Rail
Monthly Update #12
15
December 2007
SEVEN MAJOR RAIL PROJECTS
SCHEDULED FOR 2007 PRODUCTION SEASON COMPLETED!!! ONE-HUNDRED & THIRTY
MILES OF CWR INSTALLED ON THE TWO PROPERTIES DURING 2007!!!
The 2007 Capital season
included a very aggressive 130 miles of CWR in 7 major project areas from
Colony Wyoming to Sabula Jct. Iowa as well as
a trainload of curve rail from Kansas City to Marquette. Details of
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 and contract crews
that will be completed in early 2008, 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 were 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 involved 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 was 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.
Rail and surfacing will allow 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 were 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 first thing in 2008. 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.
¨ 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 seven 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.
Completion of this project allows the increasing of speeds from 10 MPH to 25/30
MPH through the entire area.
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. Another sub part to the
Pierre/Fort Pierre CWR project is the renewal of 5 crossings in the area.
¨ The next CWR project that
was 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 included the installation of 4 new
turnouts. The project was completed on
July 2nd under the excellent Supervision of EIC Tim Krieger and
Project Supervisor Tim Meyer.
1. The 4 turnouts for this
project were supplied by the LB Foster Group and installed by IC&E
personnel with Mike Foutch as Foreman.
¨ 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 enabled
us to change from FRA class “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 was the installation
of 20 turnouts, supplied by the LB Foster Group. The DM&E utility crew, under Foreman
Trevor Nelson, installed these turnouts.
¨ The final major project in
the 2007 capital program was one of 30 miles of new 136# rail which extends
from Sleepy Eye, Minnesota to Judson, Minnesota
on the DM&E’s Tracy Subdivision. Along with the rail there were 12 new turnouts
installed in this corridor. The RJ
Corman group was chosen to install this rail and completed this project close
to Labor Day. Jamie Stark was selected
as the EIC for this project with Tim Meyer
managing the overall project. This
project along with the removal of the yard limits at New Ulm has allowed the
increasing of speeds to 30 MPH in this area.
1. The new turnouts were supplied
by Nortrak and were assembled and installed by the DM&E utility crew under
Foreman Steve Hesse Jr.
¨ The last CWR project was 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 under foreman John Thulen installed this curve rail and completed the
project shortly before Christmas.
¨ The total number of turnouts
that were installed with the CWR program as well as other projects was 93 for
the 2007 season. 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 installed 2 new Progress Rail supplied turnouts for a new
ethanol facility.
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.
4. 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.
¨ Thermite crews from Midwest
Railway and Bledsoe Rail Services assisted with the thermite needs on both
properties.