Attacking the Empire from the Dark Side. Railroad Surveys in Private Practice Dennis D. Pederson, LS Bogart, Pederson & Assoc., Inc.

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1 Attacking the Empire from the Dark Side Railroad Surveys in Private Practice Dennis D. Pederson, LS Bogart, Pederson & Assoc., Inc.

2 Introduction MSPS 61 st Annual Meeting Seminar February 8, 2013 Session A6 Part 2 This introduction is for part two of the above presentation. Part one has been delivered by Washington County Surveyor Mike Welling and I think we all agree after having seen the tremendous presentation Mike has prepared, he deserves another round of applause. I must say with all honesty that the following Exhibits require more time than I have today but I will be around after the presentation to answer follow up questions. Mike and I both agree on the following points when dealing with railroad retracement survey issues:

3 Points to Remember There is no shortcut for proper research allow many hours. There is no method to arrive at the correct location without diligent field work search and dig. The Railroad Company will most likely be of very little help, especially in the first stages of the retracement project. The Internet is basically almost no help the documents needed are not on line. The station maps are on line through the MnDOT webpage For Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad data, the company of Bartlett & West has railroad survey documents and will provide them for a FEE. Please account for that in any estimates.

5 Background My mentor and former employer was John O. Oliver. John was born in Hibbing, MN and grew up with a father who worked for the railroads in northern MN. John became a serious student of all things railroad and so the offices of John Oliver & Associates, Inc. in Elk River were full of railroad maps and documents Exhibits 3, 4 and 5 are surveys in Sherburne County that contain elements of John s expertise in Retracement of Railroads. Many of the nuggets of survey wisdom I would hope to bring to this presentation are things I learned from John. I never professed to be an expert of railroad surveys we all learn as we go. There are several sessions at this annual meeting that will provide much more data on some of the issues raised here. Please check back to this site and print what you need for the annual meeting sessions you plan on attending.

6 Subject surveys Exhibit 1 City of Argyle, Marshall County, MN Boundary survey, ALTA, and Quiet Title surveys dealing with railroad lots with overlapping underlying descriptions, survey Exhibits from the files of the BNSF, and determination of the intentions of the railroad to lease/sell some of its right of way. Exhibit 2 City of Saint Hilaire, Pennington County, MN Boundary surveys and ALTA dealing with existing railroad lease property, modification of lease, encroachments to and from, ambiguous stationing and alignment issues and an analysis of the combination of stationing with metes and bounds to determine the intent of the property location. Exhibit 3 City of Becker, Sherburne County, MN Boundary Survey in the old town of Becker detailing which track was the original track from which all rights of way are established and showing subsequent takings by additional railroad acquisitions and the expansion of Jefferson Highway into present day Highway 10. Exhibit 4 City of Elk River, Sherburne County, MN Certificate of Survey to resolve an issue of possible encroachment brought by Title Company, research into historic platting, modern platting, multiple locations of streets and highways, and evolution of railroad track locations in comparison to the centerline. Exhibit 5 City of Clear Lake, Sherburne County, MN Investigations into possible overlaps of railroad right of way with historic townsite plat, problems uncovered by parcel mapping, subsequent platting, and bringing questions into who has the political will to solve it. John Oliver used to say: Be careful about getting on your white horse and titling at windmills, you re only going to get your lance bent. This obvious reference to Don Quixote has great meaning for the surveyors of today who think that all the available data they will ever need is right there at their fingertips, with the internet and their computer, their laptop, their smart phone and their GPS. Take some advice from a couple of seasoned surveyors, one working on the dark side in private practice, and one working for the Force in the Public Domain the Railroad is one of the biggest castles you will encounter (and I don t use that word lightly) in surveyland. We hope you learn from this seminar to respect their Kingdom for they truly control it. They don t give up their secrets easily. Prepare to get your hands dirty, and GOOD LUCK. Thanks for attending.

7 City of Argyle

8 Quiet Title MS

10 Argyle Railroad Exhibit

12 St Hilaire Station Map south

13 St Hilaire Station Map north

14 East side St Hilaire

15 West side St Hilaire

16 St Hilaire north

Agency Duties. Objectives. Upon completion of this section the student should be able to:

Agency Duties. Objectives. Upon completion of this section the student should be able to: Agency Duties Objectives Upon completion of this section the student should be able to: 1. Demonstrate how to create a dual agency relationship by separately entering into an agency agreement with both