Rail Monthly Update #7

11 July 2007

 

FIVE OF THE SEVEN MAJOR RAIL PROJECTS SCHEDULED FOR 2007 PRODUCTION SEASON COMPLETED WITH THREE MORE WELL UNDERWAY!!  NEARLY ONE-HUNDRED & THIRTY MILES OF CWR TO BE INSTALLED ON THE TWO PROPERTIES DURING THE CONSTRUCTION SEASON.

 

The 2007 Capital season includes a very aggressive 130 miles of CWR in 7 major project areas, along with our annual curve program. There is one rail train in transit as this update goes to press which is the last CWR train for the Upper Black Hills.  We will then have two more trains scheduled for the New Ulm project area and one curve train to complete the year’s scheduled CWR deliveries.

More details of specific projects are below:

 

 

¨       The first major project completed in the 2007 CWR schedule was one of 22 miles on the PRC Subdivision between Rapid City, South Dakota and Owanka, South Dakota.  This project was started on April 23, 2007 and completed on May 31st by the LA Colo Contracting Group, supervised by DM&E Project Supervisor Jim Nemec and EIC (Employee in Charge) Bill Bussell.  After surfacing by DM&E crews is completed this area will be upgraded to 30 and 40 MPH over the entire area.  This area had previously been 10 and 25 MPH for many years.

1.     There are also 7 turnouts in this CWR project that have been installed in this project area. These turnouts were all supplied by Nortrak and assembled by the DM&E utility crew under Foreman Trevor Nelson’s guidance.

2.     As a secondary part to this project, a half mile extension is underway for the Wall siding.  This project also involves the installation of 3 more Nortrak turnouts, all of which have been installed.  This project is nearly complete with only final surfacing and clean up to be done as of this date.  The Philip and Wall sections under Foremen Kevin Pinney and Dale McLaughlin have led the efforts to complete this project.

 

¨       The second major 2007 rail project to be completed is one of over 15 miles between Bellevue, Iowa and Sabula Junction, Iowa on the Marquette Subdivision.  This project was completed on Monday, June 4th by the RJ Corman contracting group under the direction of IC&E Project Supervisor Jack Boxleiter and EIC Vince Meyer.  This project completes the process of eliminating all jointed rail from the Marquette Subdivision between Dubuque, Iowa and Sabula Junction, Iowa.  Once scrap has been cleaned up, surfacing will be done allowing speeds up to 49 MPH in parts of this corridor, an area where we have been operating under a 25 MPH slow order for a long time.

1.     As a sidelight of this project there are 5 turnouts to be installed, 2-#20’s at Green Island, 1-#15 at NSS( North siding switch) Samoa, 1-#15 at the electric lock at Savanna, and 1-#15 at Sabula Jct.  To date, the 2 Green Island switches and the NSS at Samoa have been installed.  The other two will be installed later in the year.  All of these turnouts were supplied by Progress Rail Services and are being assembled and installed by IC&E utility crew with Steve Koser as Foreman.

1.     We have several side projects included with these turnout installations:

1.     At Green Island we are installing ties on the siding and planning on installing Radio Controlled Power Assisted Switch Machines to make the siding and turnouts good for 25 MPH.

2.     The CP (control point) at Sabula Junction will be moved and the hand (direction) of the turnout will be changed so trains traveling from the River Subdivision to the Marquette Subdivision will be able to proceed at 40 MPH.

3.     The electric lock switch will be changed from a hand throw to an operator controlled power switch and CP.

 

¨       The next project that was completed by the RJ Corman group was a project of nearly 8 miles of CWR north of Dubuque, Iowa which eliminated the remainder of the jointed rail between Dubuque, Iowa and Marquette, Iowa on the Marquette Subdivision.  The Corman group completed this project on June 20th.  This project involves no turnouts and after surfacing will restore this area to 30 MPH.  Vince Meyer was the EIC on this project.

 

¨       The next CWR project to be completed was a newly added project of over seven miles in the Pierre/Fort Pierre, South Dakota area.  This includes the installation of new 136# CWR as well as the installation of 7 new turnouts.  This rail project was completed on July 1st by the LA Colo group with EIC Billy Bishop overseeing and performing EIC duties.

1.     The 7 turnouts will be supplied by Progress Rail and will be installed by local DM&E personnel.  Four of these turnouts are already installed and the last 3 will be installed by the end of August.  Turnouts will be assembled and installed under the supervision of Chad Roob.

