Santa
Fe News
BNSF
and other railroads
March & April 2004
| Service
Interruptions Power Notes Warbonnet Watch Traffic Special Trains |
Will the BNSF move the primary locomotive shops back to West Burlington, IA? That question is still up in the air, but don’t count on it. In December 2003, BNSF announced that it would consolidate almost all of the shop work for locomotives and freight cars in Topeka, KS moving out of West Burlington, IA. The City of Burlington, IA has made a claim that the BNSF can not move the shops from West Burlington due to a legal agreement the city has with the BNSF dating back to the 1850s. The City had an agreement with the predecessor of the BNSF, the Burlington & Missouri River. In the 1830s, the federal government mandated that Burlington, along with the communities of Dubuque, Bellview, Fort Madison and Peru, be trustees for the land along their riverfronts and that this ground could never be sold but used only for "public purposes." There were later U.S. Supreme Court cases, which ruled railroads were such a public purpose, but title for the land would remain with the city.
The railroad was given land to use for its principal shops to be located on. That land was along the Mississippi River front, but as time went on, the railroad out grew the land and the shops. The City purchased land on the west side of Burlington for the railroad to use and in 1880, the CB&Q who now owned all of the B&MR signed an agreement to keep the principal shops in West Burlington. Fast-forward to 2003, BNSF moved about 400 workers out of Burlington to Topeka and some to Galesburg nearly closing the shops at West Burlington. The City wants those jobs back in Burlington. They have considered legal action to force BNSF to do so. The ground has been rent free for the railroads since they first built into Burlington. The city wants to force the BNSF to either purchase the land and pay back rent, or move the shops back to West Burlington. In 1982, the BN challenged the city in that the railroad felt they owned some land that the south parking lot of a Memorial Auditorium was located on. While the railroad felt they had a legal deed form the city, the federal government had established that the land could not be given away or sold for any purpose. So the city with limit resources backed down and nothing was ever settled. Now with the loss of 400 jobs, the city feels it must do battle with an even bigger railroad so try to keep jobs and the railroad.
At 05:15 on March 5th, the UP suffered a derailment at Kingfisher, OK south of Enid on the former OKKT, original Rock Island line. The roadbed had washed out under the rails along the edge low lying area north of Kingfisher about two miles. When the southbound vehicle train hit the soft roadbed, it derailed putting the two locomotives, UP SD70M 4497 and Dash 8-40C 9222, on their sides. The train had the head cars loaded with autos for Oklahoma City when it derailed into the mud. A total of 15 cars derailed. The city of Kingfisher had some local flooding due to the Cimarron River and Kingfisher Creek cresting above flood stage forcing the evacuation of several homes along the conflux of the two waterways. The line was opened the next morning after daylight when a northbound vehicle train was the first to use the track. The crew of the derailed train was trapped for a short time until a track supervisor could hi-rail in and get them. They were seen sitting on the side of the overturned locomotives. Fortunately, they were not seriously injured.
UP suffered a major disruption on March 28th northwest of Topeka on the Marysville Sub. A loaded coal train had the bridge over Soldier Creek collapse under it after the power got across. This is the main line from Wyoming to Kansas City with 70 – 80 trains per day. The UP has had to scramble to reroute traffic off of the line and rebuild the bridge. The bridge was a 280 foot span about 30 feet high over the creek northwest of Topeka about 12 miles. UP said they would construct a temporary fill and bridge over the creek to allow traffic to begin running by Wednesday. A coal train headed for St. Louis had 38 cars derail, most of which ended up pilling up on top of the bridge and collapsing it. Possible cause could have been an extra large amount of rain in the area making the ground soggy and causing a derailment near the bridge. BNSF has granted them some detours via Denver, Amarillo and Fort Worth to keep from running via Topeka. The UP has been running a coal train once or twice daily down this line since the derailment plus a manifest train or two each day. The symbols for the detours have been F-NPTFTW on the BNSF for a move from Northport, NE to Fort Worth, TX. UP has also been using some of their own crews and trains symbols to move the M-HORV train from Fort Worth to Pueblo. Train F-HASKCM has been rung at least twice per day with a detour symbol from the UP on BNSF from Hastings, NE to Kansas City via Lincoln and St. Joseph, MO. That is putting a strain on the St. Joseph sub as they are having track work there and BNSF is trying to detour trains away from it. See Traffic Below.
