JANUARY 1994 • ISSUE 362 $3.50 HIGHER in CANADA IL@�@Rnid@Ldiwce;

JANUARY 1994 • ISSUE 362 $3.50 HIGHER IN CANADA IL@�@rnID@Ldiwce; JPJf��Wcaly1fWcaJJm(Q)JID If you enjoy railroading, you should read L&RP. PACIFIC RAIL NEWS The Blizzard of '67 20 How Santa Fe kept its trains moving through snow-bound Arizona Gordon Glattenberg Beaumont & Beyond 26 Southern Pacific's oft-overlooked gateway to the Sunset Route Elrond G. Lawrence 3 Focus Missouri: BN's River Line 6 From famine to flood between Kansas City and St. Joe Carl Graves 4 Focus Illinois: Ie's Newton Branch 0 A thriving line serving the CIPSCO power plant Brian Carlson Wi scon sin & Calum et F9 No . 106 lead s a shor t fr eig ht on the BRC at31 st Street in Cic ero, II I. Mike Abalos PACIFIC RAILNEWS and PACIFIC NEWS are registered trademarks of Interurban Press (a California I DEPARTMENTS I Corporation), a subsidiary of Pentrex, Inc. 4 EXPEDITER 42 CN NORTH AMERICA PUBLISHER: Michael W. Clayton 6 REGIONALS 43 AMTRAK/PASSENGER ILLINOIS CENTRAL EDITOR: Don Gulbrandsen 9 SANTA FE 45 ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Andrew S. Nelson 10 BURLINGTON NORTHERN 46 UNION PACIFIC ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Carl Swanson SOUTHERN PACIFIC LINES SHORT LINES EDITORIAL CONSULTANT: Mac Sebree 12 47 IMAGES OF RAILROADING CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Elrond G. Lawrence 14 TRANSIT 48 CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Dick Stephenson 16 CP RAIL SYSTEM 54 THE LAST WORD CHICAGO NORTH WESTERN PRN CLASSIFIEDS ART DIRECTOR: Tom Danneman 18 & 55 36 FOCUS MISSOURI 55 PRN ADVERTISING INDEX ADVERTISING MANAGER: Richard Gruber 40 FOCUS ILLINOIS COVER: Co tton BeltGP40M 7292, leading an ea stbound drag , blasts up the Beaumon t Hill grad e throug h San Timo teo Canyon (b etw een Ordway and EI Ca sco )on a win ter morning in January 1993. Sou thern Pacific' s sp ec ta cu lar ga teway to the Sun set Rou te isof ten ov erlook ed by fa ns flocking to Cajon and Teha c ha pi . Elrond G. Lawrence PACIFIC RAILNEWS (ISSN 8750-8486) is published monthly by Interurban Press (a corporation), 2652 E. Walnut, Pasadena, CA 91107. Second· class postage paid at Glendale, CA 91209 and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: PACIFIC RAILNEws, P.O. Box 94911, Pasadena, CA 91109. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: S30 (U.S.) for 12 issues, S58 for 24 issues. Foreign add $6 for each 12 issues. Single copy S5 postpaid from Pasadena office (subject to change without notice). CHANGE OF ADDRESS: The Post Office does not regularly forward 2nd Class Mail and PACIFIC RAILNEWS is not responsible for copies not forwarded or destroyed by the Post Office. Replacement copieslP.O. notifications will be billed. Please allow us aL least four weeks for any address change. ADVERTISING RATES: Contact PACIFICRAILNEWS, P.O. Box 379, Waukesha, WI 53187: (414) 542-4900. MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE: For all subscription problems and inquiries call: (800) 899·8722 or outside U.S. (818) 793·3400. Union Pacific 's mechan callyi beleaguered E-uni ts hauled a series of execu ti ve specials across th e Pacif ic No rth west in Octobe r. The 95 1 is shown sou th of Melrose , Mont., on th e 1 1th, headed back to Poca tello af ter a tr ip up the Mon tana Subdivs ion to Silver Bo w, Mont. Armou r yellow tr ains also tr aveled to Eas tpor t, Idaho , and Sea ttle. Repor ts indica te th e Es la ter wen t back to VMV in Paducah, Ky., for mo re work. Kirk Petty HEAD-ON IN WASHINGTON volved were compressed into the collision. An official ruling STATE: At 12:25 a.ill. on Nov. the space of two units by the on the accident is expected in 11, a 117 -car southbound BN collision. More than 20 rail cars nine to 12 months. freight and and 83-car north spilled onto parallel Interstate ALAMEDA CORRIDOR TALKS bound UP NPSEZ collided 5, and 10,000-15,000 gallons of BACK ON: head-on near Longview Junc diesel fuel spilled onto the After a two-month tion, Wash., on BN's Seattle tracks and along the bank of hiatus, talks resumed between Portland main line. The wreck the Columbia River. the ports of Long Beach and • age was ignited by diesel fuel, At the time of the accident, Los Angeles and Southern Pa • creating a fireball that took fog limited visibility to three cific concerning purchase of the seven hours to contain. All five quarters of a mile. The estimat rail portion of the Alameda Cor crew members died. ed speed of both trains was be ridor Project. Haggling over SP's The eight locomotives in- tween 40-55 mph, less than