Today's Train of Thought- Kudzu! September 23rd, 2013

Today's Train of Thought Takes us to Dixie [and SEC country- NANESB!] and features a notorious invasive species that's become almost iconic in the south.

Kudzu was introduced to the southeastern United States as an ornamental and shade plant during the 1883 New Orleans Exposition. At the time, the government was encouraging growth of kudzu for feed stock and erosion control and the Asian plant took to the south. However, when the boll weevil spread across the south and decimated the cotton crops through the 1920s, many farmers abandoned their properties which left the kudzu to spread unchecked throughout the region. The warm, humid climate turned out to be almost ideal for the Kudzu to not only thrive, but expand unimpeded throughout the southeast. By 1997, the federal government listed Kudzu as a Noxious weed and power companies can spend millions repairing damage and clearing lines from the prolific weed. It's also been a problem for the National Parks Service, who maintains historic Civil War battle sites such as Chickamauga and Chattanooga or Vicksburg Battle National Monuments.

And it's in Vicksburg, MS that Railpictures.net contributor Paul Morgan caught eastbound Kansas City Southern manifest freight MXJA- MeXican border at Laredo, TX to JAckson, MI- as it charges out of a tunnel and uphill past a hillside covered in kudzu on September 7, 2006. Former Southern Pacific SD40T-2 # 6107 is in charge on this sunny day as the train has just crossed the mighty Mississippi.

In 1863, Union forces laid siege to the fortified city for 40 days before the Confederate defenders surrendered. Nowadays, Vicksburg is a key crossing of the Mississippi River on interstate 20 and the Kansas City Southern's Meridian Speedway.

Today's Train of Thought- Stopping Power- June 18th, 2013

Today's train of thought takes us to rural northern Louisiana and a railroad town that's better known for being the end of the line for an infamous duo of Depression-era fugitives.

Sometimes known as the Jonquil Capital of Louisiana, Gibsland, LA is a railroad town that is perhaps best known for being where Bonnie & Clyde met their end. The duo met their end off of Louisiana Route 154 south of town when they drove into an ambush set up by Texas and Louisiana lawmen in May 1934. In town, a museum commemorating the ambush that ended Bonnie & Clyde's interstate crime spree was opened by the son of one of the posse members was part of the manhunt that took down Parker and Barrow.

No less than three railroads made themselves at home in Gibsland as well. The east-west line through town belonged to the Illinois Central until the mid 1980s, when successor Illinois Central Gulf spun off lines from Iowa to Louisiana in order to focus on its primary Chicago-New Orleans line.

This included the 1986 formation of MidSouth Rail, which ran from Shreveport, LA to Meridian, MS by way of Vicksburg and Jackson, MS. Within a year of MidSouth's formation, they would acquire a controlling interest in the North Louisiana & Gulf logging railway, a shortline formed in 1901 that ran between Hodge, LA and Gibsland where it would interchange with either the Illinois Central or Louisiana & Northwest- another independent shortline.

By 1994, the Kansas City Southern would acquire the MidSouth, seeing it as a key asset for establishing what would be known as the Meridian Speedway- a strategically located rail line that would link Dallas with Atlanta thanks to cooperation between the KCS and Norfolk Southern.

As KCS continued expansion through the deep south, Texas and Mexico, the Class 1 carrier became less interested in some of the marginal branchlines that were included in the MidSouth acquisition. This included the former NL&G line between Hodge and Gibsland and in 2005, KCS announced they were leasing the line to Kansas-based WATCO (along with other branches in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi).

In the summer of 2005, WATCO began operations on the somewhat deceptively-named Louisiana Southern [the entire line is located in the northern part of Louisiana- NANESB!], which continues to haul logs, paper and forestry products along the Hodge line.

Three years later, the previously independent Louisiana & Northwest would be acquired by Patriot Rail- which to this day operated between Gibsland and McNeil, AR some 70 miles north.

Here, rrpicturearchives.net contributor James Jackson caught WAMX GP50 #5005 thumping across the KCS diamond at Gibsland with a cut of woodchip hoppers for WATCO's Louisiana Southern on May 12, 2006. The lead and trailing units are still in Union Pacific yellow, but the bell on the nose of #5005 indicates that this unit started out life on the Chicago & Northwestern. The middle unit is a former CSX GP38 borrowed from Locomotive Leasing Partners (LLPX)- the unit actually did wear orange during its later days on CSX; the railway set aside a number of older GEs and EMDs for dedicated Maintenance of Way service and would paint them orange.