At 04:45 on the morning of March 17th, BNSF suffered a coal train derailment at Armour, MO (between Kansas City and St. Joseph, MO). Train C-CAMKCC0-56 with two engines up front and one on the rear went into emergency. The crew found lines 122 – 134 derailed with 9 of those 13 cars leaning badly or on their sides. This train had 136 cars in the train with BNSF SD70MAC 9882, Dash 9-44CW 5257 on the point and the 8975 as the DPU. The cause was attributed to a broken rail with the main line returning to service at 16:00 on the 17th.
Later the same day at 14:50, the BNSF suffered another coal train derailment just west of Ottumwa, IA. Train C-BTMCXA0-04 with 110 cars and SD70MACs 9478 & 9460 for power derailed on the ICE crossing blocking both railroads. Lines 35 – 48 were derailed and accordianed across both railroads. The derailment took out both BNSF main lines at Ottumwa and nearly had cars hitting buildings near the main lines. Both main tracks were opened the next day by mid day.
At 00:45 on March 21st, BNSF suffered a minor derailment at CP5314 of the Panhandle Sub west of Panhandle, TX. The rear unit of the consist on train P-MEMLAC3-19 derailed the rear set of trucks in the crossover from Main 1 to Main 2. The 2888 had been taken out of Amarillo on train M-AMSKCK1-20 and set out at Waynoka for the P-MEMLAC3 train. It then ran back to CP5314 prior to derailing the rear set of trucks due to an axle problem on the #3 axle. The only damage was the crossover was damaged and the frog had to be replaced. This took the crossover out of service for the 21st. The reason for the minor damage was the slow speed at which the train was going as they had just started from the signal at CP5314 after meeting a train. While this derailment was not spectacular, what was really spectacular was the amount of trains delayed by it on the Transcon. At minimum of 27 trains were delayed between Amarillo and Canadian, TX due to this derailment. This also resulted in many crews going dead on the hours of service.
At 09:50 on the 21st of March, train L-SCA1161-21 was running west from Barstow to Cadiz, CA when it went into emergency. Train inspection revealed that lines 9 through 34 were derailed at Ludlow at MP 693.4 of the Needles sub. No hazardous cars were involved. One tank car did leak, but it was a non-hazardous liquid. The eastbound local was operating on Main 2, but the derailed cars also fouled main 1. The Transcon was closed until just after midnight on the 22nd. This derailment resulted in Amtrak train #3 stopping at Flagstaff, AZ and then originated as train #4. It was serviced at Albuquerque. Passengers were bussed from Flagstaff to destinations west of there. No train 4 was operated out of Los Angeles for the 21st. Due to this derailment being on a Sunday, not many eastbounds were delayed. However a great number of westbound trains were held as far back as Winslow waiting on the track to open.
At 17:30 on the 27th of March, train C-NAMMEA1-02 derailed 22 cars of coal about 50 miles east of Gillette, WY on the Black Hills sub. Line 93 of the train burned off a journal causing the following 21 cars to derail. Both main tracks were blocked. Main 1 was returned to service at 11:45 on the 28th and Main 2 was returned to service 16:15 on the 28th.
