|
Steve Keene
All that are forced to deal with the government bureaucrats that slow business and dampen the economy,
I find myself spending this afternoon redoing Raillroad Commision reports and appplications because the Texas Railroad Commission has become so large and unwieldy that one department knows nothing of what the other departments are doing. My companies find themselves in a Wewoka Switch in trying to be compliant with Railroad Commssion rules and regulations. I have performed the requirementss and filed the necessary paperwork, but it is lost in the bureaucracy.
For those of you unfamiliar with the term Wewoka Switch let me give you a little history lesson. In 1894, the Gulf Coast, Rock Island and Pacific Railway decided to purchase the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf Railway on the Eastern side of the Oklahoma Indian Territory to expand service to the growing populace of Oklahoma Indian Territory. Rock Island ran railroad tracks to many of the larger communities in Indian Territory. One such territory was in Wewoka on the far western edge of Indian Territory and the capital of the Seminole Nation. The town had about 2500 people ccnsisting of mainly of farmers, ranchers and merchants. Rock Island built a switching station there one half mile long and consisting of many sidings on which to unload and delvier freight and livestock. The switching station extended from the center of town in two directions. Things ran okay until about 1920 when the surrounding area was identified as having a large amount of oil and gas. The population of Wewoka quickly swelled to over 20,000 people and the switch had to handle 8 times the goods and livestock it previously had, plus the additional pipe, machinery, liquid transport and other goods to service the oii industry. The Switching station ballooned in size and complexity and became a nightmare to navigate.
It was common for companies and merchants to blame the wewoka swtich for delays in deliveries for lost shipments and Rock Island finally recognized that the swtich accounted for a majority of the problems for the railroad. They actually made rubber stamps that said Wewoka Switch to stamp delayed shipment manifests.
The term wewoka switch became common useage for an unsolvable predicament in oil and gas and finally transportaion and fuel problems. It has remained so today for the center part of the nation and in oil field circles.
|