Once the train clears the KCS line, the gate emblazoned with all the stop signs will be swung 90 degrees to block the Louisiana Southern/Louisiana & North Western line from the KCS mainline. The gate, while not designed to bring a freight train to a halt, is meant to provide a clear indicator of which line is open and which trains should yield.

Today's Train of Thought- The Snow Me State, February 20, 2013

Today's train of thought takes us to Louisiana, Missouri- which may sound like two states rolled into one, but is actually a town of about 3300 in northeastern Missouri on the western banks of the Mississippi River. While Louisiana, MO doesn't have much in the way of Mardi Gras parades or cajun cuisine, the town does feature both a road and rail crossing from Illinois to Missouri in addition to the Kansas City Southern's Springfield, IL to Kansas City mainline crossing BNSF's Hannibal Subdivision.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Mike Mautner caught leased NREX B39-8 #8599 getting ready to resume its journey east with intermodal freight IKCVN [Intermodal- Kansas City to VeNice, IL] after stopping to take care of some EOT problems after apparently crashing their way through a number of snowbanks on December 1st, 2006. Interestingly, like the Oakways mentioned in the previous Train of Thought, these grey white and red 3900 HP behemoths would've been right at home on the BNSF not too long ago.

Built in 1988 for Locomotive Management Services and immediately subleased to the Burlington Northern, these grey and white GE's- sometimes called 'sharks' roamed the Burlington Northern system primarily hauling intermodal freight. Arriving on the BN property at around the same time as the Oakway SD60s appeared, the 100-unit fleet was returned to lessor and the fleet was dispersed, with individual units ending up in far flung locales from Maine to British Columbia and even Peru.

In their post-BNSF careers, it seems as though a disproportionate number of ended up on New England shortlines and regionals such as the Providence & Worcester, the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic and Rail America's Connecticut Southern.

Today's Train of Thought- Deep in the Heart of Texas, August 25, 2012

Today's train of thought features what could easily be one of America's most overlooked Class 1 railroads. Despite boasting more than 3200 miles of track, the Kansas City Southern operates mostly in the MidSouth, parts of Texas and some of the Midwest. Of course- that's not including some of KCS's subsidiaries that have been acquired in the past decade such as the Texas Mexican Railroad or their more than 2600 mile Mexican subsidiary- KCS de Mexico.

Traffic along the original KCS route between Kansas City and Shreveport, LA [with lines branching off to New Orleans, Fort Worth and the Texas Gulf coast at Port Arthur- NANESB!] includes coal, aggregates, plastics, wheat, auto parts, chemicals, corn and intermodal traffic. The 1990s saw the KCS expand considerably with the acquisition of former Illinois Central lines between Shreveport and Meridian, MS (formerly Midsouth Rail) and Kansas City and St Louis (formerly the Gateway Eastern).

Fort Worth is about as far west as the KCS goes- at least on the American side of the border. And it is just to the north of here that railpictures.net contributor Chris Starnes caught this duo of  SD40-2s heading north on BNSF trackage rights at Justin, TX on a stormy July 2008 afternoon. The lead unit- SD40-2 #3061- is in the slightly newer Kansas City Southern grey with yellow trim paint scheme while the trailing SD40 is in the older all-white version with red letters. The train still has a few miles to go before reaching home rails at Wylie, TX.

With the recent expansion, KCS has purchased newer motive power from GE that's in the company's eye-catching orange black and yellow 'Southern Belle' livery reminiscent of the KCS early streamliners.

Today's Train of Thought- Southern Belle Calendar Girl, November 19, 2011

Today's train of thought takes us to the Ozarks near the Arkansas/Oklahoma border. Apparently when shooting their company calender, the Kansas City Southern had the change of season in the Ozarks in mind when the railway's F units and office cars were repainted into the striking 'Southern belle' paint scheme reminiscent of KCS's earlier diesels- although F9A #KCS1 was purchased from VIA Rail Canada.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Michael Biehn caught the A-B-A combo of brightly painted F Units as they made their way through Howard, AR, seemingly trying to one-up the surrounding fall foliage for their calendat shoot on a sunny November 8, 2007.

