News from the Midwest
Service Interruptions
Locomotives
Amtrak
Grain Shipments
Traffic
Special Trains 
KC Fly Over

Auto Shipments
Since April, the BNSF has been handling some shipments of autos from Kansas City to West Colton, CA and then handling the empties back.  In late May, this became more frequent.  The trains still do not have a daily schedule and only run as needed, but that is about 3 or 4 times per week.  The trains are the V-KCKWCL5 symbol and are actually Union Pacific Trains.  BNSF must have some sort of Haulage agreement with the UP for these trains as they are not detour trains as were the F-KCKVAU trains that were running during April & May.   The UP symbol for the trains is
A-KCWCJ for the westbound movement and A-WCKCJ eastbound.  On rare occasions, BNSF is also moving a V-STLWCL5 train from St. Louis to West Colton and the V-WCLSTL5 eastbound. 

On May 25th, BNSF began running a through train with NS between Atlanta and Los Angeles.  This train runs via the KCS between Alliance, TX and Shreveport.  (?).  The BNSF part of the train runs via the Southern Route to Amarillo, then across the Red River Valley sub to Fort Worth (former BN).  It is train P-ATGLAC westbound and P-LACATG eastbound.  The eastbound P-LACATG departs Los Angeles at 23:00 daily except Sunday and
arrives in Alliance at 08:00 the third morning.  Blocking for the train
is St. Louis, Birmingham, Memphis, Charlotte, and Atlanta Doublestacks, followed by Atlanta and Birmingham TOFCs, then Memphis Autos.  The train fills at San Bernardino and Clovis but not at Alliance.  Westbound, the P-ATGLAC departs Alliance at 12:30 daily except Tuesday.  It arrives in Los Angeles at 18:00 the third evening for a 55 hour and 30 minute trip.

The train sets out mixed double stacks at Alliance for other trains to
pick up and then fills Los Angeles traffic back to it.  It is blocked
with San Bernardino and Los Angeles Double Stacks and San Bernardino TOFCs.  This train has taken some traffic off the Avard connection. Trains Q-BIRLAC and Q-LACBIR no longer operate with any regularity on BNSF.  In their place have been a few Q-SPMCLO3 (Springfield to Clovis) and P-CLOMEM3 (Clovis to Memphis) trains.  These seem to operate about twice per week, not on any schedule. 
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The Blue Looper
BNSF gained some new coal traffic on May 20th.  BNSF originated train E-HLSGJC9-20 with 68 empty coal hoppers at Holbrook, AZ heading for Grand Junction, CO.  The train went to Grand Jct. and was loaded at a mine on the former DRGW where it returned to Holbrook via BNSF then went to the Apache Railway to move to Snowflake as train C-GJCHLS9-01. Normally, the coal that comes to Snowflake comes from McKinley Mine north of Gallup. This is the train that is referred to as the "Blue Looper" as it uses blue cars lettered for Southwest Public Service and runs between Holbrook and Defiance Spur. 
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Fly-Over in KC
The long awaited Fly-over at Kansas City is becoming a reality during June.  Beginning at 06:00 on June 13th, the North track between Congo and Rock Creek Jct. was taken out of service for cutting in the new track on the flyover.  The Sheffield Flyover is the longest rail flyover in the nation with a total length of 16,400 feet.  It crosses Sheffield Jct. in the eastern part of Kansas City along the Blue River.  The flyover takes BNSF (former ATSF) and Kansas City Terminal tracks over those of the Union Pacific (Ex MP) on the west side of the river and those of the Kansas City Southern on the east side of the river.  Sheffield Jct. has been a bottle-neck in Kansas City for quite some time. 

At 20:30 on the 14th, a westbound Union Pacific train on BNSF trackage rights used the flyover followed by a BNSF train at 21:05 marking the first BNSF train to use the new track.  The flyover actually consists of three large bridges with the longest being the bridge that takes the BNSF/KCT tracks east and west over the UP, Blue River and KCT tracks that run north & south.  About 200 trains per day use Sheffield Jct. and this will alleviate many delays for all railroads concerned.  Kansas City is the nation's second busiest rail center with 350 to 375 trains, with approximately one third of them being BNSF trains, passing through the city every day. The south track on the Flyover project is scheduled to be placed into service July 21.  The project was financed with bonds issued
by a transportation corporation created by KCT and the Missouri
Department of Transportation.

