Past News Reports
(Yesterday's News is Tomorrow's
History)
UP
Larry Tiffany
March 2007: Capacity Improvements … During
October and November, Union Pacific extended Centralized Traffic Control (CTC)
west 19 miles on the Toyah Subdivision in west Texas to the east switch at
Solo. This gives the subdivision continuous CTC from Coahoma to Solo and
Pyote to Levinson.
On the Jefferson City Subdivision, a new connection track to
Ameren's West Labadie, Missouri, power plant was placed in service during
late November. Called Labadie Junction, the new track allows coal trains
from the Powder River Basin to enter the power plant lead directly from the
west. The former control point just east of Labadie Junction called West
Labadie, was renamed East Labadie when Labadie Junction was placed in
service. This will expedite movements into and out of the power plant
tremendously. Previously, trains had to pull past the switch at the West
Labadie control point, and shove on to the power plant spur.
Union Pacific continues to march west from Clinton, IA, with
CTC. On December 12th, new control point Koch (CPA 061) was
cutover, while the holding signals at Lisbon three miles west were retired.
With Koch now in service, Union Pacific has continuous CTC from Clinton to
Fairfax, IA, leaving only a small ABS gap between Fairfax and East
Marshalltown, which the railroad plans to convert to CTC in 2007.
On the Lordsburg Subdivision in New Mexico, CTC Two Main
Track was extended west in early December to the new double crossovers at
Lordsburg Junction at milepost 1146. As a result of the cutover, the siding
at Lordsburg was retained on the north side of the new mainlines while the
siding at Ulmoris was retired. Further west on the Gila Subdivision in
western Arizona, crews extended the siding at Fortuna eastward to create a
small stretch of CTC Two Main Track east of Yuma. The east switch at Fortuna
(SP745) was retired and replaced by control point Blaisdell (SP 747).
New Arizona Hump Yard … Union Pacific wants to build a new
hump yard in Tucson, Arizona, as part of its upgrade of the Sunset Route.
The proposed hump yard would contain 36 tracks on 585 acres, almost twice
the size of Tucson's 24-track, 300-acre rail yard at 22nd Street. A Union
Pacific yard in Phoenix consists of just 20 tracks on 140 acres. The Tucson
yard stretches about two miles in length and a quarter-mile in width. The
proposed yard in Pinal would stretch a little longer, Union Pacific
officials said. The yard will bring about 290 jobs and an annual payroll of
more than $20 million to southern Pinal area. Both yards in Tucson and
Phoenix are at capacity and they are landlocked
Shorts - A bit unusual is the appearance of two former
Missouri Pacific SD40-2s on the road powering trains MBNAS and MASBN,
(Bloomington, Illinois – Alton & Southern East St. Louis). The units are
normally used in yard service in East St. Louis.
Steve Smedley, Sean Graham White, The Explorer News, Omaha
World-Herald, The Hermiston newsweb, Brass Switch Key , UPRR, The North
Platte Telegraph
April 2007: Operations … Operations across
BNSF's Oregon Trunk Subdivision in Oregon have changed. Trains MRVHK and
QHKRV between Hinkle, Oregon, and Roseville, California, were operating via
trackage rights over BNSF between OT Junction and Chemult have shifted
westward to operate via Portland and Eugene, Oregon. With the loss of
through train service on the line, new trains MKFBN and MBNKF were
established between Klamath Falls and Bend, Oregon. These trains operate
Tuesday and Thursday only, feeding cars to the Redmond switcher (LID51)
based in Bend.
Union Pacific has begun running a weekly stack train from
Global Gateway South to Chicago in January. Symbolled IGSCH, the train runs
Wednesday only, arriving in Chicago on Saturday afternoon. The train
operates via El Paso, Texas, and Kansas City, Missouri and is handed off to
CSX in Chicago. Until volumes increase to justify a solid run-through train
on CSX, the traffic will be handled in existing trains Q156, Q146, and Q130
east of Chicago.
