Went by the bridge today on the way to Rapid City........work is seriously underway. The site looks like a pin cushion with all the crane booms sticking up. But I have a question that doesn't directly concern the bridge. There were 4 Boeing fuselage cars (loaded), 3 about a mile east, and 1 about a mile west. At each site there were 4 very large cranes with some sort of lifting harnesses ( an inverted Y with 2 long cables hanging from the lower legs of the Y). I wasn't very close and doing 80 mph, so I couldn't tell if the cables were going to the fuselage or to the flatcar. Any idea what they might be trying to do? The fuselages appeared to still be solidly on their mounts, and the cars appeared to still be on the tracks (although maybe they weren't previously). Seems odd........normally the cars run in blocks, and for them to be in the locations they are, the cars that went into the river would have had to be between them. And derailments in 2 spots seems odd as well. Could they be trying to unload the planes.......that seems unlikely and a lot of work, when it appeared the cars could still be moved......the west car down it's normal route, and the 3 east cars back to Laurel and up the highline route.
Interesting question. I will ask that freind of mine. It maybe that the tunnel at Flathead is unable to take the fuselages. If that is the case, then being these are a high value load, they maybe be craning them over the river. That would be intriguing!
Read an article a couple of days ago - the article stated that the fuselages were going to be transported over the highway for a short distance somewhere to get them around a clearance obstacle on one of the available detour routes and they would be reloaded to rail for the balance of their journey to destination. I don't have a link to the article.
There are clearance issues on the line between Great Falls and Laurel. This is the fastest method for getting the fuselages past the river. Although it must be costing a few dollars......
I was wondering if that was what they were trying........so the one on the west has already been moved and the other 3 are in waiting........it would only be about a 2 mile trip down I90, but there are no exits so they would have to go into the ditch at some point on each end. I'll be headed back on Wednesday.......I'll see where everything is then.
Agreed. I have been wondering who is footing the bill. Insurance? Kinda doubt it. Boeing? Well, they might be helping a bit, but... MRL may go out with a financial whimper.
Yeah. Seen a small story the other day somewhere, the MRL employees are worried about early furloughs now, since all this is happening.
Some are going to go over to BNSF. Some are going to retire, of those some already have done so. Some are moving elsewhere, to other RRs or to civilian employment. BNSF is going to be shorthanded upon takeover and will need to bring in people- who are unfamiliar with the territory, customers, etc. It will be interesting, especially in mid-winter. And if the weather is harsh, even more so.
Carriers provide SERVICE to the customers they consider PRIMER. In my experience with CSX - UPS was such a customer - line of road delays to UPS traffic, take it off railcars and put it on the highway so the boxes can protect their UPS Sort Time.
Not sure what "PRIMER" might mean? Or did you perhaps mean premier? What has happened here may fall under a 'force majeure' clause.
Word from MRL employees in the area is that new bridge components are on site and re-construction is under way.
Went by yesterday.......all the fuselages were gone, and I talked to someone who confirmed they are trucking them around the bridge......they are lifting the cars off their trucks and placing them on flatbed trucks, trucking them, and then placing them back on different trucks across the river. Apparently they won't fit thru the highline route, and they tried to send them south on the UP and UP was very uncooperative. I can also confirm that all the cars and bridges are gone from the river, and there is a levee out from the west bank to the middle of the river where the center support would be. And there was A LOT of materials staged around the area.
In 1969 a series of thunderstorms wreaked havoc with the B&O Akron Division line between New Castle and Willard - with washouts a multiple locations as well as a timber trestle wash away at Boughtonville, OH. I was on my honeymoon for the storms but returned to work shortly after. The plan was to install a new bridge for the washed away trestle that carried #1 (Westbound) track over a local creek. #2 track over the same creek was not seriously damaged. I was dispatched to be the Operator at the Temporary Train Order Station that was going to facilitate a shoo-fly operation, with MofW installing crossovers from #1 to #2 on the East side of the creek and a crossover from #2 to #1 on the West Side of the creek. The territory was signaled for Current of Traffic - West on #1 and East on #2. The TTOS would permit Westbounds to operate #1 track to the TTOS get Train Order Authority to operate on #2 track over the creek and then back to #1 track - for the period of time it would take to have a steel girder bridge fabricated at the B&O Bridge Shop at Martinsburg, WV and to have the new piers and footings constructed on side. The installation of the bridge was completed about the middle of August. 004 by mmi16 posted Jul 14, 2023 at 3:16 AM 003 by mmi16 posted Jul 14, 2023 at 3:16 AM 001 Boughtanville by mmi16 posted Jul 14, 2023 at 3:16 AM
