As I came to work today, I noticed piles of ties along the RoW near the top of Rolla Hill just west of Coleman cut. My son saw a road-rail truck pulling a few hoppers, I guess (only a guess) of ballast.
There have been several trains of track construction equipment on flatcars pass through Kirkwood during the past week. There may be a connection. Keep us posted on what you see.
Piles of ties now all through Coleman cut and along the tracks all the way to Hwy 63--maybe beyond, but I didn't get that far today.
The gangs have reached us here in Rolla. Piles of new ties are disappearing; piles of ratty old ones appearing. And I do mean RATTY! The work looks overdue.
Very glad to see they are continuing to invest in the line! For a while back about ~20 years ago, the old Eastern Division was in jeopardy per my understanding. About that time, I sat next to a BNSF operations VP on a flight from Mexico City to Dallas, where he lived. I asked about the old Frisco line and its future. He advised me they value it quite a bit - its normal traffic provided an OK amount of business, but the line is of considerable strategic value if BNSF suffers damage from natural or man-made disasters to their mid-west/south-west routes. Somewhat later, my wife and I drove down to Rolla for a Chemical Engineering Academy meeting. I noticed the BNSF was changing out the Frisco searchlight block signals for a more modern system. I guess the guy was right! K
It's also critical to the mass movement of military equipment to Fort Leonard Wood, even if those moves are infrequent. Pat Moreland, Wesco, MO
#1 Son says track gangs were all lined up on the siding in Rolla about 0600 today getting ready to start continuing moving east.
