(The following story by Fred Leeson appeared on the Portland Oregonian website on June 16.)
PORTLAND, Ore. — A federal judge will allow two Southeast Portland neighborhood associations to seek enforcement of a 1956 court order regulating railroad operations in a portion of the McLoughlin Boulevard corridor.
U.S. District Judge Michael R. Hogan said the Eastmoreland Neighborhood Association and the Sellwood-Moreland Improvement League may pursue injunction enforcement proceedings against Union Pacific Railroad and would be entitled to seek a “coercive” fine against the railroad if the associations prevail.
However, Hogan said the associations could not collect compensatory damages on behalf of individual property owners without those owners participating in the case.
The two associations went to court last November claiming that Union Pacific was violating terms of a 1956 injunction that applied to Southern Pacific operations on a stretch of tracks along McLoughlin Boulevard south of Reedway Street. Union Pacific now owns and operates the former Southern Pacific tracks.
The neighborhood associations contend that Union Pacific is using tracks for breaking down and reassembling trains that were not allowed under the 1956 ruling. The residents object to noise generated by nighttime operations.
Union Pacific said earlier that the 1956 restrictions were immaterial in an era when trains were shorter. The railroad claims that the injunction violates rules pertaining to interstate commerce.
Hogan will meet with the parties on July 6 to set a schedule for further proceedings, which include issues of contempt, possible modification of the old court order and possible sanctions against the railroad.