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Symbol Changes
BNSF
Central Kansas Railway
Santa Fe
UP
Symbol Changes
Traffic in Kansas City is back to a more manageable level after the
congested months of October & November. After Thanksgiving, the M-KCKAMA
train was abolished and the M-KCKBAR was re-instated with the first M-KCKBAR being that of the 4th. This also caused the schedule
of the M-TULBAR to change from the daily schedule it temporarily had. It was
abolished on November 22nd with the M-TULBAR replacing it on the 12th of December. The
M-GALTUL was also cut back from a daily schedule to 5 days per week departing Galesburg Daily except Tuesday & Sunday. The
M-GALKCK was also re-instated as a daily train beginning on November 15th. On November 16th, Amarillo changed the
M-AMATPL train to the
M-AMASWR running only to Sweetwater instead of Temple four days per week. The train gets re-blocked at Sweetwater for points east including
Temple, Houston and Galveston. On Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, &
Sunday, the train runs as an M-AMASWR. On Monday, Thursday, & Saturday, the
train departs Amarillo and runs as the M-AMATPL. The M-FTWNEW (Fort Worth to Newton) has been abolished from it's
Tuesday, Friday, & Sunday schedule. Also gone is the Thursday M-FTWGNT
(Fort Worth to Gainesville) train. They have been replaced with a local from Fort Worth to Gainesville departing Daily except Sunday as train
L-TEX0721-xx. The traffic from Gainesville to Newton is handled by an M-GNTNEW train departing Gainesville on Tuesday, Friday, & Sunday. The
M-NEWFTW has also been changed to an M-NEWGNT train departing Newton on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, & Saturday.
On the I-5 Corridor, Train H-BARVAW (Barstow to Vancouver, WA) has been abolished with the traffic moving on the daily
H-BARPAS train (Barstow to Pasco). This has added a daily M-BARBAK (Barstow to Bakersfield) train
to move that traffic.
Due to changes in operations at Long Beach, the BNSF has initiated some new symbols for the 3 letter designations of trains. Trains with
LBP, LBJ LBL, LHT, & LHW are all for Long Beach, but different locations at Long Beach. Due to this, train S-LGBCHI7 became the S-LBLCHI1 departing
Long Beach on Saturday & Sunday. It is an OOCL and NYK train from Long
Beach at the LBCTI facility. Train S-LGBCHC3 that operates for Cosco now is train S-LBPCHC1 departing from the PCT terminal on days as needed.
Train S-LAHCHI4 is now the S-LHTCHI1 with a departure from the TICTF
facility. Train S-LAHNWO is also now departing the TICTF facility as
train S-LHTNWO. Train S-LBJNYC5 became the S-LBJNYC1 while train S-LBJNYC6 became the S-LBJCHI1 both departing from the J pier at Long
Beach. Trains departing from West Basin include the S-LAHCHI1 & S-LAHCHI4 as the S-LHWCHI1 and train
S-LAHNWO as train S-LHWNWO.
BNSF
On December 11th, BNSF set a record at Los Angeles. The intermodal facility made 1 million lifts for the year starting January 1st, 2000.
This is the first time an intermodal facility has had 1 million lifts in a year anywhere in the world.
During Thanksgiving, BNSF operated about at normal except for local and yard assignments. Grain was the feature for the Thanksgiving holiday
weekend. Three or four grain trains per day operated west over the Southern route main line with destinations in the Texas Panhandle, El
Paso, and California. All of the California trains were equipped with Distributed Power. Many years, after Thanksgiving, traffic drops
significantly on the main line. This year, it has held a good level. Not quite as strong as in October and early November, but it has
maintained a better level than the past two years, due mostly to grain trains.
BNSF started the UPS Peak Shipping season on November 24th this year. Since BNSF's creation in 1995, they have had 5 perfect Peak seasons for
UPS with the Santa Fe having 2 perfect seasons prior to that. BNSF expected to make this the 7th season in a row with track bulletins being
sent to all trains about UPS Peak Season and that we "Will: have the 7th successful season in a row. That didn't happen though. On December
12th at 23:10, the perfect streak came to an end. Train Z-DENCHI9-12 derailed
lines 5 - 23 in its train (46 car lengths) at MP 436.7 of the Creston Sub between Red Oak and
Nodawa, IA. The cause for the derailment was blamed on a broken weld on a frog. While many of the UPS loads were salvaged
and trucked to Chicago before they failed on UPS goals, a few loads did not make it. I might also mention that the train was being led by Dash
9-44CW 666, "The Beast". The track was opened at 05:15 the
morning of the 14th.
BNSF has had a minor traffic disruption in mid-December. On December 11th & 12th, snow & ice began falling from about Kiowa, KS eastward.