At 14:40 on March 28th, BNSF train Z-LACMEM2-26 derailed at Terlton, OK on the Avard Sub. Terlton is west of Tulsa about 30 miles. The train derailed all three engines with the lead engine ATSF 933 and the rear unit BNSF 1009 on their sides. The BNSF 4815 derailed upright. The head 5 double stacks derailed in a pile. One was a single well while the other four were 5 packs. The 6th car derailed upright. The crew sustained minor injuries and were taken to the hospital, treated and released. The only haz mat involved in the derailment was from the diesel fuel spilling for the engines. Some of which reached a small creek. Due to this, several trains were detoured via the Transcon from Avard to Wellington, to Kansas City, then down the Fort Scott Sub via Fort Scott to Springfield. Eastbound trains S-LBAMEM3-28, Z-LACMEM1-27, Q-LACBIR1-26, Z-SBDATG1-27, & P-RICBIR1-26 were detoured via Kansas City. In addition, train U-PITESL1-24 was detoured via Kansas City and the Gateway Western to East St. Louis. Westbound, the U-ESLPIT1-26 was routed via the Gateway Western and Kansas City as well. In addition, from Springfield to Kansas City to Avard were trains Z-MEMRIC1-28, Z-MEMLAC1-28, & S-MEMWAT3-28. Two other westbounds were detoured via the Stillwater Central from Sapulpa to Oklahoma City then to Fort Worth and west via the ex BN to Amarillo. They were train Q-ATGLAC1-27 and Z-MEMLAC1-27.
Odd
Power on the Transcon.
In
a sea of Dash 9-44CWs that run across the Transcon on a daily basis, sometimes
BNSF can really put together an odd consist from time to time.
One such consist was seen on March 20th at Shattuck, OK.
Train M-KCKAMS1-19 was spotted with a GP30 in the lead with a trio of
B23-7s trailing it. The power was
GP30 2420 leading B23-7s 4245, 4216, & 4230.
All were in blue except for the 4230 in Heritage 1 scheme.
BNSF is the only class one railroad in America that still has GP30s in
daily service in 2004. When the
Santa Fe upgraded them to a more GP35 standard in the early 1980s including the
2500 horsepower of the GP35s, they began to run system wide.
They still retain their GP30 looks though.
Several
other GP30s have been seen on the BNSF main lines lately as well.
A rather odd looking consist was seen at Wellington, KS on April 1st.
Train M-AMSGAL1-31 was seen with BNSF Dash 8-40B 8637 (Heritage paint),
CSXT SD40-2 8043, NREX SD50 8696 (Conrail paint, CSXT lettering), and BNSF GP30
2423 still in ATSF blue & yellow.
Quite
a bit of CN power has been seen on the Transcon lately also.
On March 31st, at Goodwin, OK (just east of the Texas border)
train M-KCKPHX1-30 was seen with CN SD75I 5632, CN SD40-2W 5336 & CN Dash
9-44CW 2548 for power. All CN and
nothing else. The trio of CN
units came to BNSF on train M-CNIKCK1-30. At
Belen, this set of power was cut and sent back east to Lubbock, TX on train
M-BELLUB1-02. On April 2nd,
train Z-SBDWSP5-31 was seen departing Clovis, NM with BNSF 4489, leading CN
SD40-2 6028, CN Dash 9-44CWs 2613 & 2626.
The CN trio came to BNSF on train M-CNIKCK1-22 on March 22nd
and stayed in tact on several trains. Upon
arrival at Kansas City on the 25th, the trio with the CN 2626 in the
lead departed KC for Tulsa on train M-KCKTUL1-26 departing on the 26th
of March. At Tulsa, they ran to
Fort Worth across the Stillwater Central on train M-TULFTW1-27 where they were
added to a Z train at Alliance, TX. Train
Z-ALTSBD1-29 had them run via the former BN line through Wichita Falls, and
Amarillo to San Bernardino, CA. All
four trains had only the trio of CN units for power until they came back east
with then heading for Willow Springs, IL following a BNSF Dash 9-44CW.
Some
single CN units that are rather rare on the BNSF west of Kansas City were this
pair. On April 1st,
the Z-LACWSP8-31 was seen in Victorville, CA with BNSF 4452 leading CN SD60F
5511, BNSF Dash 9-44CWs 4105 & 1089 & BNSF Dash 8-40B 8606.
