System-Wide
Weekly Update #5
13
May 2004
The RJ Corman Company returned to the
DM&E and began the next section of CWR laying on Sunday the 2nd
of May. This stretch of CWR was in fact completed on Thursday the 13th
and the Corman group will be taking a week off prior to starting the next CWR
project between Arlington and Lake Preston on Thursday the 20th. We
would expect that 10 mile stretch of CWR to be completed by the 29th
or 30th of the month. Tie
installation on all crews has continued to improve thanks in large part to good
organization and cooperation from the Transportation Department and we are now
ahead of schedule on ties with more than 50,000 ties installed to date.
Surfacing has also continued to improve with over 95 miles of track now surfaced.
The new Tracy siding was put into service last week and immediately helped the
transportation department coordinate better train meets in that area. The dirt
work and sub ballast are completed on the west 8000’ of the Cobden siding and
the contractor has moved to Elkton to start work on that siding extension which
was just recently approved.
¨
Equipment
remains very reliable with only minor breakdowns reported
¨
Some
relief has been noted for the gondola supply and we have started receiving ties
and bridge material again to give us a little more breathing room
¨
All
new air operated ballast cars have left the supplier and are in route to New
Ulm or Brookings for loading. We continue to receive excellent reports from the
field on these cars.
¨
The
Birmingham diamonds have been loaded and shipped with expected arrival in KC
within two weeks. These pre-plated diamonds will be pre-assembled on site and
we plan to install during the week of July 12th.
¨
2
new siding projects have been approved, 1) an extension of 4000’ at Elkton and
2) rebuilding the Sanborn siding. An
extension at DeSmet is being evaluated this week.
¨ Owatonna sub south of Owatonna has been removed from the FRA “excepted” class status this week.