BNSF greenlights second Idaho bridge
Preparation for a long-anticipated second bridge across Lake Pend Oreille at Sandpoint, Idaho, has been given the go-ahead by BNSF Railway.
Preparation for a long-anticipated second bridge across Lake Pend Oreille at Sandpoint, Idaho, has been given the go-ahead by BNSF Railway.
What has been will be again; what has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time. No one remembers the former generations, and even those yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow them. Ecclesiastes 1: 9-14.
Deep snowpack at higher elevations, an early spring thaw, and heavy rainfall are severely affecting rail lines in the Pacific Northwest, particularly in the panhandle of northern Idaho.
A terminal serving the crude oil industry is offering help for drought-stricken California.
Can exports revive North America’s crude-by-rail and coal?
A Union Pacific train carrying 96 carloads of Bakken crude to a refinery in Tacoma, Wash., derailed in Mosier, Ore., on June 3.
From the May 2016 issue of Railway Age: Specialized equipment and training help protect assets from wildfire damage. Every summer, particularly in the Western U.S. and Canada, fires triggered by lightning or human activity are an ordinary occurrence. During recent summers, however, wildfires have put railroads increasingly in the crosshairs.
April 2016 will be remembered decades from now as the month when Rollin Bredenberg retired as V.P., Capacity Planning & Operations Research at BNSF Railway.
An assistant to the president of the Westinghouse Air Brake Company once said, “… let us direct our thoughts toward what would be required in the way of equipment or system for the safe operation of a train with no person at the controls. It is obvious that such a step must be made if we are to approach crewless train operation. It is equally obvious that the crewless train would have no one to look at wayside signals and therefore we should begin thinking in terms of an overall system that does not require wayside signals.”
Aside from unconfirmed reports of isolated tie damage to one Idaho short line, and moments of suspended service on both short lines and Class Is, the dozens of wildfires raging throughout the Northwest have, so far, caused no widespread damage to railway property. That’s remarkable considering the fact that one of the fires, the more than 280,000-acre Okanogan Complex in north central Washington, has been deemed that state’s largest wildfire in recorded history and is currently considered the number one fire priority in the nation. More than 1,200 firefighters are tackling that blaze alone, coming from as far away as Arizona, the East Coast, Australia, and New Zealand.