New Power for 2007 … Union Pacific is scheduled to take
delivery of 458 locomotives in 2007. The majority of the units on order are
for road service, with the balance being new switch engines. From General
Electric, 200 ES44ACs (UP model C45ACCTE) will begin arriving in early
February. The units will be numbered UP 7600-7799.
EMD will deliver 100 SD70ACe's starting in March and will be
numbered UP 8521-8620. The first 85 units will be constructed in London,
Ontario, while the final 15 (UP 8606-8620) will be partially constructed in
London and shipped to Bombardier's Sahagun, Mexico facility for final
assembly, paint and test. As of early February, units for final completion
at London and Sahagun were being constructed at London simultaneously. Six
of the 15 convertible units are scheduled to ship to Mexico in February.
Along with the convertibles headed to Mexico, EMD will contract out painting
of certain units it completely assembles in London. Scheduled so far are UP
8523-8526 and 8532-8533, which will head to Mid-America Car in Kansas City,
Missouri for paint and final test.
On order from Railpower are 98 RP20BD units (UP model RP20GE)
that will be numbered UPY 2602-2699. National Railway Equipment will
construct 60 3GS21B's to be numbered UPY 2701-2760. For the Railpower order,
Union Pacific operated a hospital train from Houston to St. Louis, Missouri
with 13 four-axle locomotives to be used as cores for the project. Train
EHOSL-30 (Houston, Texas to St. Louis, Missouri) arrived in St. Louis on
February 3 with Union Pacific SD40-2 3833 and DASH 8-40C 9350 leading the
following units: B23-7s 110, 111, 114, 115, 138, 142, 143, 146, SP 5101,
5110 and B30-7s SP 7829, 7869, 7873. Metro East Industries in East St.
Louis, Illinois will strip the units of reusable parts and ready them for
construction at other facilities that Railpower has contracted to complete
the units.
Oak Creek Grows … Wisconsin Electric's Oak Creek, Wisconsin,
facility located just south of the Milwaukee area is currently expanding its
electrical generation capacity to 2,400 megawatts, creating the seventh
largest electric generating facility in the United States. As a result of
this, Union Pacific is upgrading its trackage on the Kenosha Subdivision
adjacent to the facility to handle the additional coal traffic needed once
the project is complete. Two new control points are being constructed, Tabor
(CPE067) and Oak Creek (CPE069) along with other track improvements to allow
longer trains to be operated. The additional electrical generation will be
phased in by 2010 and when complete, Union Pacific will deliver nine 135-car
coal trains weekly to Oak Creek, up from the five trains per week on average
operating today.
Power Shift … Union Pacific has recently shifted 106 ES44ACs
in the 5300 and 5400 class to I-5 corridor Distributed Power service,
displacing a like number of AC4400CWs in the 5700 and 5800 class. The
displaced AC4400CWs were reassigned to bulk service pulling coal trains. The
shift was made to get the Evolution units with Tier II emissions into
service in California where they can earn emissions credits with the
California Air Resources Board.
Rotaries In Action … Christmas and the New Year were not good
to the Union Pacific. Major winter blizzards hit New Mexico, Colorado,
Wyoming and western Kansas three times in a couple of weeks. On December 31,
2006 at about 7:00AM the UP's rotary snowplow 900082 departed Cheyenne for
Denver and parts east to plow the Limon Subdivision east of Denver,
Colorado. In addition to the Cheyenne rotary, former Southern Pacific rotary
SPMW 209 left Roseville behind two SD-70ACEs (UP 8359 and 8495) via the
Feather River Canyon, but was turned around before reaching Reno due to
clearance issues on the former Western Pacific route.
January 1, 2007 saw Union Pacific run its Cheyenne-based
rotary plow UP 900082 and a former Rio Grande Jordan Spreader DRGW AX-41
east on the Limon Subdivision. It took awhile for UP 900082 to get ready,
but once it was set and had a warrant; it was on the move east out of town.