The 5511 came to the BNSF also on the M-CNIKCK1-27 train and then ran to
California on the Z-KCKLAC1-28. After
it made it to Chicago on the above-mentioned Z-LACWSP8, it again headed for
California on train Z-WSPSBD4-02 sandwiched between BNSF 4452 & 4105.
CN Dash 840CWM was seen in Amarillo, TX on march 27th.
It too arrived in Kansas City on the M-CNIKCK train of the 25th
leading IC 6122. It departed Kansas
City as the third unit on the M-KCKAMS1-26 with BNSF 4371 & 6837 for power.
At Amarillo, it sat for a day then departed westbound on train
H-ALTBAR1-27 where it went even further west.
It arrived in Barstow on the 29th, and then went on to Pico
Rivera on train M-BARPIC1-30. It
was the trailing unit out of Los Angeles on March 31st on train
Q-LACBIR1-31. The unit is a draper
taper Dash 8-40CW with the full carbody.
While
not a Transcon train for most of the route, train V-KCKPEA1-05 was seen
departing Kansas City on April 5th with EMD GP38 767 leading BNSF
GP35 2576, BNSF GP9B 1700, BNSF GP15s 1475 & 1499.
Only on BNSF!!!! The train
had 69 loads and qualified for 70 MPH from Kansas City to Augusta, KS where it
took the Douglas sub and entered 55 MPH freight train territory.
The head 34 cars were auto parts cars for Oklahoma City followed by loads
of automobiles for Alliance and Pearland.
Several
of you have sent me notes on Warbonnets with many of them being in pairs.
I am still trying to list those with three or more Warbonnets in a
consist with nothing else. One of
note was not an Aprils Fool’s joke but was seen at Wellington, KS on April 1st.
Train Z-SBDWSP5-30A had BNSF 755, ATSF 670, BNSF 4715 & BNSF 729 for
power. All four are in Warbonnet
paint and all Dash 9-44CWs. The
same power returned west on train Z-WSPNBY9-02 headed for California with the
consist reversed except the 755 was still leading.
April
6th, train Z-KCKSBD1-05 was seen at Woodward, OK with a trio of
Warbonnets, the BNSF 736, BNSF 893 & BNSF 722.
Many
of the 600 class ATSF Dash 9-44CWs have gotten BNSF lettering applied below the
number during March. The 600s may
be the next group of ATSF units to get painted into Heritage colors so shoot
them while you can.
More
new GE’s are now on the BNSF property. AC4400Evs
(GEVO) 5740 – 5743 were seen moving at East Dubuque, IL on March 6th
on train M-KCKWLM1-05 in a solid consist along with the 5739 that had previously
been delivered then returned to GE for some repairs.
The consist of the train was the 5740, 5739, 5741, 5743 & 5742.
The rest of the GEVO’s were delivered shortly after that filling out
the 5744 – 5747 series giving BNSF 30 of them.
As
of March 31st, all the AC4400CWs from 5654 to 5717 were on the
property except the 5696 which had not been delivered yet.
Plus the 5838 – 5840. The
5654 – 5695 had been delivered in February with the rest in March.
With so many AC power engines from GE now on the property, some have been
seen in grain service. On March 29th,
the 5697 & 5698 were in Amarillo, TX after taking a grain train from Kansas
City to Amarillo. The 5699 was seen
leading a grain train into the Texas Panhandle on March 31st.
It had train G-GNWSMR9-30 with BNSF 1107, 4099 & 636 trailing it.
In fact, the 5697, 5698, 5699 & 5700 were seen arriving in LaCrosse,
WI on March 7th on train M-CSXLAW1-06.
Later in the day, they were seen leaving La Crosse on a M-LAWGFD1-07
train leading the BNSF 4132, 777, 2363 & DM&E 6363.
