MAY 1993 • ISSUE 354 $3.50 HIGHER IN CANADA . S . and Denver & Rio Grande ted long and colorful histories a . independent railroads, but the last few years have been a challenge for the combi e SP Lines. Is his the end of the line for Sp, or is it the start of an exciting new era? SP TODAY is an all-new publication that profiles Southern Pacific in the 1990s-a railroad with..new business, new directions and a new image. SP TODAY fol­ lows the tradition of the popular RAILS WEST annuals. Comprehensive, authorita­ tive text tells the SP story, supported by a dramatic aE;sortment of nearly 100 color and black and white photos. Chapters detail new business, the Central Corridor, railroading in Cotton Belt territory, 1990s passenger operations and motive power, including a detailed, up-to-date roster summary). Compiled and edited by Dick Stephenson -PACIFIC RAILNEWS staff editor and life­ long SP fan-SP TODAY offers a revealing look at America's most compelling rail­ road. It remains to be seen whether Southern Pacific's gamble is going to pay off, but it's a sure bet that SP TODAY is a volume that every serious rail enthusiast, and professional, should own. • A special edition of PACIFIC RAILNEWS. • Soft-cover; 64 pages (half in color). • Available in April 1993. • Only $9.95! Direct orders add $2 shipping/handling. California residents add 82(t sales tax. Look for this special publication at your local book/hobby retailer or order direct. Call now toll-free to order your copy using your Master Card or VISA. 1-800-899-8722 (9 a.m.-5 p.m. Pacific time, M-F). Outside continental U.S. call (818) 240-9130. FAX (818) 240-5436. INTERURBAN PRESS • P.O. Box 6128 • Glendale, CA 91225 PACIFIC RAILNEWS Trona Railway: Short Line in Transition California's desert mineral hauler contemplates expansion 1 6 Wayne Monger I. Meadow Valley Memories Three decades of railroading on the Union Pacific in Nevada 20 Gordon Glattenberg DW&P: Birth of a Steel Freeway 8 Northwoods logger evolves into a key link in the CN system A 2 Jason Davis Focus Missouri: K.C.'s North End 38 Mergers and coal trains revive a slumbering corner of the city Wayne Kuchinsky Images: Big Sky Country Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific 5906 departs the north end of Steelton (Minn.) Siding on July 6, 1990. Mel Finzer 48 20th Century technology meets the Old West in Montana and are registered trademarks PACIFICof Interur RA/lNEWSban Press, a PACIFICCalifornia NEWS Corporation. I DEPARTMENTS I PUBLISHER: Mac Sebree 4 EXPEDITER 40 SANTA FE EDITOR: Don Gulbrandsen ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Andrew S. Nelson 6 BURLINGTON NORTHERN 42 CP RAIL SYSTEM ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Carl Swanson 8 SOUTHERN PACIFIC 43 AMTRAK/PASSENGER CONTRI BUTING EDITOR: Elrond G. Lawrence 10 TRANSIT 45 ILLINOIS CENTRAL EDITORIAL CONSULTANT: Dick Stephenson 11 SHORT LINES 46 CHICAGO & NORTH WESTERN ART DIREC TOR: Tom Danneman 12 UNION PACIFIC 48 IMAGES OF RAILROADING ADVERTISING MANAGER: Richard Gruber 14 REGIONALS 54 THE LAST WORD CIRCULATION MANAGER: Bob Schneider 15 CN NORTH AMERICA 55 PRN CLASSIFIEDS © 1993 INTERURBANPRESS 38 FOCUS MISSOURI 55 PRN ADVERTISING INDEX Mac Sebree, President/CEO Jim Walker. Senior Vice President Don Gulbrandsen, Vice President COVER: Union Pacific 942, leading mail train No. 5, accelerates after a station stop in Caliente, Nev., on July 2, 1967. Starting on page 20, take a three decade trip down UP's Los Angeles & Salt Lake line, a memory-filled tour of rainbow canyons populated by a generation of locomotives now relegated to history books. Gordon Glattenberg PACIFIC RAn.NEWS (ISSN 8750-8486) is published monthly by Interurban Press (a corporation), 1741 Gardena Ave.. Glendale, CA 91204. Second-class postage paid at Glendale. CA 91209 and additional mailing of­ fices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: PAClFlCRAn.NEWS, P.O. Box 6128. Glendale. CA 91225. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: S30 (U.S.) for 12 issues, $58 for 24 issues. Foreign add $6 for each 12 issues. Single copy 55 postpaid from Glendale 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 copieslPO notifications will be billed. Please allow us at least four weeks for any address change. ADVERTISING RATES: Contact Interurban Press. P.O. Box 379. Waukesha, Wl 53187; (414) 542-4900. MAGAZINE SUBSCRIPTIONSERVICE: For all subscription problems and inquiries call: (800) 899-8722 or outside U.S. (818) 240-9130 A derailment on the Union Pacific near Platteville, Colo., forced passenger varnish to venture onto an un­ likely line. On Jan. 24, 1993, Amtrak's westbound Pioneer departed Denver for Cheyenne on Burlington Northern's circuitous and grade-heavy ex-Colorado & Southern route along the Front Range. Number 25 is shown passing the Va l mont Power Plant near Boulder, Colo.; it was the only train detoured. Edinger c.w. METROLINK RIDERSHIP UP: midday FlexTrains on all lines the Kansas River. A high-wide Metrolink ridership was 67 per­ on Feb. 22. Passenger trips load on a westbound Soo/CP cent higher in February com­ during the 9 a.m.-3 p.m. period train derailed on the structure's pared to November 1992, the have attracted about 330 total lower level and was dragged first full month of service. "This trips each weekday. into a support pier; as a result, indicates we are changing atti­ 75 feet of the upper level col­ tudes about the way Southern ANOTHER UP SPINOFF: On lapsed. An SP drag approaching Californians move within the re­ March 24, Union Pacific an­ the collapsed section was able z gion," said Richard Stanger, ex­ nounced plans to lease 250 to stop and avoid an even larg­ z ecutive director of the SCRRA. miles of branch lines to the er accident. Clean-up crews Metrolink officials attributed the newly formed Nebraska Cen­ had the lower section of the growth to an increased aware­ tral Railroad, based in Colum­ bridge opened by the following ness of the system and improve­ bus, Neb. The lease package evening, but the fate of the up­ ments in service. An extension includes the 62-mile Stromberg per level of the busy bridge is of the San Bernardino line and Branch from Central City to unknown. The line closing, plus the opening of the downtown Brainard, the 48-mile Norfolk standing orders to walk all Los Angeles Red Line subway Branch from Columbus to Nor­ trains with high-wide loads have also made the system folk, the 35-mile Albion Branch through the bridge is snarling more attractive. from Oconee to Albion, the rail traffic in Kansas City. In February, passenger trips Cedar Rapids Branch from made on Metrolink averaged Genoa to Spalding and the 60- ALAMEDA AND THE ICC: The 4,385 per day, for a monthly to­ mile Ord Branch from Grand Is­ chairman of California's Trans­ tal of 80,047. That compares land to Ord. Additionally, UP portation Commission wants with a November daily average will provide trackage rights the Interstate Commerce Com­ of 2,397 and 47,940 for the over its main between Central mission to determine the dollar month. Summarizing February City and Grand Island. value on the planned 18-mile performance on the three lines: truck-rail Alameda Corridor Ventura County 35,622, up 65 K.C. BRIDGE COLLAPSE: On from Los Angeles to Long percent; San Bernardino 32,460, March 13, a minor derailment Beach and Los Angeles har­ up 68 percent; and Santa Clari­ led to the collapse of a portion bors, one of the nation's largest ta 11,925, up 70 percent. of Kansas City Terminal's intermodal infrastructure pro­ LLI Metrolink started running famed double-deck bridge over jects. And the center of this dis- 4. MAY 1993 pute is, not surprisingly, South­ ern Pacific, which owns most the proposed corridor property. SP has reportedly asked for as much as $300 million for its property ; the ports have offered about $125 million. Negotia­ tions have being ongoing for more than two years; if no mid­ dle ground is found within three months , litigation will be­ come more likely. Whether the ICC gets in­ volved remains to be seen, but these scenarios are possible: ICC could wrest the track away from SP, invoking a procedure known as "adverse abandon­ ment; " the commission could just stay out of the way and let California'S courts decide the issue ; or the harbor proponents could petition the ICC under an "access to terminals" provision Alco-powered short line Apache Railway has completed painting all of its locomotives into a new that would force SP to share scheme. On Feb. 4, 1993, an all-green-and-white lash-up (C-420s 81, 82 and 84, and RS-36 900) climbs the line with its competitors. up the grade out of Holbrook, Ariz., with 71 cars in tow at a steady 15 mph. Kel Aiken ILLINOIS CENTRAL NAMES NEW CEO: E. Hunter Harrison, Probably the biggest change to make a daily service for with its decision to pull out of 48, has replaced Edward L. proposed is a two-mile connec­ farmers, but they show up and the Grays Harbor Deeper Moyers as Illinois Central's tion from WAND at North you can't say no," said Wicker­ Draft channel improvement president and chief executive Bessemer to Wisconsin Cen­ sham. "We're real happy to be project. UP is concerned officer. Harrison has inherited a tral's White Pine Subdivision, able to do it.