Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF Transcon Questions

I drove between Vaughn NM and Texico, NM along the BNSF transcon today. Only saw 3 trains, all westbounds, which surprised me. Thought there would be a lot more. However, between Clovis and Texico, I saw about 8 more either moving slowly or waiting. I think they were all westbound as well. Is this the common traffic pattern? Mostly westbounds on a Saturday afternoon? I think every train I saw was intermodal. Are there distinct patterns along the line, with much more traffic at certain times?

Other question is about the double tracking. I thought the Abo Canyon double tracking completed the double tracking from Chicago to LA. However, the Pecos River and the bridge over US 60 appeared to be single track. Are there other single track stretches left? Was I mistaken about that stretch being single track?

BlackWidow Wrote:
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> Other question is about the double tracking. I
> thought the Abo Canyon double tracking completed
> the double tracking from Chicago to LA. However,
> the Pecos River and the bridge over US 60 appeared
> to be single track. Are there other single track
> stretches left? Was I mistaken about that stretch
> being single track?

There are three single track segments remaining on the BNSF Transcon...by far they are not nearing as troublesome as Abo Canyon was:

1) Vaughn to Carnero, NM 9.3 miles. However this is a 10,665 foot siding in the middle. The reason this hasn't been double track is significant rocky cuts on the west end and major fill work west of Vaughn where the tracks cross over the UP Cotton Rock line.

2) Fort Sumner to CP 7197, NM 2.3 miles. The long Pecos River Bridge will require a expense second span. The BNSF has already done a similar bridge east at Canadian, TX over the Canadian River, so it isn't impossible, just expensive.

3) Sibley, MO 1.4 miles. The massive Missouri River Bridge would require a massively expensive second span. The cost on this would be huge and I have my doubts it will ever been double tracked.

On a side note, there is still single track between Ellinor and East Augusta, KS, however there is another route thru Newton, KS that allows directional running. This is a distance of about 41 miles with six long passing sidings.

Still 15 miles or so of single track between East Avard and Loder in Oklahoma...

And the Emporia Sub is single track from Ellinor to East Junction near Mulvane with a section of 2 main tracks between West Augusta and East El Dorado.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/12 23:24 by Milw_E70.

Milw_E70 Wrote:
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> Still 15 miles or so of single track between East
> Avard and Loder in Oklahoma...
>
> And the Emporia Sub is single track from Ellinor
> to East Junction near Mulvane with a section of 2
> main tracks between West Augusta and East El
> Dorado.

Crap, forgot about the Avard-Loder single track and single track between Augusta and East Junction. So that makes four true segments plus the Ellinor-West Junction segment that can be directionally run with train also using the line thru Newton.

It's been true single track a few times this year when work windows on the cutoff sent both east and westbounds via Newton. Coming over the UP diamond at Peabody on a westbound grain load and then crawling up the hill to Walton is fun...

Posted from iPhone

Traffic patterns on these transcon lines can be sporadic. BNSF and other RRs do not operate on a timetable. When I was working the old heads used to explain the long gaps waiting for the train to work home as being in the fruit stand business: The bananas come in bunches. A little dull humor for a long layover at the away from home terminal.

We just returned from a trip to Oregon back to Iowa and noticed the same thing on the UP mainline all along I-80. As we travelled, not stopping to take any photos, even my wife noted the gaps in trains. Then we would see a track gang with a line of machines. Even then the UP traffic did seem exceptionally slow.
We took a long break at the rest area in Echo Canyon. Not one train in over an hour. Then we continued east to find the track gang just getting in the clear. Further east we saw a rail grinding train on the main. Then when one of the tracks clear up the trains started rolling. Sometimes just one mainline will be open and they will "fleet" trains in one direction. So there could be long gaps of time between switching direction of traffic. If you know this will happen you can get into the best location for photos of trains going in that direction. Also listen to the radio channel for unusual comments about train crews going dead on the Law, or where they are parking the trains and tying them down (multiple hand brakes) to be relieved and picked up by a van. If you know the territory they could give a location of where the train is tied down to the DS or van driver.
Sometimes the best way to shoot is plan on several days to allow for these events and/or weather. A long weekend (Fri-Mon) can be good sometimes but recently they have been doing track work through a weekends for the big traveling gangs. Heavy train traffic requires heavy maintenance. When the trains do start flowing it is like street cars on main street; as soon as one train clears in the wide open west another head light appears.
If a train is stopped or a local crew is working an industry you might try starting a friendly conversation then ask what is going on. They might even volunteer some basic info if they notice you taking a photo of their train. Don't worry about getting run off, or yelled at, they are just doing what the management wants them to do. Just be safe, alert and courteous. If you have children with you do not let them play on or near the tracks, especially walking on the rail. We saw that on the UP main in Oregon as the 150th special was still a few miles away.
Steve Rippeteau