the $260 million price tag and 60 mph allowed on this double whether or not there were "tox track, CTC route. A National ic surprises" along the right-of Transportation Safety Board in way had stopped the talks. Ac vestigation team tested two sig cording to SP Vice Chairmen nals protecting the crossover Robert Starzel, the price would north of accident site and found stand, although LA Deputy them to be in good working or Mayor Michael F. Keeley re der, implying the BN crew failed fused to comment on the nego to obey both an approach and a tiations, leading one to believe restrictive signal. The UP engi that price is still an issue. neer put his train into emergen The project could get a big cy a quarter mile from the point boost from a bill introduced in of impact, but there was no evi the California state legislature dence of the BN crew taking a that would grant tax-exempt similar action. NTSB officials status to the project, which were compiling 72-hour histo could save as many as two ries of the five crewmen killed, percentage points in interest and were investigating the BN rates on bonds sold to finance dispatcher's activities prior to the corridor. 4. JANUARY 19LLI94 SINGLE TRACK OVER THE SIERRA: Southern Pacific has aggressively started convert ing the maintenance-intensive Donner Pass line to a single track, CTC railroad between Colfax, Calif., and Sparks, Nev.-apparently giving up on trying to lure UP trains onto the route. To date, rail has been pulled between Norden, Calif., and Shed 47 (Track 1, which had been out of service for about a year) and between Emigrant Gap and Shed 10 (Track 2). Reports indicate that Shed 10-Norden will be the next segment single-tracked. The project will result in a one-time savings of $20 mil lion, with further savings in operating costs by the elimina tion of one track. SP is also considering single-tracking lines between Colfax and Rose ABOVE: Six of Ca lifornia North ville (if California decides not ern 's "n ew " locomot ives , ex to expand Amtrak Capitol Cor C& NW GP 15-1 s (n ote the nose ridor service to Colfax) and mounted be ll ), haul a loaded Sacramento and Martinez. be et train out of Te hama, Ca lif., Ironically, when the line over on Oct. 31 , 1993. SP hands the Donner Pass was double Klamath Valley be ets over to tracked in 1925, California's CF NR for a tr ip down the ex-SP population was a mere 5 mil West Va lley line to the process lion; it now has a population of ing plant at Hamilton Ci ty . Vic 31 million, but the importance Neves RIGHT: Twenty years ago , of the route has declined, as BN had F45s working all over its has the flow of traffic over the system, includ ing three units that ended up on the Wiscons in & line, which has dropped by 50 Southern. BN 's ongoing power percent over the last 10 years. shortage prompted the railroad During the 1980s, SP ran four to procure the WSOR F45s on daily perishables trains on the long-term lease. The 1001 is seen Overland Route-today there on tra in 662 in Vancouver , Wash., are none, as all the traffic has on Oct. 17, 1993. Greg Brown been lost to trucks. ICC BOWS OUT OF TRACK many small carriers from their BIG MACS AT LA GRANGE: Ont., for inspection by BN offi AGE RIGHTS DISPUTE: The Class I connections. Central During the weekend of Nov. cials. The units, 9401 and Interstate Commerce Commis Kansas Railway decided that 12-13, the first two of 350 BN 9402, are painted in a version sion voted to stand aside in the it would take the pressure off SD70MACs to be delivered of BN's dark green-and-cream long-running dispute between both itself and its customers through 1997 (eight of which executive paint scheme that is St. Louis Southwestern (SP) this fall by purchasing 125 may be on the property by the now worn by F-units BN-1 and and Union Pacific concerning used covered grain hoppers, end of 1993), showed up at BN-2 and E-unit BN-3. Number the amount SP must pay UP for freeing it from an often tenu Electro-Motive Division's La 9402 was scheduled to work trackage rights between St. ous Class I car supply. Most of Grange, Ill., facility from west toward Pueblo, Colo., on Louis and Kansas City. The 3-2 the cars will not leave CFR EMD's main plant in London, train 63 on Nov. 16. PRN decision means the dispute property, but will be used to will be settled by a federal dis move grain to points along the trict court Nebraska. SP also railway's lines, though some wants a ruling on its complaint may make it over to sister that UP has denied it equal ac road Kansas Southwestern.

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