Rail Monthly Update #8

22 August 2007

 

SIX OF THE SEVEN MAJOR RAIL PROJECTS SCHEDULED FOR 2007 PRODUCTION SEASON COMPLETED WITH SEVENTH PROJECT MORE THAN HALFWAY DONE!!  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.  The last trainload of rail for our major projects was completed by Holland Welding in Markham on Friday the 17th and is in transit to New Ulm for unloading on Wednesday the 22nd.  The only train remaining to be delivered after this will be the curve train which is scheduled for delivery in early September.

 

 

¨       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 was constructed 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 have installed ties on the siding and are 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. This could end up being a 2008 project, depending on material availability.

 

¨       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 project of over 7 miles in the Pierre/Fort Pierre, South Dakota area.  This included 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 were all supplied by Progress Rail and have all been installed. Foremen Chad Roob and Trevor Nelson led the effort to get these 7 turnouts installed over the last several weeks.

2.     A sub part to the Pierre/Fort Pierre CWR project is crossing renewals with the installation of 3 major crossings in Pierre, 5 new crossings in Fort Pierre and 1 crossing in Stanley County scheduled for this year. Three of these eight crossings are completed with the last five scheduled shortly. When these are installed and final surfacing is completed, speed will be raised to 25MPH through the area.

 

¨       The next CWR project that has been completed is 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 was scheduled to begin in late June and was completed on July 2nd.  It was 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 before the end of this month.

 

¨       The next project that was completed was a 32 mile project of new  115# CWR began in mid-April north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota on the Black Hills Subdivision. This project was started in mid-April and was completed on Wednesday the first of August.  This project involved the Railworks CWR crew, the same crew that installed ties in this area in 2006.  They were being supervised by DM&E Project Supervisor Jim Nemec and EIC Rick Hanson.  The project involved laying 26 miles of CWR from MP 140 to 166 on the Black Hills Subdivision between Whitewood, South Dakota and Colony, Wyoming and the remaining 6 miles through the towns of Sturgis, South Dakota and Whitewood, South Dakota.  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.  

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 and installed by the end of September.

 

 

¨       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 was chosen to install this rail and started that process on July 11th with a completion scheduled for very late in August or early September. Jamie Stark was selected as the EIC for this project with 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.

 

 

¨       The last CWR project 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 11 curves already and the rest of this rail will be delivered in September.  The IC&E crew is scheduled to begin the process of installing the rail in the rest of the curves in mid September and will continue laying curve rail between Chillicothe, Missouri and La Crescent, Minnesota and Marquette and Mason City, Iowa until the end of the year.

 

¨       DM&E crews will be unloading the final CWR train for the New Ulm project on Wednesday the 22nd of August. The Final CWR train, the “curve” train, will be shipped from Pueblo in September and unloaded by IC&E crews upon arrival.

 

¨       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 that were supplied by Nortrak have been installed at Wolsey SD. These turnouts are part of a new connection and interchange yard with the BN at this location and will greatly improve the efficiency of this interchange. Chad Roob and Trevor Nelson oversaw the installation of these turnouts.

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, foreman Doug Walker was the foreman in charge of installing two turnouts for a new Bio-Diesel facility at this location.  Turnouts were put installed and put into service the week of August 14th.

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.     Jack Boxleiter and John Chipps oversaw the installation of 4 new power switches at the plant at Moseby Jct., just north of Liberty, Missouri on double track. These four turnouts comprise the “plant” at Moseby Jct. and will eliminate service problems in this area.  There are still several other turnouts to install in the area yet this year and we are optimistically predicting that they will get completed.

 

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