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More Crude Oil to Tuscaloosa
KCS moved a second unit crude oil train to a refinery customer in Tuscaloosa, Ala., during the last week of December. The train, pow- ered by Canadian Pacific locomotives, depart- ed Kansas City on December 22 and returned empty approximately one week later. A third loaded train, also behind CP locomotives, departed Kansas City, Mo., on January 11, bound for Tuscaloosa. The current schedule would suggest that these trains are operating on a three-week turnaround schedule.
MONTANA RAIL LINK JUSTIN FRANZ
MRL Touts Safety
After three high-profile derailments in 2014, Montana Rail Link invited local officials from the Missoula City Council to tour the railroad’s headquarters in early January and learn more about the regional railroad’s safety record. MRL made national headlines in July 2014 when a train derailment on its Fourth Subdivision near Alberton, Mont., sent three Boeing 737 fuselages into the Clark Fork River. Then on December 13, two trains collided near Bonner, sending two em- ployees to the hospital. Three days after that, a switching accident in the Missoula yard overturned 30 empty tank cars. Despite those mishaps, MRL told government officials and a Missoulian reporter that derailments are down 27 percent in the last decade and that the road’s injury frequency in 2014 was 1.18 per 100 employees. “Any incident that we have, we debrief it,
we learn from it, we change policies and pro- cedures that need to be changed,” spokesper- son Jim Lewis told The Missoulian. “In both the most recent cases in the Missoula yard and Bonner, there were policies and proce- dures that were changed.” MRL has also created its own rules for mov-
ing crude oil trains, officials told the newspa- per, although only 53 oil trains went across MRL in 2014. Now whenever an oil train is meeting another train, one must come to a complete stop and the other pass at restricted speeds. MRL has also chosen not to run oil trains over its biggest mountain grades when the temperature dips below zero, among other self-imposed rules for the oil trains. “We want to assure the public and assure
the communities we operate through that we take safety so seriously,” Lewis told the news- paper. “One accident is too many.”
NORFOLK SOUTHERN SCOTT LINDSEY
Roanoke Offi ce Closure
On January 27, Norfolk Southern announced that it will close its Franklin Road office fa- cility in Roanoke, Va., this year, impacting more than 500 employees currently at the site. Functions based there will be shifted to NS’s Atlanta and Norfolk office campuses, in-
cluding marketing, accounting, information technology, and other departments. Affected employees will have the option of relocating with their positions. The Roanoke office building was built in 1992 and consists of more than 203,000 square feet of office space. Disposition of the building will be de- termined at a later time. The Virginia Divi- sion offices in Roanoke will not be impacted, nor will local operating facilities.
BLET Agreement
On January 30, NS and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen reached a new collective bargaining agreement that continues to link engineer compensation to corporate performance through 2019. The agreement, which covers approximately 4600 locomotive engineers, provides engineers with an annual bonus opportunity based on corporate performance and, for the first time, includes individual incentive opportu- nities based on personal performance. The agreement also includes changes to improve engineer work scheduling, which will help en- sure that NS has a more stable and available workforce while providing employees with more predictable schedules.
Locomotive News
During the first week of January, EMD de- livered the final units of the 2014 NS order for 50 additional SD70ACe locomotives. Num- bered 1125-1174, these 4500-h.p. units were set up and released for service by late Jan- uary at Bellevue, Ohio, as well as Conway and Altoona, Pa. They have builder numbers 20136988-001 through 20136988-050, with November build dates. During January, the first emissions-friend-
ly locomotives funded by the federal Conges- tion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) Im- provement Program were released for road testing from NS’s Juniata Locomotive Shop in Altoona. Designated by NS as model GP33E- CO, they are part of 25-unit production plan that will be partially funded by CMAQ. These 3000-h.p. units are powered by an EMD 12-cylinder 12N-710G3B-T3 ECO engine and meet EPA Tier 3 emissions standards. Fea- turing NS-designed “Admiral” cabs and flared radiators, they are also equipped to serve as master units for RP-M4C road slugs in the 610 series. The initial units are Nos. 4700 (rebuilt
from GP50 7004) and 4715 (rebuilt from GP50 7055), and feature a distinctive paint scheme that includes a wave of two-tone green paint along the units’ noses and sides. At the rear of the long hood sides, they also have green sil- houettes of the states to which they are being assigned. After in-service testing in the Al- toona area, they will be permanently assigned to their respective grant award areas in the Chicago (4700) and Atlanta (4715) terminals. Both Illinois and Georgia are contributing state funding for their respective portions of the 25 units (Nos. 4700-4724) being built at Juniata. By late January, NS had only 18 GP50 units on its active roster. A number of these
former Southern units in the 7000 series have been retired in support of the GP33ECO re- build program, including the 7051 and 7058 in January. BP4 locomotive 999, which is NS’s bat- tery-powered, four-axle switcher built in the Juniata Shop, was shipped from Altoona to Roanoke on February 2. It arrived on Febru- ary 8 after being shuttled on a series of power moves and manifest trains via Conway and Enola. At its new home, this unique unit has been initially assigned to the roadway mate- rial yard.
CF&E Work Continues As trackwork on the Chicago, Fort Wayne
& Eastern Railroad (CFE) between Bucyrus, Ohio, and Fort Wayne, Ind., was completed in January, the railroad issued a press release discussing these improvements and how it would support NS’s initiative to develop a third route east from Chicago. This winter project was part of the CFE’s investment to raise the maximum authorized speed to 40 m.p.h. across its entire 315-mile line from Tolleston, Ind., to Crestline, Ohio. This re- cent work included surfacing nearly 50 track miles, installing more than 10,000 new ties, and replacing rail at several spots. This for- mer Pennsy mainline is owned by CSX, oper- ated by the CFE, and dispatched by NS, with NS having overhead operating rights. Up to six additional NS eastbound trains
will eventually use the line daily, accord- ing to a company release. During January, NS was primarily operating one through freight over the route most days, and some- times two. Eastbound manifest train 16E (Chicago-Conway) was frequently seen over the entire route from Tolleston to Bucyrus, along with westbound automotive train 13J (Fort Wayne-Chicago) on the west end. East- bound 10R (Kankakee, Ill.-Conway) has also operated via the CFE a couple times instead of its normal route via Elkhart, Ind.; this is the BNSF run-through train originating at Galesburg, Ill., delivering to the NS at Stre- ator, Ill., and then operating to Kankakee as symbol B11. The first loaded unit train of crude oil ran
via the CFE on January 28, with the east- ward passage of Train Z6X. This was an extra section of Train 66X (Chicago/CPRS-Reybold, Del.) that normally operates via Toledo and Cleveland, Ohio. It was led by CP ES44AC 8946 and CP AC44CW 9535. NS reportedly plans to include unit oil trains in the mix of movements that will use the CFE route.
Illinois Division Signal Work
Beginning in 2014, contractor signal con- struction crews have been working west from Peru, Ind., replacing signals at control points in preparation for Positive Train Control. This is the Illinois Division’s former Wabash mainline from Detroit towards Decatur, Ill., and the western gateways. As of January 31, these crews were finishing up at Demun, the control point west of Lafayette, Ind.,where the ex-Wabash main connects with the former
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