Residents protest storing idle rail cars in the shadow of the Wallowa Mountains.
To help pay off county debt, officials have allowed Union Pacific to store out-of-use rail cars on tracks in Wallowa and Union counties. But local residents say the cars destroy the beauty of the area.
Part of a short-line railroad in Oregon’s ruggedly beautiful Wallowa County has become a 30-mile-long parking lot for about 700 idled railcars, some blighted with graffiti.
Many residents aren’t happy.
David Stein, for one, said mustard-yellow centerbeam lumber cars along tracks owned by the Wallowa Union Railroad have spoiled his view of mountains, meadows and pine forests from his home outside Enterprise.
Read the full story at Oregonlive.com.