UP GP50s stored on the K&O in Wichita have been moved to Kansas City and St. Louis. On March 26th, the K&) pulled GP50s 5520, 5547, 5538, 5526, 5515, 5546, 5537, 5521, 5519, 5554, 5517, 5553, 5550, 5557, 5516, 5510, 5545, 5512, 5514, 5522, 1627, & 913across Wichita from their storage spots in Southwest Wichita to the North Yard. The GP50s were all ex C&NW units. I do no know the fate of any of them or which ones went where. Some old SP Geeps were also moved from the storage spots in Southwest Wichita to the K&O South Yard near Gilbert Street in Wichita. SP GP9s 3187, 3193, 2870, 2879, 3761 & 3415 along with C&NW GP7 4379 were moved to the tracks adjacent to Boge Iron & Metal. Possibly for scrap.
BNSF
has moved an ex VIA Rail FP9A that had been repainted into the Western Pacific
California Zephyr paint scheme from British Columbia to California.
The engine was lettered as PPCX 6304 and was delivered by Southern
Railway of British Columbia to BNSF at New Westminster, BC on March 31st
for delivery to Oakland, CA. The
engine was seen moving at Seattle on April 6th on train H-EVEPAS1-06.
Power for the train was BNSF Dash 9-44CWs 4674, 4764, & 5181.
Behind 31 loads were ATSF 927 & BNSF 4819 as DP units followed by the
FP9A and 47 more cars.
BNSF is cleaning out some more old units. Train M-KCKGAL1-27 was seen leaving Kansas City on March 28th with BNSF 7049, 8027, 5434, & NREX 5470 trailed by BN GP10s 1419, 1403, 1436, 1407 & 1414 all heading for Silvis, IL to NRE.
BNSF also sent some more units to Brazil for use on the CVRD. Spotted moving past St. Joseph, MO on April 2nd was train H-LAUKCK1-29 with BNSF 8607 leading NS 8894, BNSF 141, BNSF 6876, EMD 9060 & BNSF 4890, trailed by 6 ex ATSF SF30Cs, the LRCX 9519, 9562, 9535, 9560, 9523, & 9528. At Kansas City, the units moved to Temple, TX on train M-KCKTPL1-03 then to Houston on train M-TPLHOU1-05. Other units heading to Brazil are presumably ex ATSF C30-7s that moved from Paducah in early April on several different trains. The engines were billed with the reporting marks of OLD and had the numbers of 8083, 8086, 8088, 8092, 8094, 8103, 8112, 8118, 8121, 8123, 8128, & 8131. All 12 engines are headed for Houston to Texas Marine.
Just a short move for BNSF, but the Panhandle Northern got a new engine recently. Seen at Amarillo, TX on March 28th was PNR 2254. It is an ex DRGW GP35 now painted in an attractive gray & blue and lettered for Omnitrax and the PNR. The engine came to BNSF from the UP at Amarillo. PNR is supposed to be getting two more engines from Paducah lettered PNR 2300 & 2301. Not sure what they are yet.
On March 24th, BNSF moved the new SD70ACe units from La Junta to Dodge City in Local service, then from Dodge to Newton on the 25th and to Kansas City on the 26th. The GM72 & GM73 are to test on the KCS for a while.
Near capacity traffic has been hitting the BNSF in late March. This is causing some terminals to run out of crews. BNSF is hiring conductors and engineers at a near record pace this year, but it may be too late to help out for this summer. Many places have crew shortages now and the summer vacations have not hit yet that will push the crews to the breaking point. Terminals like Wellington, Newton and Arkansas City, KS; Enid, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, OK are all short of crews and this is causing the crews there to work more than normal also causing fatigue. All of those terminals have conductor classes going on as of late March and April, some will have engineer classes soon as well. It was reported by the NOC that during March over 1800 trains ran between Wellington, KS and Amarillo, TX. That is an average of just over 63 per day when 52 is a normal amount. Part of this traffic may be fueled by the UP having trouble moving trains and parking trains. On Sunday, March 28th, it was reported that UP had about 50 trains parked due to lack of crews.