The F units are a few days out of the paint shop, having made their debut by hauling an intermodal train over the KCS Vicksburg subdivision. The paint scheme seems to have stuck, with subsequent units from brand new ES44AC GEVOS to rebuilt, lower emissions 2nd generation locomotives like the GP22ECO

Today's Train of Thought- Haven't the Foggiest, September 19, 2011

Today's Train of Thought takes us to the bayous right outside of the Big Easy on a foggy Louisiana morning.

Here, the motive power seemingly tries to blend in with the enveloping morning mist as it leads a southbound merchandise freight past Milepost 853 on Kansas City Southern's New Orleans Subdivision.

The rather self-explanatory New Orleans Subdivision traverses Louisiana diagonally between Shreveport and New Orleans by way of Alexandria and Baton Rouge, LA and is one of five lines that radiates from Kansas City Southern's Shreveport, LA hub. Lines also head east to Meridian, MS, north to Kansas City, MO, west to Dallas, TX and south to the Houston area.

Here, railpitcures.net Brian LaFleur (aka 'Pork Chop') caught Kansas City Southern SD40-2 #661 rounding a curve at Almedia, LA in August 2004, just outside the train's final destination of New Orleans.

A Cinco De Mayo Train of Though- Beauties and (High Horsepower) Beasts South of The Border, May 5 2011

It's that time of year again- the 5th of May is an opportunity for Madison Avenue to try and sell the rest of America some marginal imported beer people to commemorate the May 5, 1862 battle outside of Puebla, Mexico where outnumbered Mexican farmers thwarted advancing French troops north of the town.

As romanticized as the tale of an underdog, poorly trained peasant army beating back a numerically superior foreign military making incursions into their country can be, there are a few common misconceptions about Cinco de Mayo and the Battle of Puebla here in the USA.

First and foremost, this is not Mexico's independence day. I'm pretty sure this topic has come up before on this blog, but I thought it would be worth revisiting. Mexico fought a decade-long war against Spain between 1810 and 1821, while the Battle of Puebla would take place some 40 years later against Napoleonic French troops. Mexico's independence day is actually observed on September 16 each year and is in fact a bigger occasion than Cinco de Mayo, which is mostly celebrated in the state of Puebla.

Second is that while the Battle of Puebla was a remarkable setback for Napoleon III's Army, French forces were able to overwhelm Mexico later on that year and install Austrian archduke Ferdinand Maximilian as Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico beginning in 1864. However, that wouldn't last very long as he was deposed by an army led by Benito Juarez in 1867 and was executed by firing squad. Puebla, the capital of Puebla state southeast of Mexico City also became home to the Mexican National Railway Museum.

Construction on Mexico's railways began shortly before the French Intervention and Battle of Puebla, with an emphasis on completing a line between Mexico City and the Gulf of Mexico port of Veracruz. Other lines radiated north out of the nation's capital, bankrolled by US, Mexican and European interests and linking the resource-rich nation with the US Border and ports along the Pacific Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. However, the network would deteriorate considerably during the Mexican revolution and be incrementally nationalized between 1929 and 1937.

It would take some 60 years for the Mexican government to follow through on privatization. In 1997, the government run Ferrocarriles Nacionales de Mexico (FNM) ceased passenger operations and was divided up. Much of the track to the north and west of Mexico City (as well as the Ferrocarril Sonora-Baja California and Chihuahua al Pacifico lines) went to Grupo Mexico's [BMV: GMEXICOB] FerroMex while the mainline between Mexico City and Nuevo Laredo to the north, Lazaro Cardeans to the South and (eventually) Veracruz to the east went to Transportes Ferroviaria Mexico, a joint venture between Mexico's Grupo TMM [NYSE: TMM] and Kansas City Southern [NYSE: KSU], although Kansas City Southern gained a majority stake in 2005 through it's KCS de Mexico subsidiary.