BNSF runs a vehicle train that is loaded both ways most of the time as trains V-MCILAC7-xx westbound and V-SDSGMCI7-xx eastbound.   The train utilizes Auto Max cars that are nearly new.  BNSF's first Auto Max cars were built in August & September 1999.  The cars are numbered in the 314000 series.  As near as I can tell, they are the 314000 - 314169.  In April & May, BNSF began receiving new Auto Max cars numbered in the
314200 series.  The difference in the cars, are the newest ones are a light tan color instead of white like the original cars, and they also
have a larger blue & green BNSF logo on them.  The Auto Max trains started running last fall about every 10 days between Walbridge, OH and Southern California.  Now, they run about every 3 - 4 days.  There are enough cars in the fleet to run have three 70-car trains on the road at any given time.  This is actually 35 car numbers as the Auto Max cars are articulated sets of two cars each.  The trains are loaded with Hondas westbound and they go to Los Angeles to unload.  Then they run empty to San Diego where they load with imported autos (usually Hondas) and go east with part of the cars usually going to Kansas City and part to
Walbridge. 
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Grain Movements
Grain traffic is moving on BNSF.  Not like it did 20 years ago at wheat  harvest, but it is moving.  Several trains on the Chickasha sub have operated from Snyder or Altus, OK to Fort Worth or Houston.  An empty train recently ran from Fresno to Altus to deliver hoppers.  It was train X-FRSALO1-xx.  (I can't remember the date) Other trains have been operating from Hutchinson, Newton and Wellington, KS; and Enid, OK to the Gulf ports.  The only smaller elevators that have been loading between Wellington and Amarillo right now are Hazelton and Kiowa, KS.  Alva, Ok also loads, but they usually load out 54 car grain trains. 

Special Trains
BNSF has been handling the Celebrate The Century Express for Amtrak and the Unites States Postal Service this Spring.  In May, the train came to BNSF in Southern California with the first display on BNSF at Fullerton, CA.  From there it went to San Diego then back to Williams where BNSF gave it to the Grand Canyon Railway for a trip to the Grand Canyon.  It then came back to Williams for display, then moved again via BNSF to Santa Fe, NM.  BNSF handed the train to the Santa Fe Southern at Lamy for the short trip to Santa Fe.  Departing Santa Fe the evening of the 11th,
the train traveled Santa Fe's Northern Route via Raton Pass to Newton, KS, where it ran south to Oklahoma City arriving there on the evening of the 12th.  The train was on display at the former ATSF station at Oklahoma City on the 14th, then traveled back north into Kansas on the 15th.  It was on display at Wichita at the Great Plains Transportation Museum on the weekend of the 16th to the 18th.    The train had to be turned to display at Wichita, so to accomplish this, it was given to the Central Kansas Railway at South Jct. in Wichita to turn on their newly rebuilt wye in West Wichita. 

The train is to Depart Wichita the morning of the 19th and head for
Kansas City Union Station where it will be on display from the 20th
through the 25th.  It departs Kansas City on the 26th and runs to Keokuk, IA for display on the 28th & 29th.  From there, it will go to Mendota, IL for display on July 2nd to the 4th.  It will run from Mendota on the 5th and head for Chicago. 

