Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF, Crawford Hill, Alliance Trip questions

Well, I was going to go to the KCS in Sept., but we decided to do a better trip. e are going to fly into Denver, head north to Cheyenne, then make our way up to the Powder River(Orin Sub) Basin. We then plan to head south east following the BNSF from Donkey Creek to Crawford Hill and will be staying at the Ponderosa Ranch for 2 Days. We will then be heading east along the BNSF towards Hyannis, NE then beeline it south to O'Fallons, NE then west towards Cheyenne again. We will be doing this in 8 days which I think is ample amount of time to cover a tremendous amount of train traffic.
I have a few questions for the wise:

1. What is the BNSF subdivision that runs north from Cheyenne to Orin?

2. Is there a fair amount of traffic on this line?

3. What is the BNSF division called from Donkey Creek, WY to Alliance, NE

4. What is the BNSF division called from Alliance, NE, Grand Island, NE

5. When we get down to Ofallon's, NE what would be a better choice as in scenery and action, (a) chase the UP line Northwest towards the Powder River or (b) chase the Trans-Con back to Cheyenne

I have never been here before so any help with anything or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. You can email me at dozermand6@rcn.com

Thanks! Tim

Tim;
The BNSF line from Denver north through Cheyenne has sparse traffic compared to other main lines until you get to Wendover Junction where the line from Gurnsey joins in going north to the Powder River line. They run a coal train to Rawhide Plant near Wellington, CO and a tank train of sulphur south with sporatic general freight and an occasional stacker. There definitely is some fantastic scenery along this line up north and you can follow it on a state highway from Horse Creek to Chugwater and then back onto I-25.
As for the UP coal main, the scenery is sporatic west of North Platte/ O'Fallons until you get up around the Gering/Scottsbluff area. The regular UP main line has some neat locations if you like some old grain elevators for background until you get up out of the South Platte Valley and then occasionally you get some Cliffs for backdrops around the Sidney/Potter area. However, you do get the better frequency of trains, especially toward the weekends when the mainline can be extremely busy. Also there is Sidney south to Sterling on the BNSF line to Denver with much of their Denver bound coal traffic.
Bob Krieger
UP retired
Cheyenne

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

tchowee Wrote:


>
> 3. What is the BNSF division called from Donkey
> Creek, WY to Alliance, NE

Donkey Creek to Edgemont, SD (a crew change point) is the Black Hills Sub and Edgemont to Alliance over Crawford Hill is the Butte Sub. I should note that there are plans in the works right now to run-through Edgemont in July, but we'll see if that actually happens!


>
> 4. What is the BNSF division called from
> Alliance, NE, Grand Island, NE
>

Alliance to Ravenna, NE (crew change point) is the Sand Hills Sub and Ravenna to Grand Island (and into Lincoln) is the Ravenna Sub.

Sounds like a GREAT trip!

Tom

>I should note that there are plans in the works right now to run-through Edgemont in July, but we'll see if that actually happens!

Well I hope they have better luck than the two different times they've tried running thru from Sheridan to Edgemont. They tried that for two short periods several years ago. I think they ended up dog catching 30-50% of they crews. That didn't work so I guess they are going to try it the other way. Aren't they going to have to buy an awful lot of houses in Edgemont that will never re-sell? If they CLOSE a line they don't have to but if they simply run thru a terminal I believe the agreement calls for it?

wyeng Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> >I should note that there are plans in the works
> right now to run-through Edgemont in July, but
> we'll see if that actually happens!
>
> Aren't they going to have to buy an
> awful lot of houses in Edgemont that will never
> re-sell? If they CLOSE a line they don't have to
> but if they simply run thru a terminal I believe
> the agreement calls for it?

just curious, if the carrier kept just 1 job in edgemont (yard, xtra board, etc.), wouldn't they get out of buying back any houses?

66

>if the carrier kept just 1 job in edgemont (yard, xtra board, etc.), wouldn't they get out of buying back any houses?

No. Not if the agreement now in effect is the same as the one we had 20 years ago. If the carrier runs thru a home terminal then they gotta buy the unsold houses of crewmen who can no longe hold a job there. It doesn't matter if they leave a few jobs there. The only way the carrier did not have to buy unsold crewmen houses was if they closed down the line completely. This is why when most run-thru pools were put into effect they usually ran thru the away-from-home terminals and made it a double ended pool instead of running thru a home terminal. Unless it was a very small terminal with perhaps only 2 or 3 crews the costs of buying houses in a small town was too high to make the run thru pay off.

However I don't know how that agreement effects newer employees. Post 1985 employees can be forced just about anywhere so perhaps almost all of us old geezers from Alliance-Edgemont-Sheridan are gone now so it is no longer a problem for the carrier.

By the way... Edgemont was a Sheridan seniority terminal NOT an Alliance seniority terminal even though Alliance was 110 miles away and Sheridan was 225 miles. But that only applies to pre 1975 employees.

There are quite a number of Edgemont hogheads who live up in the Hills
and like it so, this might be bloody.

If you are going this month or next, be prepared for pretty sloppy roads around Crawford. Anything not paved will be muddy and bumpy.

run thru edgemont lol they said that back in the 70s they could if they could remove crawford hill or just add 4 headend 4 cut in 3 rear...and edgemont crews some times take 12hr going from the mines to edgemont