Ties Weekly Update #6

20 May , 2004

AHEAD OF SCHEDULE

As of 20 May, we have installed over 58,000 of the 182,000 ties scheduled to be installed by November 24^th 2004. All crews, both contractor and company, are doing an excellent job and are ahead of schedule.

§ As of 20 May, 136,000 ties have been delivered, however the gondola shortage has seemed to lessen a bit, so there are now several cars of ties heading our way and we will expect to unload them within the next week or so.

§ The remaining 46,000 ties are scheduled to be here by July 30.

§ DME tie gang (Wes Risseuw, foreman) in the Lake Preston area has completed over 8.0 miles of ties and ballasting. Surfacing will begin soon behind this crew to remove a 10 MPH slow order that has been on for several years. Just this week Mr. Risseuw’s crew set a new record for ties installed by a DM&E crew when they installed 607 in one 10 hour day. Congratulations!!

§ The LA Colo tie gang will complete the tie installation east of Mankato by the end of this week and will be starting in the Sleepy Eye area heading west on the 24^th.

§ Owatonna sub was removed from FRA “excepted” track status on Thursday the 13^th for the first time in recent memory. This will be raised to FRA class 2 as ballasting and surfacing are completed

§ The DME West tie gang (Jim Nemec, foreman) continues to improve on their production numbers and will be installing ties just south of Rapid City for the next several weeks.

§ Steve Koser’s IC&E tie crew will complete the last section of the Owatonna sub ties south of Plymouth this week and will start tie installation at Calmar next week. This is 2 weeks ahead of schedule!! Excellent job by this crew also!