FerroSur, owned jointly by billionaire Carlos Slim's Grupo Carso [BMV: GCARSOA1] and Financiero Inbursa SAB [BMV: GFINBURO] would gain most of the trackage south of Mexico city, but in 2005 it would be acquired by a GrupoMexico subsidiary with the intention of merging it into FerroMex. Since this would give FerroMex a near monopoly, KCS de Mexico understandably objected and the matter was tied up in litigation until earlier this year when a tribunal from Mexico's Federal Competition Commission ruled in favor of GrupoMexico (but allowed KCS de Mexico to operate into Guadlajara via trackage rights on FerroMex).

While privatization has no doubt improved motive power, rolling stock, physical plant and right-of-way south of the border, like many other seemingly everyday activities in contemporary Mexico, railroading carries an element of risk to it.

With Mexican law enforcement tied up attacking drug cartels, free-lance crime gangs have become more daring and sophisticated, hijacking trucks and trains and stealing massive loads of steel, coffee and beans.

These gangsters are armed not only with guns but heavy machinery to unload industrial materials and bulk agricultural goods, deftly passing them off to the black market.

Mexico's third largest steel producer, Altos Hornos de Mexico, or AHMSA, has been victim of nearly 40 robberies since January 2008,

"This wasn't happening before," AHMSA spokesman Francisco Orduna said.

"To unload a 30-tonne roll of steel is complicated," he said. "Not just anyone can do that and to find someone who will buy that amount is not that easy either. You have to be really well organized."

Mexico's steel chamber said robberies skyrocketed by 250 percent last year, as 12,500 tons were carted off by thieves, sometimes truck and all. Losses totaled 150 million pesos ($11 million) in 2008 and have continued as a fast clip this year.

The robberies are raising the cost of doing business in Mexico as companies hire guards, expensive security consultants and specialized satellite positioning devices to track cargo.

Using intelligence gathered from employees either intimidated or paid off to leak transport routes, the well-connected groups can hijack a truck making a pit stop, empty out the cargo and dump the driver on an abandoned road.

Gerardo Bortoni, who heads an association of truck drivers in Monclova, said the thieves hand products over to corrupt businessman while authorities turn the other way.

"They are stealing everything, coffee, cacao, pistachios. Before it was just sporadic now its very common. We're afraid to haul a lot of products," he said.

Due to the murky nature of the crimes, it is unclear who the customers are for the stolen goods but Bortoni said in the case of steel, buyers would need the capacity to process raw materials. Wholesalers say stolen food products will show up at the same markets they were taken from, just at a lower price.

Grupo Mexico, which operates Ferromex, one of Mexico's main railroads, set up a system to pay government security forces to guard their trains after a spike in thefts.

In a series of hijackings late last year, bands of dozens of people, armed sometimes with machetes and rocks, sacked entire trainloads of corn and beans.

Illegal immigrants from Central America also attempt to hop rides on freight trains on their way to try and cross the into USA. Besides the risk of injury or death from falling off the train, there's also the hazard posed by railroad and federal police demanding bribes and Mexican gangs who have demonstrated a willingness to rob, rape and murder the migrants transiting through territory they control.


Southbound trains, however, are less likely to suffer from that problem. Here, railpictures.net contributor Alfonso Chumacero caught FerroMex C30-S7 #3745 on the point of a southbound freight chugging southbound out of the town of Acaponeta in Nayarit state on April 4, 2007 with train FXE 3745. The big 3000 HP GE on the point, a former Ferrocarriles Nacionales Mexico unit, is still wearing the faded two-tone blue of the final few years of FNM's existence.
As a bonus- and to demonstrate that it's still possible to travel by train in Mexico without a peril fraught journey, there's Chihuahua al Pacifico's Copper Canyon excursions between Los Mochis, Sonora and Chihuahua. From the state capital in Chihuahua, the line actually continues north-east to the border crossing at Ojinaga/Presidio, TX and on to Alpine, TX and points north-east via FerroMex subsidiary Texas Pacifico (although the bridge across the Rio Grande was damaged by fire and knocked out of service in late 2008). The Copper Canyon segment wasn't completed until 1961 owing to the on-again off again political instability in Mexico as well as the extremely remote and difficult terrain.

Here, enigmatic Railpictures.net contributor E Hames ModelFan has caught in his lens the angular and sturdy lines of FerroMex GP38-2 #2017 in the siding with a Copper Canyon excursion train at Divisadero, Chihuahua in October 2005complimented by some enticing curves closer at hand. The two lovely women in the foreground are identified as models from Playboy Latinoamerica, reportedly preparing to film a travelogue about the Copper Canyon.

