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and has no customers. Should a custom- er need service Jackson County will con- tract out the operation to a third party. The line is the former Rock Island Kan- sas City to St. Louis mainline that has not seen service since the 1980s.
Bridge Pier Collapse Causes Derailment on Kyle Railway
On the evening of December 21, at approximately 6:00 p.m., Kyle Railway suffered a derailment when a bridge pier failed on a through-truss bridge over the Republican River Bridge northwest of Concordia, Kan. The last three cars of a Salina-bound train that contained wheat crashed into the river and destroyed the bridge. The trackage is a former Missouri
Pacific line now operated by Kyle Rail- way. The wrecked cars were expected to be removed within a week but the bridge would take up to three months to replace.
Tacoma Rail Cutback After 11 years, Washington state’s Ta-
coma Rail will end its lease of two BNSF routes, the Belmore Line and the Quad- lock Line, effective March 15. The 10.2- mile Belmore Line extends from Belmore to Olympia and from Olympia to Tumwa- ter and serves the Port of Olympia and the Mottman Industrial Park. The Bel- more line extends from milepost 0 at St. Clair to milepost 3.27 at Quadlock, and serves the International Paper plant at Union Mills. Both lines were leased from BNSF in 2004. BNSF has stated a new operator will take over the lines. The two
lines handled more than 1,500 carloads in 2015; however Tacoma Rail says it needed 2,600 to break even.
New Freight Spurs for Northwestern Pacific
Sonoma Marin Area Rapid Transit (SMART) and Dutra Materials have both agreed to put in some rail spurs at $600,000 a switch to help gain freight customers. Northwestern Pacific has gained a new customer that is expected to bring in 200 carloads of wheat a year from Alberta. NWP hopes to be approach- ing 1,000 carloads by next year. Also, the railroad plans for continued freight ex- pansion to Cloverdale in the near future, which could cost $6 million and add Men- docino Forest Products as a customer. There also may be another future part-
Tacoma Rail Farewell
Tacoma Rail will cease service on two Olympia area branch lines on March 15, ending 11 years of operations on the pair. Late in 2015, City of Tacoma-owned Tacoma Rail chose not to renew its lease from BNSF. Citing carloading challenges, it was determined that the line needed 2,600 cars annually. The railroad was also challenged with a nearly half a million dollar diesel spill cleanup after one of its locomotives struck a concrete block placed between the rails by vandals in 2014. The two largest customers along the line include the Port of Olympia and Mottman Industrial Park. BNSF is currently searching for a new operator for the line which feeds cars to both BNSF and UP.
PHOTO BY ROBERT W. SCOTT
Wilmington & Western B&O Heritage for
Wilmington & Western’s EMD SW1 was spotted in the yard at Norfolk Southern’s Morrisville, Pa., during the week of January 21. Built in 1940 for Baltimore & Ohio, the unit was was used by Chessie System on its Landenberg Branch near Wilmington, Del. The branch and locomotive were acquired by W&W in 1982, and the switcher operated for W&W until 2008. The vintage diesel was sent out in 2011 to be rebuilt and by McHugh Bros. As the rebuild progressed, the scope of the project expanded to repair or replace nearly every major pre-war component. Restored to B&O colors, it’s on its way back to the Wilmington & Western.
PHOTO BY BRAD PANAIA
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