Odds and ends, 2/18/08

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A bill that has drawn international attention to West Virginia has been passed overwhelmingly by the Senate, and now goes before the House of Delegates.

The bill, proposed by Sen. Billy Wayne Bailey, would allow children in school to take 10-hour courses needed to get hunting permits.

The Wyoming County Democrat says the bill is a matter of common sense.

The 10-hour course includes everything from wilderness survival skills to all-terrain vehicle safety in addition to basic gun training.

Advocates of the bill say it’s a good way to get more people interested in hunting. The number of hunting permits sold has been dropping over the last decade.

The Senate approved the measure Monday with just three dissenting votes.

Schools have enough to do without being called on to teach gun use, hunting skills and ATV safety. The House should kill this bill.

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A junior at Huntington High has scored a perfect 36 on his ACT test. Way to go, Sam Shideler. Maybe you'll bet a sign on Highlander Way like the sports guys get. Or maybe you'll get your photo in the main hallway like the sports guys get.

Who am I kidding? What you did was more impressive, but unfortunately, academic achievements don't count as much as sports.

Please, Huntington High, prove me wrong.

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Last week, the Wall Street Journal had a piece about the money American railroads are spending upgrading their corridors. The link is here. The gist of the story is contained in these paragraphs:

The upgrade is part of a railroad renaissance under way across much of the U.S. For the first time in nearly a century, railroads are making large investments in their networks -- adding sets of tracks, straightening curves that force engines to slow and expanding tunnels for bigger trains.

Their campaign is altering the corridors of American commerce, more so than any other development since interstate highways spread to the interior.

For decades, railroads spent little on expansion, even tore up surplus track and shrank routes. But since 2000 they've spent $10 billion to expand tracks, build freight yards and buy locomotives, and they have $12 billion more in upgrades planned.

I remember going to college in Athens, Ohio, when the Chessie System track ran through the middle of town and campus. I enjoyed seeing those trains go through. But sometime in the 1980s or 1990s, CSX decided the line from Belpre to Cincinnati was no longer needed, so it removed the track.

The last few times I was in Athens, I made it a point to find where the old track had been, and I thought about all those trains and how I learned to sleep beside the tracks despite the horns that blew at all hours of the night.

I also remember the old Chessie tracks that ran through southern Ohio that terminated in Gallipolis. Much of the old track is now a bike trail.

And I remember the old DT&I (Detroit, Toledo and Ironton) tracks that serviced Ironton. A kid growing up in that town might not know how Railroad Street got its name. The fact the street is as wide as any other in town should give him some idea. The DT&I left town around the same time that Amcast Industrial Corp. shut down its factory in Ironton, although I can't say there's a cause and effect.

As for this side of the river, I don't know where the closest abandoned track is. If anyone can help me, I'd love to know.