High Winds and Blizzard conditions have closed BNSF's Transcon from Clovis, NM eastward. Train B-PHXCHI4-25 has derailed on the Hereford Subdivision, and a vehicle is stuck on the tracks at another location. Crews are unable to access either location for the moment.
So is this going to start a rant about Raton not a reliable alternative due to no qualified crews ?
It happens. Life goes on. (fortunately it happened after x-mas) Even in the best times in the 1980's, only a few very high priority trains would detour over the hill. They'd get over the hill only to be challenged by weather east of Newton this time around.
Would wonder if the Cotton Rock is in a similar scenario?
Considering the location of the Cotton Rock, I'd be quite surprised if it wasn't. Most weather reports that I've seen show at least two feet of snow and massive drifts all over eastern New Mexico and the Panhandles.
Now reported to be 86 trains tied down due to the closure of the Clovis Sub(Belen to Clovis) and the Hereford Sub(Clovis to Amarillo). Part of a parked BNSF Intermodal train has toppled into the river near Neosho, MO due to rising flood waters. Both BNSF and UP closed along the Mississippi River south of St. Louis due to flooding with crest not expected until Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Its getting ugly out there.
Some of the reports coming out of Clovis are a little scary...people struggling to get to the yard office from out in the yard in white-out blizard conditions
anyone for a motor car trip ( Dodge City to LJ) like was done in 1956 after the turnover of the passenger train at Redondo Jct. Conditions not as bad as are now reported but we had to inspect and report that the YELLOW BOARD speed restrictions were properly in place. It was zero with wind and poor visibility but we were out there, stopping at every station (all open) to warm up and get a new lineup. Good old days!!!
diningcar (12-28): “Toothpicks in One’s Eyes Express”
Oh, diningcar, your post sounds like you’ve just gotten off duty after a 16-hour train run (that was the ‘law’ back in 1956), totally in a zombie state!
I would venture to say most readers of this thread became totally baffled about where the off-topic “Redondo Jct.” is at. For those that are baffled, Redondo Jct. is a few miles south of Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal (LAUPT) in Los Angeles, CA, and your reference to 1956 concerned a two-RDC cars train that flipped at high speed on a 15 M.P.H. curve near a tower there.
I remember reading the Federal investigation report on that incident, and the crew remembered seeing orange groves just before the wreck. I’ve often wondered if the train went through a deliberately set untraceable cloud of hallucinogenic gas. I take it on your trip in the Redondo Jct. area (before you worked on the Crookton Cutoff line relocation in Arizona) was as an AT&SF employee, correct?
Anyway, I got the feeling the trip you proposed in New Mexico-Kansas (?) would be a lot colder than the coldest weather here in Southern California. Outside of the coldness, your proposal sound quite inviting.
Stay WARM,
K.P.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.
Mr. KP, Perhaps I should have addded additional descriptive wording, although I am sure MC knew what I was saying.
Yes, I was a Santa Fe Engineering Dept. employee on the Colorado Division in 1956. We were tasked with riding a motor car, the one cylinder put put M-19, between Dodge City, KS and La Junta, CO (202 miles) to verify that the YELLOW BOARD speed restriction signs were up and correctly placed. We presumed that there was an over-reaction by the Operation VP that the mistake made a few days earlier at Redondo Jct, CA was due to not observing a YELLOW BOARD.
Anyway it was colder then a well diggers *** in the Klondike but we indured.
MC knows of what DC speaks of (both are Chico's orphans, careers overlapped for about 6 years)...worked on both ends of that story following in DC's footsteps. Reacting to operating knee-jerk reactions came with the turf along with documenting sign locations (back to posted "switching limits" OP) to undo the conniving games of some in the operating crafts.)...I can visualize DC, John Harsh, Chubby Durbin and the others getting "frosted" out on the old First District of the old Western (Syracuse KS) and Colorado (La Junta/Pueblo) Divisions. When a General Manager or higher pushed the panic buttons, the fur really flew. I, fortunately, had a very limited exposure to the one lung-ers and that game of chicken with TCO's, limited-or-no radios and motorcar indicators.
mudchicken MC knows of what DC speaks of (both are Chico's orphans, careers overlapped for about 6 years)...worked on both ends of that story following in DC's footsteps. Reacting to operating knee-jerk reactions came with the turf along with documenting sign locations (back to posted "switching limits" OP) to undo the conniving games of some in the operating crafts.)...I can visualize DC, John Harsh, Chubby Durbin and the others getting "frosted" out on the old First District of the old Western (Syracuse KS) and Colorado (La Junta/Pueblo) Divisions. When a General Manager or higher pushed the panic buttons, the fur really flew. I, fortunately, had a very limited exposure to the one lung-ers and that game of chicken with TCO's, limited-or-no radios and motorcar indicators.
Railroad version of Russian Roulette - operating a high rail or other railbound vehicle on a Track Car Line Up.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
diningcar: Speaking of Dodge City and blizzards ... were you around those parts for the March 23-25, 1957 storm? Shut down the "Passenger Transcon" (Super Chief, El Cap, etc.) for three days. IIRC, Chief derailed (low speed) in the drifts at the east end of the Dodge City yard. Lots of stories out of that blizzard.
466lex, I had been promoted and was on the New Mexico Division with headquarters at Las Vegas so I missed that one, although we had part of it in MN.
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