Even without the alluring latina models (who, admittedly make a good thing even better) the Chihuahua Pacifico Copper Canyon passenger train is considered one of the world's premiere railroad excursions.

Even More Borderline Psychosis- Another Mass Grave Uncovered; Work Release Killing Spree; Mexican Hezbollah Network Disrupted?

*Authorities in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon acting on an anonymous phone tip have discovered 51 bodies at a garbage dump outside the city. The attorney general for the northern state said that the bodies of 48 men and 3 women have been unearthed so far. While the remains haven't been identified, investigators believe that most of the deceased were involved in drug trafficking, saying that tattoos on some of the bodies would help identify which group they had been working for. Back in May, the Mexican police and military discovered an abandoned silver mine in the city of Taxco where the cartels had dumped at least 55 bodies.

*The warden and three other officials from a Durango prison are under house arrest after state prosecutors say the prison officials lent out weapons and vehicles to some of the inmates so they could carry out killings in Torreon, the capital of the neighboring state of Coahuila. This included a massacre of 18 party goers on July 18th as well as shootings dating back to February and May.

Police found more than 120 bullet casings at the scene, and [Attorney General's office spokesman Ricardo] Najera said tests matched those casings to four assault rifles assigned to guards at the prison

.
Similar ballistics tests linked the guns to earlier killings at two bars in Torreon, the capital of northern Coahuila state, he said. At least 16 people were killed in those attacks on Feb. 1 and May 15, local media reported.I think I posed the question even before Calderon's state visit, but it bears repeating- How would additional gun control laws on this side of the border prevent further violence in Mexico when you have elements of the police in military operating at the behest of the cartels? And for those of you who think the police or military issued murder weapons are limited to those four rifles issued to the prison guards in Durango, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you for a modest fee.



*Also last week, a car bomb detonated in Ciudad Juarez across the river from El Paso, TX, killing two policemen and a doctor. Investigators on both sides of the border say the bombing is the first of its kind in Mexico and represents an escalation in tactics and increased sophistication of attacks on the cartel's part. Local police and paramedics were lured to the scene by calling in a false report that a police officer had been shot and then detonated a 22 pound bomb in a nearby parked car by cell phone. Explosives experts with the ATF have been helping their Mexican counterparts reconstruct the bomb as best they can.

So far it's been determined that the device was made from Tovex, a water gel based explosive and it would likely have to have been triggered while within sight of the rigged vehicle.

Graffiti written on the wall of a nearby elementary school specifically warned DEA and FBI agents that more bombs would follow unless the US Agencies investigated alleged links between the Sinaloa cartel and Mexican authorities.

*A Kuwaiti newspaper reported earlier this month that Mexican authorities had thwarted an attempt by Hezbollah operatives to establish a network in the country using Mexican nationals with family ties to Lebanon or of Lebanese descent themselves. The leader was residing across the border from San Diego, CA in Tijuana, Baja California at the time of his arrest.
Now....I know some of you might be saying 'What? Mexicans of Lebanese descent? You're just making stuff up. I've never heard of something so silly and farfetched'. To which I would have to reply- yes there is such a thing, actress Salma Hayek and billionaire Carlos Slim being the more prominent examples.
[I would also have to add 'Thanks for the completely gratuitous opening to toss out some Selma Hayek-centric ocular sweetness!' Oh....and legal disclaimer; I'm in no way inferring that Mr. Slim or Salma Hayek are Hezbollah operatives. Please don't sue me - NANESB!]

According to the report, Mexican police mounted a surveillance operation on the group's leader, Jameel Nasr, who traveled frequently to Lebanon to receive information and instructions from Hezbollah commanders there.
Nasr was living in Tijuana, Mexico at the time of his arrest, the report said. The report follows warnings from the United States that Hezbollah and its backer Iran are stepping up operations in the region.

Nasr also travelled to other parts of Latin America, including Venezuela. I wouldn't be too shocked if he went to the tri-border region along the Argentina, Paraguay and Brazilian border if he's indeed a Hezbollah true-believer.

