Service Interruptions

It seems that BNSF has had more than its share of derailments and problems this month. Almost daily, somewhere on the BNSF has been some sort of derailment. Some are small yard derailments with a rail that turned over or broke, and others are more serious.

At 21:30 on the 12^th of January, BNSF suffered another Remote Control derailment. This one was in the Amarillo South Yard (Ex ATSF). The crew of job Y-AMS2022-12 drug out of the west end of one of the tracks on to the lead and struck the middle of train M-KCKAMS1-11 shoving into track 105. Four cars of the M train derailed, all upright with one of the cars ending up on the running board of slug 3959. The 3959 was the leading end of the yard move. It sustained the most damage. GP7 3830 sustained some damage and had a truck frame broken. A new one was shipped form Topeka to Amarillo via flat car and it was replaced at Amarillo. The Geep now has one silver truck and one black truck. The Geep has since been seen working with green GP50 3122 in the Amarillo yards. The slug has been drug off to the side of the yards and was resting near the tracks with no trucks under it. Whether it gets rebuilt remains to be seen. It has sustained quite a bit of sheet metal damage to the nose of it. The cause was a familiar one with RCL incidents, no one on the leading end of the movement.

At 11:30 on January 13^th, BNSF suffered a derailment at Muskogee, OK on the connection with the UP. BNSF gets a coal train from UP at Muskogee and is handled by a yard engine crew. While pulling of the connection with 133 loads, 7 cars derailed with three on their sides. Cause was a broken rail.

Later on the 13^th, at 21:20, BNSF suffered a much more serious coal train derailment at Herman, TX on the Wichita Falls Sub. Herman is approximately 34 miles west of Fort Wroth. Loaded train C-CDMIOG0-01 with three units up front and one in the DP mode on the rear derailed 29 cars in a pile and accordioned. They derailed spilling their load out onto adjacent US 287. The cause was a reported failed journal on line 27 of the train. Due to this incident, several loaded and empty coal trains detoured via the Sweetwater and Plainview subs between Amarillo and Temple, TX. Loads ran west off of the Boise City sub to the Hereford sub, then turned south at Canyon heading for Lubbock where they turned east and ran towards Temple. The empties made the reverse move, except at Amarillo had to either be turned on the wye to the Boise City sub or power ran around the train in the former BN Eastern Street yard to access the Dalhart Sub.

At 09:50 on the 16^th, BNSF train H-EVEBAR9-13 derailed rear three axles of rearmost DP unit BNSF 5217 & lines 57 through 69 with 57 – 64 on their sides at MO 167.1 Near Clear Creek, Jct east of Keddie, CA. The cars were all loads of vegetable meal. Cause was again, a broken rail. Track was back in service at 12:00 on the 17^th. Due to this derailment, at least two trains detoured via the Transcon to Amarillo, then north to Denver via the Join line and on to Montana then west.

At 15:30 on January 16^th loaded coal train C-NAMMEA0-17 derailed 28 cars at Oreapolis, NE. Oreapolis is 50 miles east of Lincoln on the Creston Sub. Lines 79 – 106 derailed and spilled coal in a residential neighborhood. The derailment destroyed one home and resulted in a structure fire. This resulted in 17 people in a total of 6 homes being evacuated as a precaution by local firefighters. Amtrak #5 & #6 detoured via Pacific Jct. to Council Bluffs to get around the derailment. The Z-CHIDEN1-16 detoured via Kansas City, Newton, La Junta and Colorado Springs to reach Denver. The main tracks were back in service at 19:00 the next day. The derailment destroyed two power switches. BNSF found two switches that were the proper size at Wellington, KS waiting to be unloaded and installed on the Panhandle Sub. They were taken by special train to Oreapolis for repair work. Train U-WELORE1-17 departed Wellington prior to daylight with two gondolas of preformed switches and BNSF Dash 9-44CW 4656 for power. The derailed train is a Powder River Basin to Metropolis, IL train that BNSF takes to Cook, IL.

At 19:30 on the 27^th of January, train C-EBMSPC0-08 derailed 11 cars near Sully Springs, ND. The train had two cars on their sides and the rest accordioned. The cause was a defective rail weld. The main track was back in service at 19:00 the following night. BNSF traffic was routed via the K&O sub while the derailment was being cleared.

On January 28^th, train X-PASGRF1-26 (Pasco to Great Falls) was hit by a snow slide at MP 1163 at East Java, MT. This is 54 miles east of Whitefish, MT. The train was actually hit twice. Lines 49 – 55 were on their sides then lines 56 – 96 were not affected. Line 97 was knocked off the center pins and lines 98 – 104 were on their sides blocking both main lines. The incident occurred at noon on the 28^th. Heavy snow slid down the side of a mountain hitting the train. Reports were that there were approximately 60 inches of snow in the Essex, MT area. Both main tracks were returned to service at 14:00 on the 29^th, but no trains were allowed until 16:00 due to snow removal. Amtrak trains 7 & 8 were annulled due to this incident, and due to the nature of the snow problems, were annulled for the next two days as well.

At 07:15 on February 1^st, BNSF suffered another coal train derailment on the Creston Sub. This time it was at Ashland, NE, 30 miles east of Lincoln. The C-NAMMEA0-15 reported their train in emergency on Main 2 at MP 35.3. Upon inspection, the crew found lines 10 – 45 derailed. Main 1 was also damaged, as was the connection to the Sioux City sub, and a small bridge on the Creston Sub. The cause remains under investigation for this one. Main 1 was put back in service at 08:20 on the 2^nd and Main 2 was back in service at 16:30. The Sioux City sub connection was restored at 06:00 on the 2^nd as well.

At 20:01 on the 1^st of February, BNSF suffered another RCL derailment. This time in the Tulsa yards. The remote yard job sideswiped their lead locomotive, BNSF SD39 6212 into the rear two locomotives of the H-TULBAR1-01, the 4735 & 872. All were derailed, but upright. The main tracks were not affected. The two Receiving and Departure tracks were back in service by 07:00 the next morning. The cause was under investigation. Damage was minor to all locomotives involved.

At 23:10 on February 2^nd, BNSF coal train C-ATMPRR0-15 derailed the rear set of wheels on the rear unit in the consist, BNSF 9411 and lines 1 – 18 on their sides. Lines 19 – 22 were derailed upright at MP 207 between Wheatland and Bordeaux about 88 miles west of Cheyenne, WY. No cause was given at the time of derailment or when the main line would be opened.

Odd route and Power

On December 12^th, the Q-RICALT was changed to operate from its routing on the Transcon to Amarillo then via the FW&D to Alliance to run via Clovis to Sweetwater and then the UP Bair Sub to Alliance, TX. This train had a really unusual consist as it arrived in Alliance on February 2^nd. First of all, it detoured from Sweetwater to Ricker on the BNSF due to the UP having a derailment at Fort Worth on the Baird Sub. When it left Ricker, it used the former ATSF Dublin Sub now owned by Fort Worth & Western. The train had BNSF 4589 & 6839 for power on 3800 tons. Somewhere on the FWWR, it lost the 6839 and picked up the FWWR 2005 in addition to the Two BNSF units. The UP derailment was just east of Centennial yard with a westbound stack train derailing and sliding down an embankment into a building. The derailment occurred just as most workers of Comfort Experts, a heating and air conditioning office were going to work. Fortunately, no one was injured even though some offices were destroyed.

Traffic

BNSF took a shortcut on the 27^th of January. Train V-PTLKCK3-24 was approaching Alliance, NE with nearly an entire train of auto racks for Alliance, TX. There were three spine cars on the rear with empty J. B. Hunt containers for Kansas City. BNSF was able to route those empty containers to Alliance, TX as well and at Alliance, NE changed the symbol and route on this train to by-pass Kansas City as a V-ALNALT3-27 train. It was routed via Sterling and Denver, CO then down the Joint line to Pueblo and La Junta where it went east to Newton, KS and then south via Oklahoma City to Alliance, TX. AT Sterling, CO, the train picked up 6 loads of potatoes for Pearland, TX on the head end of the train. The BNSF SD40-2 6816 & 6398 were the power for the Alliance to Alliance train. On the same day, train P-TACKCM2-26 was also routed via Denver, la Junta and Newton to Kansas City due to congestion between Lincoln and Kansas City.

BNSF had a couple of unusual trains recently. On January 16^th a train of large turquoise colored pipe was delivered by UP to the BNSF at Pueblo, CO. Train U-PUEHOU1-16 ran with UP 3889 & 4164 for power with 43 loads of pipe and one buffer car next to the engines. The train was heading for Flynn, TX. It ran via the Boise City sub from La Junta to Amarillo then down the former BN from Amarillo to Fort Worth where it got back on the ATSF for the trip to the Houston area.

The other interesting train was the U-FTWLVW1-02 seen in Fort Worth, TX. The train came from the UP with UP 7011 leading BNSF 6890 & FURX 7282 along with all empty flat cars of various types and sizes. The train was actually an empty windmill train that had been stored on the AOK at McAlester, OK for quite some time. BNSF was taking it to Longview, WA via Wichita Falls, Amarillo, Pueblo, Denver and Cheyenne. Many of the cars bore the reporting marks of RCLX and KRL.

Hot UP train.

For some reason the UP hot Little Ferry Falcon ran via the BNSF all the way to California on February 4^th. While I do not know the reason yet, I can tell you it had four of the UP 5900 Class AC4400CWs for power. They were the 5935, 5922, 5900, 5990 and the train had 13 actual cars translating into 26 cars. It is due at Riverside, CA in the late afternoon of February 5^th. The train was later than usual when it normally gets off the BNSF at Hutchinson and gets onto the UP so it may have been a problem with weather in the Chicago area trying to get it out and they wanted it to get there faster. It passed Wellington, KS just after dark on the 4^th so it was running late, as it normally gets to Hutchinson in the early afternoon.

Special Trains

There have been several special trains to operate this past month with all business cars. Of course the BNSF and UP both ran Super Bowl trains to Houston. The UP had the majestic power of the Challenger 4-6-6-4 locomotive while BNSF only sent a pair of SD40-2s. The UP 3985 had some trouble as it approached St. Louis and was delayed while the locomotive was worked on. The BNSF train had some trouble as well. The train hit a pick up truck at Cameron, TX killing two 17 year old boys the evening of January 27^th. The crossing at Cameron they were struck at was the only one with only a crossbuck and no active warning devices. The Police Officers blamed the collision on the sun in the driver’s eyes. Very sad for the crew and the families of these two young boys.

The BNSF train, the O-KCMHOU1-26 had SD40-2s 7875 & 7010 (both ex BN) for power leading Sleeper 64 (Marias Pass), Sleeper 68 (Rollins Pass), Power Car/Sleeper 50, Stampede pass, Business car 3 (Red River), Business Car 1 (Mississippi River), Sleeper 67 (Trinchere Pass), Diner 10 (Lake Superior), Club Lounge 29 (Valley View), Business Car 2 (Columbia River), Sleeper 60 (Deschutes river), Business Car 4 (Missouri River), Business Car 7 (Santa Fe), Business Car 6 (Topeka), Business Car 5 (Atchison), BNSF Power Car/ Baggage 51 (Snoqualmie Pass). This train departed Kansas City on January 26^th and arrived in Pearland, TX (Houston) on the 28^th at 00:11. At 17:42 on February 2^nd, the train departed Pearland as train O-PEAFTW1-02 with BN 6363 & BNSF 6761 for power. It arrived in Fort Worth on the 3^rd at 03:00. Original reports were that it would use the former BN via Teague and Dallas to reach Fort Worth, but it ran the former ATSF via Temple and Cleburne instead. After spending the day in Fort Worth, the business cars departed with the same power on train O-FTWKCM1-03 heading for Kansas City. The train departed Fort Worth at 16:00 on the 3^rd of February.

BNSF operated another special train with 5 cars. On January 13^th, BNSF train Z-WSPPHX9-12 moved the 5 cars from Kansas City to Belen where they arrived the evening of the 13^th and then departed the at 02:25 on the 14^th for Albuquerque trailing the P-BELABQ3-13. At Albuquerque, train O-ABQSFE1-15 departed the morning of the 15^th as a special train with BNSF 132 & 8704 leading BNSF Sleeper 66 (Cajon Pass), Sleeper 67 (Trinchere Pass), Club Lounge 29 (Valley View), Business Car 2 (Columbia River), Business Car 3 (Red River). The Special train was handed off to the Santa Fe Southern at Lamy. It departed Lamy late that evening as train O-SFESBC1-15. At Albuquerque, it traded power for the 4145 as solo power heading for the Pacific Ocean. The train with the symbol of Santa Fe, NM to Solano Beach, CA headed down the former ATSF surf line when it reached the Olive District at Placentia, CA arriving there near noon on the 16^th. It then turned around presumably at Solano Beach and headed back to Los Angeles. After the special arrived in Los Angeles at 19:00 the evening of the 16^th, it got BNSF 4911 & 4682 for power and headed east departing Los Angeles at 21:10 as train O-LACKCK1-16.

The UP operated a couple of other specials across the former Rock Island from Fort Worth to Kansas City during January. Train S-FWWT-15 and S-WTKS-16 crossed the former Rock Island on the 15^th & 16^th of January. The special had SD70M 5099 with Business car Cheyenne as it ran from Fort Worth to Kansas City with a night layover in Wichita. On January 27^th train S-FWWT-27 ran across the same route with SD70M 5112, pulling business cars St. Louis, Cheyenne & Idaho. It had made a circuit route on the UP from Council Bluffs to Grand Island, then east to Kansas City. From KC, it went south via Parsons, and McAlester to Fort Worth prior to heading back north on the old Rock Island. It also had a lay over in Wichita for the night departing the next morning as the S-WTCB-28 heading back to Council Bluffs. The train was in charge of Bill Wimmer.

Power Notes

More new Dash 9-44CWs have been delivered during January. In October, BNSF began taking delivery of the latest batch of Dash 9s from GE. They were scattered across the 4000 class. In November, a few from the 5170 – 5222 began to show up. As of January 31^st, all of the 150 units numbered from 4000 – 4096 & 5170 – 5222 were on the BNSF property except for the 4060 that sustained the nose damage in October, only three days after entering service. It was the one that hit the Little Giant Crane at Morrison, OK. It is still being repaired.

BNSF got some interesting power during January. Lease engines CEFX SD40-2s began to show up on the system. They are former BN SD40-2s that are now lettered as CEFX. The numbers as of January 23^rd included the 7076, 7081, 7084, 7087, 7089, 7090, 7091, 7095, 7100, 7101, 7106, 7107, 7109, 7110, 7114, 7118 & 7123. These 17 engines were showing to be Horsepower hours repaid by CSX to BNSF, but the engines actually were leased by UP. Apparently, the UP owes CSX horsepower hours, who owes BNSF horsepower hours so these 17 engines are on the BNSF repaying both at the same time.

In last month’s notes, I mentioned the former BN Cabless B30-7As moving to National Rail at Silvis, IL. There were at least four trains that moved 39 of these engines east from Barstow, CA to Galesburg or Kansas City. Three of them had large blocks of the green “Twinkies”. Train H-BARGAL9-12 was seen in Woodward, OK on January 14^th with BNSF 4770, NREX 8696 & BNSF 997 leading the BN 4002, 4009, 4031, 4032, 4024, 4013, 4039, 4005, 4027, 4050, 4010, 4052, & 4036 along with 55 other cars. The second train with another 13 of the green units was seen in Wichita, KS on January 16^th. Train H-BARGAL9-15 had BNSF 1009, 4188, NS 9765 & BNSF 6868 leading the train with BN 4001, 4003, 4018, 4012, 4017, 4042, 4035, 4043, 4038, 4044, 4020, 4019 & 4048 along with 73 other cars. Train H-BARGAL9-16 was seen departing Barstow, CA on the 16^th with the BNSF 5308, UP 4167, and BNSF 918 leading green “Twinkies” 4047, 4004, 4016, 4041, 4026, 4034, 4040, 4007, 4049, 4023, & 4015. These same 11 units were seen leaving Galesburg on local L-CHI8231-20 on the 20^th of January with SD45-2 6486 leading SD40-2 7872 & B23-7 4255 with the 11 B30-7s in reverse order. On January 19^th, the H-BARKCK1-18 was seen in Amarillo with BNSF 912 leading the WC 7514, NS 9155 & BNSF 2569 along with BN 4037 & 4045 tucked in behind the road power.

BNSF has leased the Victorian and Southern at Attica, KS some power. The BNSF local from Wellington, KS to Waynoka, Ok delivered the BNSF GP38-2 2298 to the VSR on January 9^th for use. It was picked up on January 31^st by the local and replaced on February 1^st by BNSF GP40 3022. On January 2^nd, BNSF picked up the VSR GP9 they had been leasing from national Railway equipment and hauled it to Kansas City. The unit was ex WSOR GP9 #911 still in WSOR paint. For a week, the VSR leased one of the two ex Kiamichi GP9s from the Blackwell Northern, the 906.

Warbonnet Watch

This month I actually have a few solid sets of Warbonnets to list. First of all, Thanks to a certain Dispatcher for catching several of these for me. You know who you are!

January 19^th, departing Lincoln, NE was coal empty E-CNSBTM0-01 with all SD75s! The 8301, 8218 & 8282 for power.

