Ties Weekly Update #27

21 October, 2004

TIE PROJECTS WINDING DOWN!!!!

As of October 21, 2004, we have installed nearly 230,000 of the 245,000 ties now scheduled to be installed by November 24^th 2004. The two contract tie crews on the DM&E and the IC&E crew completed projects this past week!!

¨ Steve Koser’s crew finished their tie installation projects for the year with the completion of a 10,000 tie project near Muscatine. They will now install curve rail for the remainder of the year.

¨ The LA Colo crew completed their portion of DM&E’s tie project this past week with their completion of installing nearly 25,000 ties on the east end of the Huron sub. This crew will now install about 10,000 ties on the IC&E near Liberty

¨ The Railworks tie crew completed their portion of this year’s project installing nearly 20,000 ties on the west end of the Huron sub. Part of this crew will travel to Rochester to install more than 2,000 ties on that spur track.

¨ As of October 21 over 240,000 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 and others.

¨ Taking all things into consideration, the siding additions, the siding extensions, the Florence connection and the additional projects, we now expect to install over 245,000 ties this production season.

¨ Jim Nemec’s west tie gang has completed the tie installation in the Smithwick area. For the remainder of the year this crew will be installing ties between Wasta and Wall and will assist with a switch project at Colony.

¨ Wes Risseeuw’s tie crew, who has been busy on siding projects for the past several months, will return to tie installation on the 25^th of October on the PRC subdivision on the DM&E west of Pierre, South Dakota. They will install approximately 7,000 ties in this area to finish this year’s tie projects on two properties.