For those that have not seen the train, it has Amtrak P42 #100 painted like a Manila envelope with large stamps and postmarks on it.  It is followed by a baggage car and an Amfleet car both painted the same.  The baggage car is a support car for the train while the Amfleet car carries the Postal displays.  Next is a Southern restored RPO car that is worth taking a look at.  Finally, is CN business Car Scottish Thistle.  All well worth taking a look through. 
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Amtrak
Reports from Amtrak, are that the Heartland Flyer hauled some 71,400 riders the first year of operations.  There are still talks of extending the Flyer to Newton or Kansas City.  The extension to Newton is of first importance to Amtrak.  BNSF has rejected Amtrak's use of the Fort Scott sub between Tulsa and Kansas City due to freight congestion.    Reports are that Amtrak is considering a route from Neosho, MO to Kansas City via the Kansas City Southern.  KCS has been receptive to the idea that would take the train through Pittsburg, KS.  Unfortunately, the KCS line is only a 45 MPH line at the current time. 

 In other Amtrak news, there are reports that the Southwest Chief is running so much express and mail business that an added train will start this fall.  The train is to be an express train from New York to Los Angeles.  It will use the Southwest Chief Route west of Chicago.  Reports indicate that Amtrak will not have enough crews to man the train and BNSF crews will be use on the start up. The New Amtrak express yard is nearing completion at DeSoto, KS and should be in service by the first part of July.   This is two tracks that Amtrak will reportedly have a yard engines station at to take care of filling and cutting cars off the Southwest Chief for Kansas City. 

The state of Kansas while not wanting to help pay for an extension of the Heartland Flyer to Newton has come up with an idea to run high speed passenger service from Wichita to Kansas City.  At a recent meeting of the state minds, a proposal was announced to run 110 MPH trains between Wichita and Kansas City with two departures each way daily.  The reason for this is the high cost of gasoline.  No mention was made of the route, but only four options are available.  First is an all Santa Fe route from Wichita to either Newton or Mulvane, then via Emporia to Topeka or Ottawa
to Kansas City.  Second would be to use the former Frisco line from Wichita to Augusta then via one of the ATSF lines either through Topeka or Ottawa.  Third would be to use the former Rock Island line to Topeka, then via the UP into Kansas City.  Fourth would be to use the Rock Island from Wichita to Topeka, then use a connection track in Topeka to access the Santa Fe line to Kansas City.  In any case, there would need to be much work done to make this happen, along with finding a way to pay for the service.  The Santa FE route via Newton and Topeka would be the most
logical from the railroad standpoint as it has less traffic and would be able to support the new service better.  The UP line from Topeka to Kansas City is congested and I doubt that UP would want to make room for two passenger trains daily across the line.  The same goes for the ATSF route via Mulvane and Ottawa.  BNSF runs 60 - 70 trains per day across here and that would hinder freight operations.  Using the Rock Island line to Topeka would cause the state to spend loads of money to upgrade the line that is a non-block track.  The same for the Frisco line to Augusta, plus the freight traffic from Augusta to Emporia.    
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BNSF Special Train
BNSF's special train the J-WICLIN runs three days per week from Wichita to Lincoln and carries only Boeing parts.  The train connects to the Q-BIRSEA at Lincoln to handle the cars on to Seattle.  Wichita produces many of the parts and the fuselages for Boeing's Seattle plant to assemble.  Each month, BNSF moves 24 Boeing 737 fuselages from Wichita to Seattle.  The fact that BNSF has done this without damage to the fuselages, has earned BNSF the "Circle of Honor" award from Boeing.   The fuselages are handled on open flat cars with special equipment on them.
BNSF calls them "Frame Flats".  Besides the fuselages, they also handle canopy flat cars that are large enclosed cars.  These cars not only move from Wichita, but also Dallas via Amarillo and Denver to Seattle. Last year, BNSF handled 2,300 units for Boeing, all with no damage.


Short Lines
Two years ago, the DeBruce Elevator exploded in southwest Wichita killing 5 or 6 people and injuring others.  There was another situation at the DeBruce elevator early Tuesday, June 13th.  A CKR train caused some concern as one of the engines caught on fire next to the DeBruce elevator worrying some folks in the area that the elevator may have caught on fire again.  The train was hauling loads of wheat and one of the engines worked so hard that it caught on fire.  It was set out at DeBruce for the fire department to put out and wait until it cooled off.  The loco had some excess oil built up and it caused excess smoke.