The rotary plowed thru huge drifts into west central Kansas before being
returned to Cheyenne.
UP Rotary Snowplow 900082 was called again this time to go
west on January 8, 2007, from Cheyenne. It appears that a derailment at Rock
River stopped traffic which combined with strong winds to fill cuts up with
snow. The rotary went as far as Laramie, Wyoming on track three, then
returned on tracks one and two.
Shorts – On January 25, 2007, 46 cars of a 117 car loaded
Jefferies Energy Center unit coal train derailed on the east edge of Gibbon
Nebraska, blocking all three main lines. This is the second derailment in
the Gibbon area in the last 16 months. -Union Pacific, Trainorders.com,
KearneyHub.com, Brian Frierdich
May 2007: Kate Shelley Bridge to be Replaced
… In 1901, the Chicago Northwestern Railroad opened a bridge spanning the
Des Moines River west of Boone, Iowa, and later named the Kate Shelley
Bridge. The structure is the longest and tallest double track bridge in the
United States. The bridge is 186 feet high and consists of 39 deck plate
girders (total of 2386 feet); the main span (a deck pin truss) is 300 feet
in length, for a total length of 2686 feet. During the Chicago Northwestern
years only one train at a time was allowed to pass over this bridge. After
the merger into the Union Pacific the bridge was strengthened to allow two
trains to cross simultaneously, though speed restrictions remain on the
bridge. Now due to heavier trains and a substantial increase in traffic,
Union Pacific has started work to replace the Kate Shelley Bridge with a new
span adjacent to the old one. The dirt work has already started on the north
side of the existing bridge. To cut costs on the new structure, Union
Pacific removed the ballasted decks of the former Milwaukee Road Bridge over
the Des Moines River in Madrid, Iowa, and stored them in their Boone, Iowa,
yard. These sections will be reused on the new bridge. Currently the old
structure will be retained with at least one track retained. The second
right of way on the bridge may be converted to a maintainer's road.
Scheduled completion of the new bridge is expected to be in the fall of
2008.
Wisconsin Changes … Union Pacific is changing its train
schedules slightly on its Twin Cities to Chicago corridor. Train MSSPR
(South St. Paul, Minnesota-Proviso yard/Chicago) was cancelled and was
replaced by the MVPPR (Valley Park, Minnesota-Proviso yard/Chicago) train.
This train will consist of only Proviso bound cars. Traffic for Altoona,
Wisconsin, that was previously handled by MSSPR will now be handled by new
locals LTB60 (eastbound) and LTB61 (westbound) between South St. Paul,
Minnesota, and Altoona.
Motive Power News - The Union Pacific Railroad and General
Electric have teamed up to do a "Green Locomotive Technology Tour". This
tour will cover the major Union Pacific facilities in the state of
California during the month of February. At each stop the Union Pacific will
display two Evolution Series Diesels, a Genset switcher, an Oxicat switcher
and a DPF low horsepower yard locomotive. One of the most interesting
locomotives in this group is the UP 7605 Evolution Series locomotive that is
painted in a General Electric Demonstrator (Green/Blue/White) paint scheme
but numbered UP 7605. This locomotive is teamed up with UP 7606 in the
current Union Pacific (Flag/Lightning Stripe) paint scheme and there is
quite a contrast between the two locomotives.
During March and April, new SD70ACe's from UP's current order
for 100 locomotives continue to be shipped to various contract shops for
completion. UP 8529-8532 will be routed to Wisconsin and Southern's Horicon,
Wisconsin, paint booth for a coat of UP yellow prior to delivery to Union
Pacific. Last month's column listed the UP 8532 as one of the locomotives
scheduled to Mid America Car in Kansas City, Missouri, for paint, but has
changed to Horicon. -Dan Kwarciany, Trainorders.com, UPRR