We were down in that area a few weeks ago and saw similar times of little action followed by times of parades of trains. It seems that at times the trains stack up outside of the crew change points of Amarillo and Clovis. That could have caused some of it. When we were headed east from Mountainair to Vaugh something happened with the track just west of Vaughn that stacked trains up in both directions for about 50 miles each way. It was a parking lot until we got much closer to Clovis and we finally started seeing movement again. We were on the road for 3 days from Wichita to Mountainair and saw just over 125 trains.

I would agree that while technically there is single track in KS through the flint hills they seem to be using the track through Wichita up to Newton for direction running quite a bit. About 3 years ago they completed a overpass through downtown Wichita eliminating a couple grade crossings and since then the traffic has really increased. Sitting at lunch on Friday I saw 4 trains in less than an hour.

I'm not sure why they've not double tracked that 15 mile segment in near Alva OK yet. There's not a lot out there to stop them so it seems a little odd they haven't opened that up as well.

Normal ebb and flow of the Transcon.

It's the conundrum that has always existed on the railroad:

An operations employee sees a railroad track and thinks, lets run trains on it, and then, when the trains go by, we'll put MofW to work.

A MofW employee sees a railroad track and thinks, lets work on it, and then, when we finish repairs, we'll run trains on it.

Since MofW crews work only days (usually) and train crews can work at all hours, the trend in recent years is for railroads to give track work priority over train operation during daylight hours. This minimizes the cost of work gangs sitting doing nothing while trains operate. OTOH, this makes for frequent waits for crews, increased overtime, more time away from home, and more night work. It also means less daylight train operation for photographers.

Daze

BlackWidow Wrote:
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> ... Are there distinct
> patterns along the line, with much more traffic at
> certain times?

If you think about it, traffic origination, especially domestic intermodal builds during the normal business week, so you peak around Friday night, then the volume of origination's drops off rapidly on the weekend. On certain lines, this gives a definite weekly cycle. I can't speak for the current situation on BNSF, but when I had some involvement with the ATSF Transcon a couple of decades ago, that was definitely the situation. You would expect the heavy train departures from Chicago and California on Fridays would lead to extremely heavy traffic in the middle of the Transcon on Saturday. But there's probably something to what others have said about trains bunching up.

bmalonef45 Wrote:
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> I'm not sure why they've not double tracked that
> 15 mile segment in near Alva OK yet. There's not a
> lot out there to stop them so it seems a little
> odd they haven't opened that up as well.

Repairs due to flood damage in the Midwest last summer ate up the double tracking budget. Supposedly, this section is in the budget again for 2015.

Bill G.
Tulsa, OK

Replying to bmalone154, TTownTrains Wrote:
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> Repairs due to flood damage in the Midwest last
> summer ate up the double tracking budget.
> Supposedly, this section is in the budget again
> for 2015.
>
Given that the segments at Vaughn, NM and the Pecos River Bridge reportedly handle 80-100 trains a day, and the segment east of Avard sees 50-60 trains a day, I'm surprised they aren't attacking the New Mexico segments before they turn the track construction gangs loose on Avard.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/12 13:34 by billio.

Thanks for all the responses! I will say the last time I went along there about 2 years ago, it was about 2:00 AM on a Monday morning and I saw 12-14 trains between Clovis and Ft. Sumner. Guess I got spoiled by that action. It is an amazing section of railroad.