Western Railroad Discussion > BNSF Forsyth massive rock/mud slide

Near Gantt a tall cliff on the south side of the grade mp 86.9 has slid out below, alongside and above the mainline. Nearly 20 trains are blocked and repairs are not going well due to the soggy clay nature of the hillside. Stabilization may take days more. Some EB trains may be turned back towards Sheridan for detours.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/06/20 11:01 by fbe.

https://billingsgazette.com/news/state-and-regional/landslide-blocks-bnsf-railway-near-miles-city/article_55c20049-9237-556d-8c99-f2bb9379fc80.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_Billings_Gazette&fbclid=IwAR2fQ7lNS5qEUtNs1hcq7RbpOBs59Ran4mQh2njLAY0px2SJ9aMPSnP_aIg

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Proves that a picture is worth a thousand words. Thanks for your efforts. 

Maybe Hi-Line Marias reroutes.

A bucket at a time will take a while. 
As soon as they can they need a serious dirt spread with earth movers and haul roads coming down from above.
And maybe some drain pipes bored horizontally into the hillside to lower the water content and firm up the soil.
I wonder how much trouble property acquisitions are there?

Uh, someone want to get out there and tell that hill to stop? The real fix to this looks pretty major.

Out 

jayman Wrote:
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> Maybe Hi-Line Marias reroutes.

these tracks carry mostly coal trains headed east, some grain. A merchandise train each way. Hiline can't help that.

BB

Re-route the trains over the Milwaukee Road.  

Oh, wait.  

railstiesballast Wrote:
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> A bucket at a time will take a while. 
> As soon as they can they need a serious dirt
> spread with earth movers and haul roads coming
> down from above.
> And maybe some drain pipes bored horizontally into
> the hillside to lower the water content and firm
> up the soil.
> I wonder how much trouble property acquisitions
> are there?

LOL.  More like six buckets and a dozer!  Reroutes of the coal trains would probably go west to Huntley then south through Alliance if this is west
of the Snowden connector.  My brain is really fuzzy about this area.  

Nick Tharalson,
Marion, IA

Agree there's so many things wrong about the hillside, but they probably have hundreds of miles of similar slopes without any trouble.

At least they did not find the slide the hard way....