Rail Monthly Update #10

12, October 2006

 

 

 

THREE OF FIVE MAJOR CWR PROJECTS COMPLETED! KANSAS CITY PROJECT AND PRC PROJECT UNDERWAY!! CURVE RAIL AND TURNOUT PROJECTS PROGRESSING ON SCHEDULE!

 

Five major projects now headline the 2006 Rail program that will involve laying more than 85 miles of CWR and over 40 new turnouts.  The following three projects, 10 miles on the DM&E near Sanborn, Minnesota, 14 miles on the IC&E south of Austin, Minnesota, and 11 miles near Bellevue, Iowa are completed.  Of the last two “major” projects, one on the KC sub was scheduled to start the week of September 18th and the one on the PRC sub was scheduled to begin on October 2nd.  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, Minnesota in April, and 14 miles of CWR south of Austin, Minnesota in early May.  Switches and crossings have all been installed and both areas have been raised to 40 MPH.

¨       Manager of Projects Jack Boxleiter supervised the installation of the 11 miles of CWR near Bellevue, Iowa and is currently over seeing the installation of the CWR and turnouts on the Kansas City project.

¨       Newly appointed West End Project Supervisor Jim Nemec will oversee the rail and tie projects that have just recently been approved between Wall, South Dakota and Colony Wyoming.  This includes 90,000 ties and 60 miles of CWR of which all ties and up to 22 miles of the rail will be installed yet in 2006 by Kanza Group.

¨       The LA Colo crew will be installing the CWR on the KC project under Jack Boxleiter’s guidance.  This crew started on Sept. 18th and has nearly 10 miles of the 17 scheduled for this project installed as this update is written.  We expect this project to be completed the second week of November.

¨       Kanza Group, a contractor that is new to the two properties, will install the CWR on the PRC this fall under the direction of Jim Nemec.  This crew was scheduled to start installing CWR west of Wasta, South Dakota at MP 609 on October 2nd and has installed over 5 miles of the 20 we are trying to install in this 2006 season.

¨       The # 1 major turnout project for the year will be on the double track north of Kansas City, Missouri 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.  All of these turnouts have been received and several already assembled and installed.  Turnout projects in the other CWR areas in both properties are already completed.

¨       The Davis Jct. Diamond was renewed in July and the speeds in the area have been increased to 25 MPH and may be raised to 40 MPH later in the fall.

¨       The 10,000 foot Ossian siding is progressing nicely with local contractor Reilly Construction of Ossian, Iowa completing the subgrade work in September.  Harvey Reiss’ crews will install the switches the for this siding during the week of October 16th and the IC&E tie steel crew will assist with completing the spiking and anchoring to prepare for ballasting and surfacing.  This new siding will be in service before Thanksgiving to assist with capacity problems in the area!!