HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS JOIN IN NATION'S 'LIGHT RAIL' BOOM

High school students in Portland, Oregon, are getting ready for the boom in light rail construction. The engineering and industrial systems specialists at David Douglas High School are executing what could be the nation's first student-designed-and-built rail system. The team is now at work on a 20-by-32 ft (6-by-10 m) terminal that eventually will house a 20-passenger light rail car pieced together from several 1970s-era school busses. Another student team has already laid the light-gauge track for the system, set to open as early as next spring on school grounds. The project, which will link the high school's vocational and fine arts building with a classroom building approximately 200 yd (183 m) away, is part of a broader cooperative effort between Oregon's public schools and its business community.