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OTTO M. VONDRAK
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NEWS COORDINATOR KEVIN C. SNYDER
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BNSF RAILWAY SAYRE KOS
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CANADIAN SHORTLINES GLENN COURTNEY
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CANADIAN NATIONAL SAYRE KOS
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CANADIAN PACIFIC JAY BROOKS
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CSX TRANSPORTATION CHASE GUNNOE
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CHICAGOLAND RANDY OLSON
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IOWA INTERSTATE ALLAN HUNT
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IRON ORE ROADS
DAVE SCHAUER
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KANSAS CITY SOUTHERN DANNY JOHNSON
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MONTANA RAIL LINK JUSTIN FRANZ
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NORFOLK SOUTHERN SCOTT LINDSEY
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PASSENGER AND COMMUTER OTTO M. VONDRAK
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REGIONALS/SHORTLINES - WEST GARLAND MCKEE
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was operating west to Wellington, Kan., and Amarillo, Texas, then north to Den- ver, avoiding the La Junta Subdivision west of Hutchinson, an Automatic Block Signal (ABS) railroad that is very much directional with trains running south from Pueblo to La Junta. As of May 13, Train H-KCKDEN operates north out of Kansas City to Lincoln, and west via Hastings and McCook, Neb., to Denver. The train operates daily and runs on a 34-hour, 20-minute schedule over for- mer Chicago, Burlington & Quincy rails, shaving about three hours and 280 miles off the schedule via Amarillo.
Locomotive News
BNSF received new ES44C4s 8360-8383, 8385, 8386, and 8388 from General Elec- tric’s plant in Fort Worth, Texas, in May. All these deliveries are Tier 4 credit user locomotives. As of press time, BNSF rosters just one true Tier 4 locomotive, ET44C4 3916, although the railroad had still not officially taken possession of the new locomotive. The 3916 tested briefly on BNSF before going to Southwest Re- search Institute in San Antonio, Texas, for emissions testing. When Tier 4 loco- motives do hit the BNSF roster, it is ex- pected that 161 of these units will arrive throughout the second half of 2015. The GECX Tier 4 test locomotives that
were testing on the Northern Transcon between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Wash- ington State have relocated to the South- ern Transcon. Train H-NTWTUL1-31 (High Priority Manifest, Northtown Yard, Minneapolis-Tulsa, Okla.) depart- ed May 31 with BNSF C44-9W 1041 leading GECX 2029 and 2041. Later, Train H-KCKBAR9-06 (High Priority Manifest, Argentine Yard-Barstow) was seen passing Emporia, Kan., on June 6 with GECX 2031 in tow. GECX 2026 was headed for Bakersfield, Calif., on June 3, while on Train M-BARBAK1-03 from Barstow.
CANADIAN NATIONAL SAYRE KOS
Northern Minnesota Derailment
Shortly after midnight on May 27, Ca- nadian National Train X34641-25 (Ex- tra, Symington Yard, Winnipeg, Man.- BRC Clearing Yard, Bedford Park, Ill.) encountered a bridge fire at mile 156.4, south of Ranier, Minn., on the Ranier Subdivision. While the operating crew did apply emergency brakes upon seeing the fire, the locomotives and first 20 cars made it over the bridge. Once the train came to a stop, three cars derailed and
the bridge collapsed completely under the weight of the train. As of press time, investigators were
not clear on what caused the bridge to catch fire, but were honing in on a me- chanical failure involving a railcar in a train that passed through the area ahead of X346. The Ranier Subdivision is a critical
link in CN’s network between Winni- peg, the Twin Ports in Minnesota, and Chicago. Almost immediately, trains were rerouted “over the top,” or east across northern Ontario through Sioux Lookout, Hornepayne, and Capreol, be- fore dropping south through MacMillan Yard and London toward former Grand Trunk rails through Lansing and Battle Creek, Mich., to access Chicago. On the afternoon of April 29, some 37 freights (an even mix of intermodal and manifest traffic) were operating on various points along this detour route while temporary repairs were effected south of Ranier. A temporary shoofly was established
at the bridge, which takes the Rani- er Subdivision over the Rat Root River in northern Minnesota. Speed over the shoofly was limited to ten m.p.h. and the area is littered with numerous train handling restrictions while a bridge is built on the original alignment. It was not clear as of press time when the new bridge would be fully ready for service.
Signal Upgrades
On May 27, Canadian National com- pleted a multiple control point cutover affecting Shelton Junction and DWP Junction on the Missabe Subdivision and T-bird on the Ranier Subdivision. The upgrade of the signals at these con- trol points is but one phase in a larger project to increase efficiencies through- out the Iron Range as CN further in- tegrates the former Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific and Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range properties into its North Amer- ican network.
Waukegan Subdivision Abandonment
In March, Wisconsin Central Ltd., the paper railroad that represents much of Canadian National’s U.S. operations, filed to abandon 3.6 miles of the Wauke- gan Subdivision, a former Elgin, Joliet & Eastern property. The portion intended to be abandoned extends from milepost 71, near North Chicago, Ill., and extends to the end of the line at Waukegan, mile 74.6. Only one customer, Interntaionl Precision Components Corp., is on this
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