Passenger Trains > Raton sub rail gang

Started yesterday at LaJunta. Miscellaneous sticks laid all the way to Wagon Mound. Some ties as well. Work train left rail train at Las Vegas and returned with tie car train yesterday.
May or may not get in the way over the coming weeks. Lot of sidings OOS or stored cars blocking them.

Posted from iPhone

Levy NM over Memorial Day Weekend.

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Hooray.  Good to see significant maintenance on this Sub.

A lot better than the numerous slow orders that always happened, plus the worse was the so called "Official" announcement that the Chief was moving the cutoff not knowing that BNSF would not deal with the Chief everyday! Anyone know if Airline Boy is gonna try this manuver again like he did (With so called evidence to back up) last year?

That is a lot of ties.  It looks like they have enough ties there to replace almost everyone of them in that area.  Is the rail new?  Is this just for Amtrak or does BNSF have some other plan for the line?

Todd Clark
Canyon Country, CA
Trainorders.com

tiger grant for amtrak

Todd: I will go out on a limb and say the entire Railfan community would love to see another plan for this line from BNSF. But my understanding is this work is a result of a TIGER grant specifically for the benefit of the SW Chief. I am sure there are others in the know that can provide further enlightenment to this story

Posted from iPhone

Are there any "through freights" that use this route anymore - from New Mexico to Colorado? As much as we'd like to think of this route as an alternative for BNSF - in case the Amarillo route becomes blocked - I just don't see this in the cards any more. 

It is nice to see that work is going to be done on the line. Will any of the sidings be restored or worked on? I would think they've got to be VERY low on the priority list and if possible, not being done. 

no freight traffic or OCS right now, you cAN SEE TIES alonG  the sidings too, so i assume they are getting work

The ties in the sidings still had a few date nails and Santa Fe tie plates.
Can’t recall the years. 67 maybe.

Posted from iPhone



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/19 09:52 by howeld.

In the photo above, even though there are new ties alongside the siding, it appears that rails have been removed from the siding, nearest the photographer, in the curve.  Is that so??  Or maybe some ballast was dumped on the tracks and covering the rails there...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/15/19 11:42 by coach.

coach Wrote:
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> In the photo above, even though there are new ties
> alongside the siding, it appears that rails have
> been removed from the siding, nearest the
> photographer, in the curve.  Is that so??  Or
> maybe some ballast was dumped on the tracks and
> covering the rails there...

Santa Fe typically put a jog at the end of the siding, so I think a pile of ballast makes it appear that the siding has been cut.
 

coach Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In the photo above, even though there are new ties
> alongside the siding, it appears that rails have
> been removed from the siding, nearest the
> photographer, in the curve.  Is that so??  Or
> maybe some ballast was dumped on the tracks and
> covering the rails there...

Rails on the siding at Levy are in place. That’s a private ballast crossing for the ranchers that makes it appear the rails are missing

Posted from iPhone

Look at those semaphores too! I still can remember hearing from an engineer on the Southwest Chief around 2000 that "all those will be gone in about a year." Course, what was going was the freight traffic!

Thanks for sharing. With as few trains there are on the railroad I'm suprised more sidings haven't been yanked out. 

Victor A. Baird
http://www.erstwhilepublications.com

jp1822 Wrote:
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Will any of the sidings be restored or
> worked on? I would think they've got to be VERY
> low on the priority list and if possible, not
> being done. 

As I understand there are 4 sidings that are being rebuilt and will be used for meets between #3  and # 4.  They will be spaced  by 30-40 minutes running time apart.  These will be existing sidings only,  None will be brand new.


John

 

4 sidings, about a third of them?

Most the date nails are 30-40s. Then a jump to 56-57.
Levy needed a lot of help. Think one of the switches got some attention as well.

No they aren’t going to run freight trains. Double stacks don’t fit and there are train length/tonnage restrictions over the hill.
Crew start metrics would be shattered with doubling trains over the hill and pusher crews. Power desk would have heart failure letting engines sit in one location longer than 2 hours.