Rail Monthly Update #3

26, June 2006

 

 

 

TWO OF FOUR MAJOR CWR PROJECTS ALREADY COMPLETED!! THIRD UNDERWAY!

 

Four major projects headline the 2006 Rail program that will involve laying more than 60 miles of CWR and over 30 new turnouts.  The first three projects, one of 10 miles on the DM&E near Sanborn, one of 14 miles on the IC&E south of Austin, and one of 11 miles near Bellevue are completed.     The last “major” project is on the KC sub and is scheduled for later in the year.  A summary of the rail and turnout projects follows:

 

¨       Manager of Projects Tim Meyer supervised the installation of 10 miles of new 136# CWR near Sanborn in early April.  Switches and crossings have been installed and all rail and OTM have been cleaned up in the area.  This track was raised to 40 mph on Friday the 19th of May.

¨       Mr. Meyer also supervised the installation of 14 miles of CWR south of Austin on the IC&E.  This project was completed in early May and IC&E forces are cleaning up rail and OTM in anticipation of ballasting and surfacing which is now scheduled for early July.  This will also be raised to a speed of 40 MPH upon completion.

¨       Our other Manager of Projects, Jack Boxleiter, supervised the installation of the 11 miles of CWR near Bellevue and is currently over seeing the clean up of OTM and rail in the area.  As soon as all material is cleaned from the area, ballast will be unloaded and surfacing will be completed.

¨       Jack will also be assisting with the unloading of the last of the CWR for our curve program for 2006 over the next week.  There are 80 “strings” of rail ( over 10 track miles) in this year’s curve patch program.  This rail will be installed on curves and other areas between Polo Missouri and LaCrescent on the KC, River and Marquette subs and between Marquette and Algona on the Mason City sub. This last scheduled trainload of CWR is currently planned to be unloaded the week of June 26th and July 3rd.

¨       Jack and Tim are now scheduled to share supervisory responsibilities on the last CWR project.  This project will encompass over 17 track miles between Moseby Jct and Lawson Jct on the Kansas City sub just north of Kansas City.  It is currently scheduled for late in the third or early in the fourth quarter.

¨       We have received and unloaded 6 of the 7 CWR trains which are scheduled to be delivered in 2006.  The seventh train is being unloaded in curve locations as this website is updated.  This is the last scheduled train of new rail for 2006.

¨       Manager of Track Maintenance John Chipps of Chillicothe Missouri and his crews have unloaded three CWR trains from the UP for the double track project in Missouri.

¨       The # 1 major turnout project for the year will be on the double track north of Kansas where over 20 turnouts will be renewed with new premium 136# material.  The power turnouts for this location will be supplied by Progress Rail and the manual turnouts will be supplied by LB Foster Co.  The first two turnouts have been received for this project.  Assembly and installation will be scheduled throughout the next several months.

¨       Two turnouts have been installed on the DM&E’s Sanborn CWR project area and a third turnout has been installed for an ethanol facility in Huron.  Other turnouts will be assembled and installed on the other CWR areas soon.

¨       Two new switches were just recently installed and put into service in Samoa to improve the efficiency at that location.

¨       We are also scheduled to replace the diamond at Davis Jct. Illinois and are working with the CN/IC to remove the diamond at Lyle Minnesota.  Both of these projects will eliminate slow orders that are caused by the deteriorated condition of the two diamonds.