Rio Grande “Mudhen” Returns to Service in Colorado
CUMBRES & TOLTEC SCENIC RAILROAD K-27 Mikado No. 463 made its maiden trip, doubleheaded with K-36 No. 487 (above), on May 20, 2013, after years of restoration work and an investment of $1.3 million,. One of only two existing Mudhens (No. 464 is on the Huckleberry Railroad in Michigan), No. 463 was overhauled beginning in 2009 by the C&TS Antonio shop crew which includes Marvin and Max Casias, and Jake Vigil.
No. 463 was one of 15 Mikados built in 1903 by Baldwin for the Den- ver & Rio Grande. It was leased to the Rio Grande Southern in the late
NJ Transit
“MID-LINE LOOP” IS PROPOSED: NJ Transit plans to build a flyover across Am- trak’s Northeast Corridor near Monmouth Junction, N.J., south of a proposed new sta- tion in North Brunswick. The “Mid-Line Loop” would allow NJT commuter trains from New York and Newark to return north with- out having to cross over the busy Amtrak main line at County Interlocking and without taking the time for an engineer to change ends on a push-pull or m.u. consist. Trains originating at the County (Jersey Avenue) yard, located on the west side of the NEC, will run south to the new loop to cross over, rather than using the at-grade cross-overs at County. Concurrently, County Yard will be expanded from its current three-train capacity to 12 trains. This will eliminate the need to dead- head trains between Amtrak’s Sunnyside storage yard in New York and County in the
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1940s and finished its career back on the Rio Grande before it was sold to cowboy actor Gene Autry in 1955. In 1972, Autry donate the locomo- tive to the town of Antonito, Colo., located on today’s Cumbres & Toltec Scenic. No. 463 was a static display until it was transferred to C&TS, which returned it to service in 1994. It remained in service until 2002 when its flue time ran out and new Federal Railroad Administration rules made its rebuild more expensive. The Friends of the C&TS were able to raise nearly $1 million in grants and donations, and ultimately the Mudhen was returned to service.
morning and evening commuter rush hours. The third piece of this puzzle will be the new NJT station at North Brunswick, located south of County/Jersey Avenue and north of the new loop. North Brunswick station will serve a residential-retail “transit village” that’s being planned for the former Johnson & Johnson complex, which is located between U.S. Route 1 and the NEC. The new station will be able to accommodate 12-car trains, in contrast to the present Jersey Avenue station with its short platforms. The project is expect- ed to be completed by 2018.
AMTRAK TIE WORK WILL AFFECT NJT: On June 2, 2013, NJ Transit issued a new timetable for its Northeast Corridor route due to an Amtrak tie replacement project which will see southbound local Track 4 taken out of service between New Brunswick and Trenton, N.J., for several months. Amtrak has installed platform bridges to span the out-of-
service track and allow trains to make station stops at New Brunswick, Edison, and Metuchen on the inner express track. Al- though most inbound and outbound peak service trains will operate, trip times will be lengthened. After Amtrak is finished with Track 4, northbound Track 1 will be taken out of service.
Norfolk Southern
PORTAGEVILLE PROJECT IS IN PLAY: The long-awaited replacement of Norfolk Southern’s 1875-vintage Portageville High Bridge over the Genesee River in Letchworth State Park on the Southern Tier Line near Portageville, N.Y., is slated to begin soon, with construction bids to be accepted this spring and work expected to begin later this summer. We outlined the project and the bridge’s history in detail on page 20 of the February 2012 issue.
BRIAN JANSKY PHOTO, COURTESY OF CUMBRES& TOLTEC SCENIC RAILROAD
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