Rail Weekly Update #31

18 November 2004

CWR PROJECTS OVER 95% COMPLETED!!!!

As of November 18 we have installed just over 95 of the roughly 97 track miles we now expect to be completed by early December

Steve Koser’s crew has laid rail on several curves and will continue this project until mid December on the Kansas City sub. They are currently just south of Ottumwa and will continue working southward with a completion date of December 12.

Surfacing should be completed on the last two CWR locations this week and these areas, one on the IC&E near Calmar IA, and one on the DM&E near Tyler MN, will be raised to 40 MPH upon final completion of this surfacing.

On the DM&E, the Florence connection with the BN is 100% completed and the interchange will be “opened” for business once the final details with the BN are worked out this week.

Engineering managers on both properties are now in the final stages of clean up from the 2004 CWR projects and are also preparing for next year’s possible program. The preliminary plan for 2005 is to lay approximately 15 track miles of CWR on each property with one additional trainload for curve projects on the IC&E, although we must stress this is very preliminary.

¨ Chad Roob’s switch & crossing gang installed the Tracy cross overs late last week and will install a new switch and track for Barti Metal at Huron to conclude the year’s projects for this crew

¨ Rick Hanson has been supervising the installation of four switches and the building of several hundred feet of connecting track at Colony WY. This project is expected to be completed shortly after Thanksgiving and will provide a much higher degree of reliability for the Colony area.

¨ Bledsoe Rail Service is doing the closure welds on the DM&E projects.

¨ Railtech crews are doing the closure welds on the IC&E.