RICHLAND, Pa. -- His grandson was positively thrilled at first, according to the Bucks County (Pa.) Courier Times.

"He loves trains," Stan Jones said of the 2-year-old, "so when he saw we had trains in the yard, he was so excited. "Then he got closer and saw how big they were, and he got a little scared."

Then the grandfather said he got closer and read some of the signs on the string of train cars, parked on tracks a stone's throw away from his American Drive house for nearly a month.

"Contains Vinyl Chloride," one sign read. "Vinyl Chloride is a Cancer Suspect Agent."

Stan Jones got a little scared too.

And he took those fears and went to his lawyer and the township to see if anything can be done to get the trains moved.

He was told:

The cars are apparently empty.

He's not alone in this - there are now dozens of trains sitting idle on the mostly unused tracks that run through Richland and Quakertown, an annoyance to many residents and officials.

And, most likely, nothing can be done to get rid of them.

John Nolan, president of East Penn Railways Inc. - which leases 15 miles of tracks from SEPTA, from approximately the northern part of Richland down toward the borough of Telford - said the cars near Jones' home had all been emptied and cleaned before they were parked. As to why they're there at all, he said it's all another effect of the recession.

A downswing in the economy means fewer things need to be shipped, he said, leaving many train cars unused.

Storage at a regular shipping yards is tight, he said, so he's been letting many of the firms he deals with leave their train cars on the tracks in Upper Bucks, though he said he tried to keep them away from heavily populated areas. Jones is the only homeowner on his road, while most of the other cars are near industrial parks or forested areas.

He said there were now approximately 100 empty cars - most of which weren't used to transport chemicals - sitting around.

"Why not?" he said. "It's a railroad track and that's where trains reside."
Officials are not satisfied with that answer.

Richland's supervisors discussed the situation at their meeting this week, with all three saying it was time for the cars to be moved.

"This isn't a storage yard, this isn't a marshalling yard," said Steve Tamburri. "I think that the East Penn Railways is creating a nuisance."

But township manager Stephen Sechriest said proving the trains were in violation of the township's nuisance ordinance might be difficult.

In Quakertown, where a herd of train cars covered in graffiti sits near the unused site of the former Krupp Foundry off Mill Street, borough Manager David Woglom said he too couldn't think of any laws that were being broken by the train cars.