In addition, the BNSF has more trains running than it did one year ago. Much of the new traffic is grain business for the Texas Panhandle, California and southeast New Mexico feed lots. In the past year alone, BNSF has acquired 5 new load out elevators in Illinois plus several in Iowa and Missouri as well. Because of the BNSF merger, some of the traffic that would have moved in other manners have come to the BNSF such as grain traffic from Grand Forks, ND to the Texas Panhandle and California, Sioux City and Island Park, IA and Wolsey, SD have all been new symbols for grain in the past few months on the Transcon west of Kansas City. According to the BNSF marketing department, there will be more grain trains on the Transcon in the near future. Another new Grain load-out is being built now near Galva, IL that will be called the Lincoln Land Rail, LLC. The new load out is a partnership with Gateway Co-op, Woodhull Co-op Gold Star FS and Rumbold & Kuhn, Inc., with Gateway Co-op retaining 60% of the ownership and the other partners retaining 40%. The grain terminal is being built just east of Galva. It will be primarily for shuttle trains to the Gulf ports. During April a 1.5-mile rail line will be built for the new facility along the BNSF main line. It should be opened in July 2004.
One
other new grain train is the G-KCKAMS train that takes loads of corn gluten from
the NS and IC out of Illinois to Attebury Grain west of Amarillo at Zita, TX.
It does not run often, but can be interesting when it does.
On March 31st it was seen in Waynoka, Ok with NS SD60 6599,
HLCX SD45 9004 & NS Dash 8-40C 8744. The
6599 is set up to be a long hood forward unit although it was seen with the
short hood leading. The problem
with that is the two crews had to sit backwards for the trip from Kansas City to
Amarillo making it very uncomfortable. The
HLCX unit did not have a radio and the other NS unit was facing east so it was
of n use to swap the power around.
Other traffic that is coming from the BNSF grain group is the Ethanol train. When this train started running, it was running from Wilmar, MN to Watson, CA about once a month last summer. By midwinter, it was up to four trains per month, and now it is closer to 8 trains per month with up to 12 per month predicted by mid summer of 2004. It has many origination points across the Midwest, but all loaded trains go to Watson, CA.
The H-WLMBAR that started as a weekly train now runs three times per week if not more. In addition, during late March, the H-SIOBAR has ran several times as an extra train. On April 2nd, the train was running via the Boise City sub out of La Junta, CO towards Amarillo. That is unusual for this train as it is normally routed via Lincoln and Kansas City but due to the St. Joe Sub getting track work, the H-SIOBAR3-01, ran via Lincoln & Hastings, NE; Brush, Denver, Pueblo, La Junta, CO and to Amarillo then west via the Transcon. The power was all up front on this train with BNSF 4423, 1010 & 4685 leading 8677 tons out of La Junta.
Another “Grain Empty” that has been seen often during March has been the X-EMPCRL train. It is empty covered hopper cars that gather up from various trains at Emporia, KS and then run as a empty grain train to Carlsbad, NM for potash loading. Potash is considered an agricultural chemical on the BNSF so it uses a grain train symbol instead of a unit train symbol. It is not unusual to see the train with one engine and 70 or more empty hoppers. On March 31st, train X-EMPCRL4-31 departed Emporia with BNSF 808 still clad in Warbonnet paint with 85 empty hoppers and 2657 tons.
The Northern Route of the former ATSF has been seeing some extra trains lately. Track work on the St. Joseph sub including concrete tie placement with the P-811 concrete tie production gang has been forcing some traffic away from the St. Joe sub, only to be replaced with UP detour traffic. Train Z-KCMDEN, Z-DENKCM, Q-DENKCM (Coors and UPS traffic on Saturday & Tuesday out of Denver), H-PASKCK and H-KCKPAS have using the La Junta and Front Range Subs to run between Kansas City and Denver. The H-KCKPAS is scheduled to use the La Junta Sub each day departing Kansas City at 03:00 and arriving at Denver the nest day at 00:15. This means a daylight westbound on the La Junta Sub! The Q-DENKCM was established to move the UPS and Coors tank Car traffic on Saturday & Monday out of Denver with a 03:00 departure time. They are due into Kansas City at 01:30 the next morning for a late evening eastbound across the La Junta Sub into Hutchinson and Newton, KS. Other trains that have been seen on the La Junta sub due to the St. Joe work are the H-KCKPAS, H-KCKLAU and H-LAUKCK all depending on how the Chief Dispatcher decides to run the train that day. This is also due to crew availability on the La Junta Sub west of Newton. In addition to the trains detoured via the La Junta Sub, the Boeing train is changed for about 6 weeks as well. It has been running as a J-WICLIN train, but now is the J-WICKCM making a connection at Kansas City instead of Lincoln. By Mid May, it should be back to the J-WICLIN symbol. The H-WLMBAR is also re-routed due to the St. Joe sub track work. It normally runs via Sioux City, IA and into Lincoln, then to Kansas City via the St. Joe Sub. It is temporarily routed via Galesburg, then to Kansas City.
Rumor is that the BNSF will again use the former Dublin Sub to run trains on. In a posting by a BNSF official, it was stated that the BNSF was getting too much delay of traffic across the UP between Fort Worth and Sweetwater on the Baird Sub. The posting said that the BNSF would again run eastbound trains from Clovis through Sweetwater to Ricker, TX where they would use the Former ATSF Dublin sub now owned by Fort Worth & Western (FWWR) to access Fort Worth and Alliance. Westbounds would use the reverse of this routing. BNSF detoured an eastbound Q train over the FWWR in January due to a derailment on the UP Baird Sub. On April 2nd, train Q-RICALT1-30 entered the FWWR at Ricker, just east of Brownwood and took that short line to Fort Worth. The train departed Ricker at 20:24 on the 2nd and arrived in alliance at 02:15 the 3rd with BNSF 4600 & 6779 leading the 44 car intermodal train. This was a test train to see how times went across the FWWR. The test schedule allows 5 hours from Brownwood to Alliance. This run was 5’50” but the train got some delay in Fort Worth.
The UP has been giving the BNSF an extra train almost daily for the past two weeks beginning in mid March at Saginaw, TX. The UP has a new schedule for train M-HORV to run via the former Rock Island from Fort Worth to Herington to Topeka, KS (via El Reno and Wichita). It is a daily manifest train that turns west at Topeka to enter the Marysville sub and go to Nebraska and across Wyoming to Roseville, CA. The UP has had crew shortages on the Duncan and Enid subs, so this train has routinely ran via the BNSF from Fort Worth to Dalhart where it gets on the former CRIP Golden state route and heads east to Topeka. With the bridge collapse on the Marysville sub, the train has been running via the BNSF to Denver.
The UP has also not ran the Little Ferry Falcon across the BNSF the past two weeks of March and the first week of April. The UP hot Z train that carries UPS traffic from Little Ferry, NJ to Los Angeles (and reverse) normally runs across the BNSF from a connection at Chicago with CSX to Hutchinson, KS where it then takes the UP Golden State Route to Los Angeles. The train originates at Los Angeles and Little Ferry on Mondays putting it across the BNSF in Kansas on Wednesday with a meet usually between Kansas City and Hutchinson. Train symbols are Z-LFLA westbound and Z-LALF eastbound (BNSF symbol is F-ZLFLA and F-ZLALF). The Z-CSLA and Z-LACS trains are still running across the BNSF between Chicago and Hutchinson though. Rumor is that the train has been cancelled and the UPS traffic that it was moving will be trucked at UP’s expense. The UPS traffic that the Z-CSLA train s handled will be moving back to BNSF. That is about 20 – 40 trailers per day. UP took this business from BNSF last year when the Bullet trains started running. Rumor is that UPS is also trucking the business that UP took from BNSF between Memphis and Los Angeles as well. An article published in the Wall street Journal has stated on April 5th that UP has requested its customers to curtail using rail business until they can get the bugs worked out of the system. Traffic congestion and crew shortages are the problems right now. The largest problems are in the Los Angeles area and the Sunset route to South Texas. (This is true, I read it myself!)
