Ties Weekly Update #13

8 July, 2004

CONTINUING EXCELLENT PRODUCTION

As of July 8^th, we have installed over 125,000 of the 206,000 ties now 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 and should be commended by all who see them.

¨ As of July 8^th, 190,000 ties have been delivered to our properties. We now expect the delivery of ties to be completed by the end of July.

¨ Wes Risseeuw’s DM&E east tie gang has been putting in ties on the CWR project areas to break up bad tie clusters.

¨ The LA Colo tie gang has completed their first three sections of tie installation on the IC&E and DM&E and will now focus on the CWR project on the IC&E. This crew has already installed ties between Austin and Owatonna on the IC&E, and between Owatonna and Mankato and Sleepy Eye and Garvin on the DM&E. They still need to complete the tie installation between Garvin and the Minnesota South Dakota state line later in the year.

¨ Foreman Steve Koser’s crew has been working west of Mason City installing joint ties for the past couple weeks. They will complete this 6,000 tie project by the middle of next week. They will be then converted to a CWR crew to install CWR on the IC&E’s curve patch program for the remainder of the year.

¨ Jim Nemec’s west tie gang continues to surprise all of us with their increasing tie production and the quality of their work. They are finishing an 8,000 tie project just south of Rapid City and will be heading to Dakota Jct very shortly to continue this year’s projects.