't go his way.But in Baltimore, the car-hauling industry is a staple of domestic and international commerce.

Norfolk Southern Corp. is leaning toward building a $5 million rail yard adjacent to Dundalk Marine Terminal -- a move that would make the transfer of cargo between trains and ships more efficient and help make the struggling port of Baltimore more competitive.Improvements in the way containers are moved from one type of carrier to another are part of ongoing discussions concerning Norfolk Southern's and CSX's proposed split-up of the 11,000-mile Conrail system. Under a voluminous operating plan -- filed this week with federal regulators -- Norfolk Southern would take over all the rail lines operated by Conrail in Baltimore.

NEW YORK -- For 12 excruciating days and nights, New York clothing executive Harvey Weinstein clung to life inside a tiny dark pit, 14 feet below a secluded rail yard in Upper Manhattan, where a band of kidnappers had left him to die.He survived by eating fruit, mostly bananas, that the kidnappers lowered to him until they received the requested ransom money.The one-time Marine lay in total darkness, his legs in shackles; at times, so were his arms.He made tape recordings at his captors' instruction, pleading with his children to pay a $3 million ransom.

When the Orioles and the Maryland Stadium Authority set out to create an old-fashioned ballpark in Camden Yards, they didn't have to invent history.It was there all along in the form of the B&O Railroad warehouse, the massive, brooding hulk of a building that dates from the era when Baltimore's western edge was a bustling rail yard -- and Babe Ruth's father had a saloon right down the street.Looming behind right field, just 460 feet from home plate, the long-as-a-train warehouse rivals Fenway Park's Green Monster as one of the most distinctive features in baseball.

CSX Intermodal announced yesterday that it will begin offering direct train service from Seagirt Marine Terminal to Cincinnati in January, which should help the port recapture some of the Midwestern markets it has lost in recent years.In addition to the new intermodal service to Cincinnati, CSXI also will move to Baltimore two north-south trains that had been using the CSX's Potomac Yard in Alexandria, Va. The two trains will link Baltimore with Atlanta and Tampa, Fla.Together, the changes will nearly quadruple the number of trains using the state-owned Seagirt rail yard.

CSX Intermodal announced yesterday that it will begin offering direct train service from Seagirt Marine Terminal to Cincinnati in January, which should help the port recapture some of the Midwestern markets it has lost in recent years.In addition to the new intermodal service to Cincinnati, CSXI also will move to Baltimore two north-south trains that had been using the CSX's Potomac Yard in Alexandria, Va. The two trains will link Baltimore with Atlanta and Tampa, Fla.Together, the changes will nearly quadruple the number of trains using the state-owned Seagirt rail yard.

CSX Intermodal plans to close its rail yard in Alexandria, Va., and transfer its business to the state rail yard beside the Seagirt Marine Terminal in Baltimore.Maryland Port Administration officials say the move would cut trucking costs for the port's customers, add work for longshoremen who load and unload the trains, and increase revenues for the MPA, which gets a share of each load placed on the trains.Clarence W. Gooden, vice president and general manager of operations at CSX Intermodal in Hunt Valley, says he has meeting with MPA officials today to discuss details of the arrangement.

CSX Intermodal and the Maryland Port Administration are trying to negotiate an agreement that would triple the number of trains using the port of Baltimore's Seagirt rail yard beginning early next year.CSX Intermodal Vice President Clarence W. Gooden said yesterday that the two sides have been negotiating and expect to meet on the issue again today. He said he doubted an agreement would be reached immediately.CSX would like to close its Potomac Yard in Alexandria, Va., and run the two daily trains that now originate there out of Baltimore instead.