While the area of South Central Kansas only got about 3" - 6" of snow,
Kansas City got some ice first then snow over that. The storm tracked right across the Santa Fe main line to Chicago dumping nominal amounts of
snow on top of ice. On parts of the Chillicothe and Marceline subs between Chicago and Kansas City, the two main tracks were not being used
like the dispatchers want them to be. Traffic was moving east on one track and west on the other without using the crossovers. Snow and ice
packed in the crossovers caused delays to many trains. If a hot Z train followed a slower M or H train, they could not get around the slow train.
Out on the Panhandle, Hereford and Clovis Subs, Z trains made up time by
not stopping for anything. I caught a Z-CHIPHX9-13 on the afternoon of the 14th out of Wellington that was some 6' 40" late arriving at
Wellington. The train arrived at Amarillo only 5' 20" late. WE
only
stopped once going to Amarillo and that was for the Z-NBYWSP9-13 trying to stay ahead of schedule so it could run to Chicago without worrying
about delay.
For those of you that follow BNSF officials, BNSF has named Matt Rose as the Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Rose has been the railroad president
for quite some time, but stepped up to the Chief job in November. Rob Krebs is still the Chairman of the Board of Directors, but the operations
of the railroad will fall on Rose's shoulders. Mr. Rose came to the BNSF from the BN side of the railroad and before that was with Triple
Crown Road Railer Services. The reason that I bring this up is that Mr. Rose likes intermodal and hopes to entice more truckload carriers to ship
via rail. I had commented last month about BNSF having some new truckload carriers shipping via rail. In addition to those mentioned
last month, Crowley trailers have been showing up this month.
Central Kansas Railway
The Central Kansas Railway has sold the Medicine Lodge Branch, the former ATSF line that runs from the Main Line at Attica, KS to Sun City, 41
miles to the west. The line has been sold as of November 28th, 2000 to Kern W. Schumacher and Morris H.
Kulmer. These two men will call the new railroad the V&S Railway, Inc. The V&S is a non carrier, but
will become a class rail III carrier upon completion of the transaction. The
two men have concurrently filed a verified notice to continue in control of V&S upon its becoming a Class III rail carrier. Mr. Schumacher and
Mr. Kulmer currently indirectly control two existing Class III railroads: Tulare Valley Railroad Company, operating in the State of California;
and Kern Valley Railroad Company, operating in the State of Colorado. The new railroad is leasing CKR GP7 2087 (ex ATSF 2087) from the CKR
until they can get one of their own engines in place. The CKR has been using GP7 2230 at Attica on this line for about 2 years.
Trouble With Couplers
The BNSF has imposed a new rule on locomotives operating on the BNSF. Any locomotive without control alignment couplers can not operate on BNSF
rails. These are primarily older engines like GP7s and GP9s. There
are several BNSF engines that do not meet these standards, but BNSF has exempted their own engines. BNSF moved two engines for CKR from Wichita
to Chicago in November and they were derailed when the BNSF was shoving them into a track at Joliet with a train behind them. The derailment was
blamed on the couplers and that type of coupler was banned from the BNSF. The CKR has the 2230 and 2087 at Attica that do not have the control
alignment couplers that the BNSF will not move back to Wichita for them. It will cost the CKR something like $10,000 each to change out the
couplers and draft gear boxes. It will be interesting to see what develops on this matter.
Santa Fe
The final Santa Fe FP45 has been donated and headed for a new home in Oklahoma City. The 90 has been sitting at Topeka for quite sometime, but
moved from Topeka to Newton on December 15th. The classy Warbonnet is heading for the Oklahoma Railway Museum at Oklahoma City. The Museum is
also the owners of the former ATSF Oakwood, OK Depot. Oakwood was a depot originally built by the KCM&O. At 11:00 AM on December 21st, the
engine is to be officially donated by the BNSF to the museum. The 90 was built in 1967 as part of a nine unit order originally numbered 100 - 108.
The 90 carried the numbers 100, 5940, 5990, 100, 5990, 90. It was
one
of only two units painted into red & silver in 1989 that was renumbered
to the 5990 class numbers. The other was the 5993 that now resides at the Great Plains Transportation Museum in Wichita, KS as ATSF 93. The
only surviving member of the class still in operation is the 91 that is on the Wisconsin Central.
BNSF has been purging some older Geeps from it's system again. Several GP7s and GP9s have been stored at Richland, WA and are being sold.
BNSF GP7s 1328 & 1333 (Ex ATSF) have been sold to Midwest Rail at Kansas City,
while ATSF GP7s 2113 7 2132 along with ex ATSF GP7, BNSF 1320 and WCRC GP9 301 have been sold to Birmingham Rail & Locomotive in Bessemer, AL.
Those ATSF SD45s listed last month in my notes have arrived at Alsthom in Montreal for rebuilding to HELM locomotives and will be painted in HELM
blue. The 7 ex ATSF SD45s along with a group of ex SP SD45s are being rebuilt in Montreal currently for lease fleet units. The units are the
5348, 5361, 5365, 5366, 5369, 5374 & 5375.
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