Train car's destination is uncertain

[Knothead]

The 85-foot passenger car that was moved from the old Belmont rail depot onto the tracks Sept. 10 hasn't moved since.

The N.C. Department of Transportation's Rail Division plans to get the state attorney general's office involved if the car is not removed by a licensed contractor by Friday.

What would happen to the car after that is unclear.

"It is not our intention to seize the rail car," said Joan Bagherpour, a spokeswoman for the Rail Division.

The Piedmont Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society says it sold the car to John Salisbury of Independence, Mo., last year, and Jim Gregory, president of the chapter, says the organization has no interest in buying it back.

"We don't have any place to keep it really," Gregory said.

Bagherpour said the DOT sent Salisbury a letter dated Sept. 14 saying that he didn't have permission to use the tracks and that he'll be charged a daily fee until the car is removed. The DOT hasn't heard back, she said. Salisbury could not be reached Tuesday by the Observer.

On Sept. 10, the 120-ton car was pulled about a quarter-mile north of the depot by three men with a Bobcat trailer. Belmont police stopped them.

Richard LaVecchia, who purchased the train depot this year from Robert Stowe III, maintains that the car belongs to him. He said Tuesday afternoon that the city of Belmont had offered to help return the car to the depot.

But David Isenhour, Belmont Director of Public Works, said the city has no intention of getting involved.

"I really think once they decide ownership of it," Isenhour said, "I think it will probably move back to the rail depot."

[JCagle]

Once again the Observer needs to do a little more observing.... I doubt they put the car on a trailer to haul a bobcat. After all this is the same newspaper that screwed up the AP College football rankings a couple of weeks ago. You just have to love our local paper.