January 23^rd out of Arkansas City, KS was train Z-WSPALT8-22 with ATSF 615, ATSF 943 & BNSF 791 for power. That same power turned back east at Alliance, TX on train Z-ALTWSP9-24 and was seen departing Kansas City that afternoon headed for Chicago.

January 31^st, train G-CRLKCK4-29 departed Clovis with Dash 9-44CW 4702, Dash 8-40CW 911, & Dash 9-44CW 706.

February 2^nd, Seen passing through Wichita Falls, TX was train H-ALTBAR1-02 with the BNSF 4714, BNSF 708 & BNSF 921 for power. Also seen on the 2^nd of February departing Wellington, KS was the local heading for Waynoka, Ok with all GP60Ms, the 106, 162 & 160. All are still lettered for ATSF but have the small BNSF sub lettering under the number on the cab.

Miscellaneous Info

Run-through Cancelled

On January 16^th, the run-through agreement on the former Frisco between Kansas City and Tulsa and Kansas City and Springfield, MO was cancelled. The agreement had been in place since about 1988. The agreement allowed for crews from the end points to run through Fort Scott, KS with each having a two ended pool. Due to the increased traffic on the Fort Scott Sub with the added coal trains for the Georgia Power plant, the crews were having trouble making it over the runs and often went dead on the hours of service. Crews between Kansas City and Springfield ran approximately 200 miles while the crew between Kansas City and Tulsa had a 262 mile run. AS of January 16^th, crews are again changing at Fort Scott. This gives the crews from Kansas City a 98 mile run. The Springfield crews run just over 100 miles and the Tulsa Crews have just over 160 miles to run. Fort Scott is the away from home terminal for all the above mentioned crews, just as it had been for many years on the Frisco and BN.

Dispatchers changed

On January 19^th the dispatcher’s territory on the Emporia sub changed. The Argentine yard dispatcher got a little more territory; The Emporia Sub lost some on daylights and the La Junta sub gained some on daylights. The Panhandle Sub lost some all the time. The Panhandle sub had handled the traffic from West Augusta to Gerlach, OK prior to this change. DS 17 also handles the traffic on the Ark City sub through Mulvane.

ARGENTINE DISPATCHER (DS 3) will handle control point at Santa Fe Jct to but not including control point at Gardner.

EMPORIA DISPATCHER (DS 4) will handle control point at Gardner to but not including West End Augusta Monday-Friday from 0700 to 1500 & will handle control point Gardner to and including control point at Cicero Monday- Friday 1500 to 0700 and Saturday-Sunday.

NEWTON DISPATCHER (DS 17) will handle control point West End Augusta to and including control point at Cicero Monday-Friday from 0700 to 1500.

PANHANDLE EAST DISPATCHER (DS 5) will handle from but not including control point Cicero to Wellington and on west to Gerlach. The radio channels did not change. East of Augusta, BNSF uses AAR channel 36 while west of there it is AAR channel 72.

Homer Henry Passed away.

For those of us that are Santa Fe Fans, we were saddened to hear of the passing away of Homer Henry. For those that do not know, Homer Henry was an engineer in California in the late 1970s, and was promoted to Road Foreman of Engines in Needles in about 1980. He was instrumental with Mike Haverty in getting the Red and Silver back on the sides of Santa Fe locomotives in 1989 while he was working as a System Road Foreman. Homer was also one of the key players in getting the ATSF 4-8-4 #3751 back on the road and was the driving force in using it on the System tour in the late summer of 1992 when it ran all the way to Chicago and back. Homer passed away in the Chicago area on January 27^th of an apparent heart attack while playing racquet ball. He had left the ATSF and began running a “rent-a-hog” engineer program out of Lenexa, KS during the late 1990s. He was training engineers for short lines that had seasonal growth and did not need these engineers all year long. Homer will be missed by ATSF fans everywhere for his contributions to the Santa Fe in so many ways.

Englewood sub ripped up.

The former ATSF tracks west of Coats, Kansas are now history. ATSF sold the Englewood sub to Central Kansas Railway on January 1, 1993. The CKR never really wanted to handle traffic west of Coats, but did for a while. The abandoned the track on the west end of the Englewood in 1998 between MP 136 west of Protection and the end of the track at MP 166 at Englewood. In 2000, the line was sold to Watco affiliate Kansas & Oklahoma. Watco claimed that they would try to do business out to Protection, but wanted more cars per year than the elevators at Protection, Coldwater, Wilmore and Crofts could possibly load. In December 2002, work crews began ripping up the track west of Coats at MP 89.