 

¨       The next CWR project that has been completed was one of just over 7 miles on the west end of the IC&E’s Mason City Subdivision.  This project began on the west side of Algona, Iowa heading westward and involves new 115# CWR.   It also includes the installation of 4 new turnouts.  This project is scheduled to began in late June and was completed on July 2nd.  It will be under the supervision of EIC Tom Krieger and Project Supervisor Tim Meyer.

1.     The 4 turnouts for this project have been supplied by the LB Foster Group and will be installed by IC&E personnel with Mike Foutch as Foreman.  Two of these turnouts are installed now and the other two will be installed in early August.

 

¨       A 32 mile project of new  115# CWR began in mid-April north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota on the Black Hills Subdivision and will continue through mid to late July.  This project involves the Railworks CWR crew, the same crew that installed ties in this area in 2006.  They are being supervised by DM&E Project Supervisor Jim Nemec and EIC Rick Hanson.  The project involves laying 26 miles of CWR from MP 140 to 166 on the Black Hills Subdivision between Whitewood, South Dakota and Colony, Wyoming.  The remaining 6 miles through the towns of Sturgis, South Dakota and Whitewood, South Dakota is expected to be completed by the end of July.  The 26 mile portion of this project will enable us to change FRA class from “excepted” to Class 3 and raise speeds from 10 mph to speeds of 30 and 40 MPH.  The last train load of CWR for this project is scheduled to be delivered to us at Mankato this weekend and will be unloaded early next week, the week of July 16th.

1.     A sub-part of the CWR project on the Upper Black Hills is the installation of nearly 20 turnouts, supplied by the LB Foster Group.  The DM&E utility crew, under Foreman Trevor Nelson, has already installed 15 of these turnouts and assembled several others.  All turnouts are scheduled to be assembled by the end of July and installed by the end of August.

 

 

¨       The final major project in the 2007 capital program is one of 30 miles of new 136# rail which extends from Sleepy Eye, Minnesota to Cambria, Minnesota on the DM&E’s Tracy Subdivision.  Along with the rail there will be 12 new turnouts installed in this corridor.  The RJ Corman group has been selected to install this rail with the starting date of today, the 11th of July and completion in late August.  Jamie Stark has been selected as EIC for this project with Project Supervisor Tim Meyer managing.

1.     The new turnouts have been supplied by Nortrak and are being assembled and installed by the DM&E utility crew under Foreman Steve Hesse Jr.  As of this date, all turnouts have been assembled and 9 have been installed.

 

 

¨       There is a total of nearly 8 miles of CWR to be installed in 2007 as a part of the annual curve upgrade program.  The IC&E tie/rail crew has installed rail in 8 curves already and the rest of this rail will come on a special train to be delivered in August.  The IC&E crew is scheduled to finish the installation of the curves starting in late August or early September on the south end of the Kansas City Subdivision working north on the River and Marquette Subdivisions and east Mason City subdivision with a scheduled completion date of mid-December.

 

¨       DM&E crews will be unloading one train load of 115# CWR on the Black Hills sub the week of July 16th and should have two train loads of 136# to unload east of New Ulm shortly after that.  The final trainload of rail will be our curve train with all premium rail, which is now scheduled for delivery in late August.

 

¨       The total number of turnouts that will be installed with the CWR program as well as other projects is now scheduled to be 76 for the 2007 season with all of these turnouts scheduled for delivery by the end of August.  Turnout suppliers for the 2007 season include LB Foster, Nortrak and Progress Rail Services.

 

¨       Turnout projects of note that are not part of the CWR projects are:

1.     Three spring frog turnouts supplied by Nortrak will be installed west of Wolsey, South Dakota for a new connection and interchange tracks at that location.  This will improve the interchange capacity in Wolsey between us and the BN, among others.

2.     In Lyle, Minnesota on the IC&E we will be installing 2 new Progress Rail supplied turnouts for a new ethanol facility.  We also hope to install 2 turnouts later in the year at Lyle to replace the CN diamond at that location; however that decision as well as the supplier of the turnouts will be made at a later time.

3.     In Washington, Iowa we will be installing two turnouts that will be supplied by Progress Rail for another ethanol facility.  These turnouts are scheduled to be delivered in late June and installed by mid July.

4.     A new “Waterworks” turnout supplied by Progress Rail will be installed at the Waterworks location on the IC&E’s River Subdivision which will eliminate a long standing slow order in that area.

5.     There are still several turnouts to be installed on the “double track” north of Kansas City yet this year.  The most notable location are all four switches in the “plant” at Moseby Junction.  This is now scheduled for mid to late summer.

 

¨       Thermite crews from Midwest Railway and Bledsoe Rail Services are assisting with the thermite needs on both properties.