THIS MONTH’S TOP NEWS STORIES AND PHOTOS
Triumphant Return for N&W 611
Thousands turned out trackside to witness a series of weekend of public excursions to mark the triumphant return of Norfolk & Western No. 611 to active duty. The streamlined locomotive steamed in to the Amtrak/Virginia Railway Express depot in Manassas, Va., on June 6, 2015, after its fi rst trip to Front Royal and return. PHOTO BY MICHAEL KARLIK
BNSF RAILWAY SAYRE KOS
Service Interruptions
During the evening of May 16, BNSF Train Z-WSPSTO9-16 (Priority UPS/ LTL Intermdoal, Willow Springs, Ill.-Stockton, Calif.) was blown off the tracks by straight-line winds or a torna- do near Neosho Rapids, Kan. The crew on the train, which was stopped about eight miles east of Emporia, Kan., re- ported seeing a funnel cloud nearby. Four cars toward the middle of the train derailed, and most traffic was fleeted over the nearby Topeka Subdivision to bypass the derailment site. Service was restored by 7:00 a.m. on May 17. The severe weather that derailed
Train Z-WSPSTO9-16 spread across vast portions of the Transcon with wind warnings and flash flood warnings all the way from Fort Madison, Iowa, to Clovis, N.M., throughout Saturday night and all day Sunday. The glut of trains reached its peak on May 18 when 60 trains occupied the 220-mile Emporia Subdivision. Another 60 trains were try-
6 AUGUST 2015 •
RAILFAN.COM
ing to navigate 317 miles of the adjacent Panhandle Subdivision between Wel- lington, Kan., and Amarillo, Texas. On May 26, BNSF’s Creek Subdivision
near Ravia, Okla., succumbed to flood waters off the Washita River. As many as 25 miles of railroad were submerged in water as high as 36 inches above rail- head. On a more typical day, the railroad bridge over the Washita River arm of Lake Texoma is 25 feet above the water, whereas at the flood’s height on May 30, the top of the rail was just two feet above water.
Operations
Last month we reported that BNSF operated two manifest schedules east of out Barstow, Calif.: H-BARNEW to Newton, Kan., and H-BARAMS to Ama- rillo, Texas. As of May, those trains have been eliminated and replaced with pre- viously existing schedules, H-BARGAL9 to Galesburg, Ill., and H-BARKCK to Ar- gentine Yard in Kansas City, Kan. Train H-BARGAL9 operates four days per week, departing Barstow on Tuesday,
Thursday, Friday, and Sunday at 10:00 p.m., arriving in Galesburg 64 hours, 20 minutes later on Friday, Sunday, Mon- day, and Wednesday. Train H-BARKCK departs Barstow on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday at 1:00 a.m., arriving in Kansas City 61 hours, 15 minutes after departure. Except Monday, Train H-BARLIN (to Lincoln, Neb.) departs on alternate days than H-BARKCK, departing Barstow on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday on a 73-hour, 45-minute schedule to Lincoln. This train operates former Atchison, To- peka & Santa Fe rails to Newton, then east to Peabody where it uses trackage rights over Union Pacific to Lost Springs, Kan., then across BNSF’s Strong City Subdivision to Superior, Neb., and for- mer Burlington Northern rails to Hast- ings and Lincoln. In mid-May, Train H-KCKDEN (High Priority Manifest, Argentine Yard, Kan- sas City-Denver) had its route to Denver adjusted again. More than a year ago, the train operated west from Kansas City to Newton, Dodge City, and La Jun- ta, Colo., before heading north toward Denver. Within the last year, the train
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