BNSF testing double-length grain trains
BNSF is experimenting with the process of combining two empty unit grain trains into one and sending the double-length train east out of Auburn, Wash., over Stampede Pass.
BNSF is experimenting with the process of combining two empty unit grain trains into one and sending the double-length train east out of Auburn, Wash., over Stampede Pass.
The past two decades have been a time of steady growth for Union Pacific’s only route to the Canadian border, running from Hinkle, Ore., north through Spokane, Wash., to Eastport, Idaho. Capacity improvements performed over the past several years, and more scheduled for 2019, are evidence of UP’s commitment to accommodate new business through this seldom-mentioned international gateway.
To an industry that routinely faces the aftermath of flooding, mudslides, avalanches, hurricanes and even earthquakes, the concept of service disruption due to an erupting volcano seems almost unthinkable. But according to a recent study, and judging by the not-so-distant history of volcanoes in the U.S., some railroads are in fact quite vulnerable to such disasters, particularly in the Pacific Northwest.
Forty-five years of Gem State safety effort is reaffirmed by crew members and state troopers climbing aboard a pair of Union Pacific locomotives at Coeur d’Alene Junction, Idaho, on the morning of Sept. 13, 2017.
An aviation milestone has been achieved thanks to a half-century of railroad transport. Spirit AeroSystems announced on Feb. 14 that the 10,000th 737 fuselage had left its factory in Wichita, Kans., and was en route by rail to Boeing’s massive assembly plant in Renton, Wash.
BNSF has honored three generations of railroaders with a new siding in Washington State.
As I stated in my blog about Hunter Harrison earlier this year, the numerical “success” he was credited with during his time at Canadian Pacific would not have been possible without the hard work, tough decisions, and massive investments in property made by his predecessors.
Track projects this summer in northern Idaho are expanding capacity on a busy segment of BNSF’s Northern Corridor, and upgrading conditions on Union Pacific’s route to the Canadian border.
Oct. 31, 2017 marks the 30th anniversary for Montana Rail Link, a Class II regional operating more than 900 miles of main line and branch trackage from Jones Junction (Huntley), Mont., west to Sandpoint, Idaho, with trackage rights beyond Sandpoint to Spokane, Wash., over BNSF.
Railroads and their customers must not leave fate in the hands of a misinformed public.