Ties Weekly Update #20

26 August, 2004

CONTINUING EXCELLENT PRODUCTION

As of August 26th, 2004, we have installed over 170,000 of the 235,000 ties now scheduled to be installed by November 24^th 2004. The tie crews had an excellent week of production this week!!

¨ As of August 26^th, 225,000 ties have been delivered to our properties and are either installed on the ground or in the process of being unloaded by the Brandt truck.

¨ Considering the siding additions and extensions and the Florence connection, we now expect to install 235,000 ties this production season.

¨ Wes Risseeuw’s DM&E east tie gang used nearly 2000 ties installing the extension for the siding at De Smet.

¨ The LA Colo tie gang has completed their first three sections of tie installation on the IC&E and DM&E, as well as installing 4500 ties in a derailment area north of Marquette. They will return to the DM&E to install 20,000 more ties as soon as they have completed the CWR project near Calmar.

¨ Foreman Steve Koser’s crew has been installing curve rail on the Mason City, Marquette and Chicago subs the past several weeks. They will spend most of the remainder of the year on this curve patch project, except for a short time in September when they will install about 5,000 ties in the Quad Cities area.

¨ Jim Nemec’s west tie gang is working on ties near Dakota Jct on the lower Black Hills sub. They will return to the Smithwick area when they complete this project.

¨ The RJ Corman tie crew is nearing completion of their portion of this year’s tie project on the DM&E and expects to be done by the 1^st of September.