Last
month I mentioned the many empty container chassis moving east.
I speculated that they may have something to do with the CP not moving
trailers anymore. That was not
exactly right. BNSF is letting many
of these off of lease along with many of the older 48 foot containers that have
been relettered for NACS. BNSF is
letting 2300 of the chassis off of lease. And
21oo containers are coming off lease along with them.
About half of the chassis are Flexivan and the other half are TIP
Intermodal. The chassis are being
returned to their owners in the east and moved by BNSF on anything that has room
to move some of them. The majority
of these containers and chassis have not been used by BNSF except during Peak
season. The owners have let BNSF
store them for free or nearly free for the past several years.
Now with intermodal terminal space at a premium, BNSF decided to send
them home and let the owners worry about storing them.
This means that more BNSF container traffic will be moving in 53 foot
containers owned by companies besides BNSF such as J.B. Hunt.
I had also mentioned that BNSF was buying some 6000 new grain hoppers from Trinity with 1500 of them coming to BNSF in 2004. Also in 2004, BNSF will be getting 1850 more platforms of double stack equipment, more coal hoppers and more boxcars. The coal and box cars are to total about 2500 cars.
The K&O moved a
special train on the Stillwater Central in early April.
In a private car move with tickets for the public, the ex SLSF track
hosted a two car special on April 3rd, & 4th.
The cars are the Private car Caritas and ex SLSF sleeper Cimarron River.
On April 3rd, the train ran west from Oklahoma City to Snyder
and returned. On the 4th,
it ran east from Oklahoma City to Tulsa and return.
The cars reached Oklahoma City from Fort Worth and a connection with the
Heartland Flyer. They also returned
to Fort Worth the same way.
In late June,
the Louisiana Steam Train Association is planning a trip of restored SP 2-8-2
#745 from New Orleans to Kansas City and return via the Kansas City Southern.
The engine will be used to commemorate the 200th anniversary
of the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis & Clark Expedition.
The engine and train will be on display in many cities along the route.
See their Website at www.LASTA.org
for more details.
Reports
are also that the UP Challenger #3985 will be operating from Cheyenne to Houston
in May & June. The schedule
that I have been sent is as follows.
The
Challenger No 3985 steam locomotive will return to Houston
in early June to pull trains for several
charitable
events associated with the George Bush Presidential
Library, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center and
Points
of Light Foundation. Usually,
No. 3985 departs at 8 a.m. Complete schedules,
with arrival times and location of stops, will
be posted in May. I have included just those events in the Kansas area.
Sunday,
May 23 North Platte - Marysville, Kan.
Monday,
May 24 Layover and public display
Tuesday,
May 25 Marysville - Kansas City, Mo.
Wednesday,
May 26 Layover and public display at Kansas City
Union Station
Thursday,
May 27 Kansas City - Coffeyville, Kan.
Friday,
May 28 Coffeyville - Van Buren, Ark.
Sunday,
June 20 North Little Rock - Van Buren
Monday,
June 21 Van Buren - Coffeyville, Kan.
Tuesday,
June 22 Coffeyville - Osawatomie
Wednesday,
June 23 Layover and public display
Thursday,
June 24 Osawatomie - Trenton, Mo.
Also
do not forget the Annual SFRH&MS convention in Wichita, KS on June 24th
– 27th. On line
registration is available now. www.atsfrr.com