The Hagestad Sandhouse Gang
The Sandhouse Gang is a railroad-oriented discussion group run by the Transportation Center at Northwestern University. The group meets monthly for 90 minutes to two hours with a speaker and then discussion of the presentation. The concept is to link active / semi-active rail practioners with students and academics at Northwestern and other schools. We currently have about 300 members and have been in existence for roughly five years.
Why "The Sandhouse Gang"? Locomotives use sand to assist them for traction (steel wheels on steel rails will sometimes slip particularly if the rail is wet). Prior to modern servicing facilities, there was a separate area near the railroad roundhouse where locomotives were "sanded" between trips. This location was often out of the way and found employees from several different unions in the area - hostlers, engineers, brakemen, oilers, maintenance people, carmen and so on. But few management people were there. As such the "Sandhouse" became a "gossip" area of sorts for the exchange of all kinds of facts, stories, and rumors. In fact, a common railroad expression was "give me the sandhouse" on this or that. Translation: "Give me the low-down."
Recognition of Doug Hagestad: July 2004
Notes on Sandhouse Meetings
Normally the Sandhouse Gang meets at 3:00 p.m. on the Northwestern campus in Evanston. Specific meeting locations are often not determined until shortly before the sessions; for authoritative meeting details, check the Sandhouse calendar page or call the Transportation Center (874-491-7287).
Past presentations are available here.
Upcoming Sandhouse Meetings
Monday, May 5, 2008 3:00 - 5:00 pm
Location: Jacobs Center - Rm G40
Northwestern University
2001 Sheridan Rd. Evanston
Speaker: William C. Sippel
Fletcher & Sippel LLC
What in the world is going on at the STB? The Board seems to many to be taking a different and more pro-regulatory approach to regulation of the nation's railroads. Are they? Over the past several years, the Board has revised how it calculates the railroads' cost of capital, prescribed new requirements for how railroads calculate fuel surcharges, looked at “paper barriers” (“rail interchange commitments” as the Board refers to them), looked at just what constitutes a rail transportation “contract”, and will shortly hold a 2-day public hearing to examine issues related to the railroads' common carrier obligation. The Board also recently turned down a shortline transaction with a Class I. Does this mean that the era of creating new shortlines is coming to an end?” The Board is also in the midst of reviewing proposed U.S. transactions involving both of the Class I Canadian railroads. Does how the Board handle these transactions signal how larger rail mergers will be handled in the future? Stakeholders across the country are trying to “connect the dots”
The questions the Board is asking and the direction the Board may be going will have a profound effect on the rail industry, shippers and rail labor. Are we looking at a new way of doing things? Or, does your view of where we may be headed depend on whether you are a railroad, a shipper, or a rail employee?
Please join us…
BIO: Bill Sippel has over 31 years of experience advising and representing clients in a wide range of railroad regulatory matters before federal and state regulatory agencies, including the Surface Transportation Board, the Federal Railroad Administration and the Illinois Commerce Commission. He specializes in dealing with issues relating to rail line sales and acquisitions, line abandonments, line constructions, rail mergers and consolidations, and issues relating to competition and common carriage. He has been involved in virtually every major rail merger over the past 25 years.
Sippel holds a BA and Law degree from Loyola University. He has served as regulatory counsel and Senior General Attorney for the Milwaukee Road and General Counsel-Administrative Law and Contracts for the Soo Line Railroad. In 1987 he joined the Chicago office of Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly. In April, 2000, he co-founded the firm of Fletcher & Sippel LLC.
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Joining the Sandhouse Gang
The Sandhouse Gang is an informal group of current and former participants in the railroad freight industry, that meets on a monthly basis to hear and debate current developments in the industry, particularly matters affecting the Chicago area.
To Subscribe to the Sandhouse Gang mailing list: E-mail Diana Marek at d-marek@northwestern.edu with your name, email and postal mailing address.
Directions to the Evanston campus, and suggestions for parking.
Other links of interest:
