NR Jct. EMPORIA


Staffordville Ellinor


Grove East Menoken


BNSF/UP (ATSF)


Tecumseh


Lecompton Grover


LakeView Perry Midland LAWRENCE Eudora DeSoto


(3000-plus horsepower) BNSF engines on the rear of a Red Rock train in the Topeka yard. Starting in 2009, after the Union Pacific lost the coal contract to the BNSF, the Red Rock loads ran from Alliance, Neb., into Kansas City, then southwest on the Emporia Sub and then south on the Augusta Sub toward Oklahoma, bypassing the hilly south- ern part of the Topeka Sub that had spawned the manned helper operation.


Diversions: the Reroutes Significant traffic increases on the adjacent Emporia Sub led the BNSF to make the lightly-traveled Topeka Sub into an alternate route. In 2004 and 2005, the double track Emporia Sub of- ten saw 70 or more trains per day. As a result, any big maintenance project, de- railment, or even an engine failure threatened the fluidity of operations on this key segment of the Chicago-Cali- fornia transcon, including the on-time performance


of UPS-laden Z-trains.


Sporadic detours had occurred prior to 2005, but trains could contain no high- wide loads, doublestacks, or Automax cars. After bridge clearance and brush cutting work in the summer of 2005, the BNSF began regularly diverting


RIGHT: A southbound Red Rock coal train, with a former Santa Fe warbonnet on the point, heads south at MP 60.3 under the U.S. 75 bridge south of Pauline on October 4, 1997. Manned helpers brought up the rear of this train, which the UP turned over to the Santa Fe (and later BNSF) at Topeka.


to Omaha


KANSAS CITY Emporia


Topeka KANSAS to Omaha


to Herington to Hutchinson


TOPEKA 0 5 10 MILES 15 20 25


Wakarusa Pauline


Topeka Sub Carbondale Burlingame


ATSF- Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe BNSF- BNSF Railway MKT- Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway MP- Missouri Pacific RI- Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific SLSF- St. Louis-San Francisco Railway UP- Union Pacific


to Lost Springs Hymer Neva Neosho Rapids Clements to Peabody Bazaar to Texas and California 32 SEPTEMBER 2013 • RAILFAN.COM BNSF Topeka Sub Illustration by Otto M. Vondrak. Not all stations shown. Not an official map. ©2013 Carstens Publications, Inc. Osage City Scranton


Emporia Sub Quenemo


Reading Melvern Ridgeton Gardner


Baldwin City Nowhere


Edgerton Wellsville to Paola Ottawa Pomona Spring Hill to Chicago KANSAS CITY Argentine Yard Holliday


trains off the Emporia Sub onto the Topeka Sub, making this single-track line hum with unprecedented levels of activity, ranging from slow grain loads (like the Iowa to Texas G-EDYDHT) to the hottest shooters (such as the Chicago- Stockton, Calif., Z-WSPSTO). The approach is a significantly modi- fied form of the directional running that BNSF and the Union Pacific had used elsewhere during this time. In- stead of utilizing one route for west- bounds and another for eastbounds, the BNSF dispatchers have kept the Empo- ria Sub as a primary bi-directional route. When circumstances warrant,


the railroad will siphon off some traffic onto the Topeka Sub.


Several situations trigger detours. According to one veteran Santa Fe/BNSF hogger, “It’s usually conges- tion or maintenance they are avoiding by using the Topeka Sub.” For example, major tie or rail replacement projects close off stretches of one main track and (for shorter times) occasionally two, causing dispatchers to divert three to ten (or more) trains from the Empo- ria Sub onto the single track route. When both mains of the Emporia Sub were washed out due to torrential rains on June 30, 2007, the BNSF detoured


Olathe Bonita


MR (ATSF)


BNSF (ATSF)


BNSF/UP (ATSF)


BNSF/UP (SLSF/MKT)


BNSF/UP/AMTK (ATSF)


BNSF (ATSF)


UP (MP)


BNSF (ATSF)


BNSF/UP (ATSF)


BNSF (ATSF)


UP (RI)


UP (RI)


UP


UP


BNSF/UP (SLSF/MKT)


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