Milwaukee Road No. 261 Makes a Comeback After Four-Year Overhaul
THE FRIENDS OF THE 261 CELEBRATED National Train Day this year by running the well-known Milwaukee Road Northern on its first excursion after its four-year overhaul. On May 11-12, the 1944 Alco pulled a 14-car train from Minneapolis Junction to Duluth, Minn.,
miles of new track, only two sections will be done. Walong (Tehachapi Loop) and Marcel sidings will be connected with .8 miles of sec- ond main track to create a 2.8 mile stretch of double track, and Cliff siding will be extended about 900 feet to the portal of Tunnel 7. Part of the reason is that the Environmen- tal Impact Report needs to be re-done due to the October 2012 establishment of the Cesar Chavez National Monument in Keene and the fact that habitat of endangered Valley Elder- berry Longhorn Beetles (five elderberry bush- es) has been found in the area. Another, prob- ably more important, consideration is that Northern California Trade Corridors Coalition bond money, which will pay for part of the project, is running out.
POWDER RIVER COAL, NOW OIL, TOO: There’s shale oil as well as low-sulfur coal in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin. The Niobara Oil Play underlies much of the PRB and is now being exploited by several developers. Genesis Energy will build the Pronghorn unit train crude oil loading facility near Douglas on the BNSF/Union Pacific Joint Line (BNSF Orin Sub). In addition, Meritage Midstream and
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RAILFAN.COM
and return over BNSF Railway’s Hinckley Subdivision. The Friends and the Lake Superior Railroad Museum ran a dinner train on the evening to May 11, followed by a night photo session with Soo Line Pacific No. 2719. Digital readers can see more 261 coverage beginning on page 58.
Arch Coal are jointly building an oil loading fa- cility at the Black Thunder Mine near Wright, and Cogent Enterprises will build an oil loader in Casper, located on BNSF’s former Colorado & Southern Casper Sub.
California Western
TUNNEL COLLAPSE SHUTS LINE: On the night of April 12-13, 2013, a 40-foot section of the redwood lining of California Western’s 1122-foot long Tunnel No. 1, located about three miles east of Fort Bragg, Calif., col- lapsed. Crews had noticed a bulge in the lining a few days before the collapse. With all rolling stock confined west of the tunnel at Fort Bragg, about 37 miles of the main line, which runs 40 miles east to a connection with the currently inactive Northwestern Pacific, is out of service. In lieu of the full-length Skunk Train the railroad is running a shuttle from Fort Bragg to Glen Blair. It will cost about $300,000 to remove the tons of fallen rock and repair the tunnel lining, money which the company does not have on hand. A “Save Our Skunk” fundraising campaign is being run through
www.gofundme.com/SaveOurSkunk.
Canadian Pacific
TRACK, SIGNAL PROJECTS EXPEDITED: Due to better than expected cash flow in 2013, Canadian Pacific has decided to begin two important track and signal improvement projects this year, instead of in 2014 as been planned originally. One project will upgrade track and sidings on the North Line, a sec- ondary route that carries heavy grain and potash traffic between Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Edmonton, Alberta. The other project will upgrade the former
Soo Line main line from Chicago to Portal, N.D. and on to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. On the 600 miles between Glenwood (Minneapo- lis) and Moose Jaw, this important through route in the heart of North Dakota’s Bakken Formation oil country is currently dark terri- tory, where trains must stop and manually line switches into and out of passing tracks when making meets. The route will be up- graded with Centralized Traffic Control, which will allow dispatchers to line switches remotely, dramatically speeding up opera- tions while saving time and fuel while in- creasing capacity.
LYNN MCCALL
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