*With widespread corruption and resources focused on the bloody, ongoing narcoinsurgency, logistics experts are noticing a rise in thefts targeting Mexico's trucking and railroad industries. Gangs of thieves, sometimes posing as police and setting up bogus roadblocks, will hijack tractor trailers at gunpoint, offload cargo to another trailer, or hitch the trailers to their own cabs.

Railway robberies are a little more labor-intensive, however:

Criminal gangs deploy more gunmen when they're robbing trains. A senior director for Kroll Global Risk Assessment's Mexico City office, Francesco Pipitone said that raids with 10 to 15 rifle-toting gunmen weren't uncommon.

Acting to slow the rampant holdups of trains, Mexico's Congress categorized train robbery as a "serious crime" in late April and toughened sentences to 10 to 30 years in prison. Unlike in the past, train-robbing suspects won't be freed on bond before trial.

The president of the Mexico subsidiary of Kansas City Southern, Jose G. Zozaya, said his railway was "not immune to being hit by organized crime."

He said it had employed tactics such as moving trains faster, using "jump teams" of responders when situations developed and fostering good support from state and federal police to minimize robberies of cargoes that include fuel, steel, grains, petrochemicals, auto parts and new automobiles.

"Our competitors have had autos stolen off their platforms multiple times," Zozaya said, noting that Mexico is a major exporter of new cars.

It's thought that the cartels may have a hand in this, diversifying their operations beyond drug-smuggling and human smugging.

Criminals have also been siphoning fuel and oil off of pipelines owned by the state-run oil company PeMex. This weekend, Mexican soldiers on patrol in Tamaulipas have raided a cartel safehouse with a small arsenal of guns, ammunition and grenades as well as a lot that contained oil tanker-trailers filled with oil believed to have been siphoned off of a PeMex pipeline.

Also over the weekend, Mexico's Defense Ministry reported that soldiers seized 59 pounds of explosives (including Tovex, which is believed to have been used in the Juarez car bombing last week) and killed 9 gunmen after clashing with smugglers at the rural village of La Simona in northern Chihuahua. Besides the explosives, 40kg of marijuana, 15 rifles, 3 pistols, 3 bulletproof vests, a roll of detonator cord, 10 vehicles, three satellite phones and some night vision goggles were found.

Today's Train of Thought- Everything's Gonna Be A-OK! July 16, 2010

Today's train of thought takes us to the Sooner State and one of it's newer shortlines- one with a somewhat fortuitous acronym.

Between 1980 and 1996, the 73-mile stretch of former Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific tracks between McAlester to Howe, OK had no less than four parties owning or operating it- the Rock Island, the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railway (also known as 'The Katy'), Union Pacific and the State of Oklahoma. The Katy purchased the line immediately after the Rock Island's 1980 bankruptcy and liquidation. In 1986, the State of Oklahoma purchased the line from the Katy while allowing the Katy to continue operating over it until their 1991 acquisition by Union Pacific. A similar deal with the UP remained in place until 1996, when the UP transferred all operating rights to the newly formed Arkansas-Oklahoma Railroad (the A-OK).

Interchanging with the Kansas City Southern at Howe and the UP at McAlester, the A-OK hauls wheat, frac sand, plastic, stone, gravel, pipes, coal as well as occasional carloadings of Army munitions from the McAlester Army Ammuntion Plant on the Howe-McAlester line. In 2001, the UP agreed to lease its 36-mile Shawnee branch between Oklahoma City and Shawnee, OK to the A-OK. Traffic on this separate line includes cars inbound for GM distribution facility in Midwest City, OK.

Motive power for the A-OK has been pretty varied since its inception as well. The line started off with some secondhand EMD GP series diesels and older end-cab EMD switchers before increased traffic meant the A-OK (like the Wellsboro & Corning in Pennsylvania) would need bigger and higher horsepower locomotives.

This seemed to coincide with the CSX and Norfolk Southern splitting up Conrail a decade ago- one byproduct of that was that both lines felt they had more locomotives than they needed and began selling off some of the motive power they inherited from Conrail.

And this is where the A-OK got some of it's newer diesels. At first, the A-OK wound up with about a half-dozen of the standard GE B23-7 locomotives from Conrail. This was followed by the appearance of two additional, rarer B23s....the rebuilt Super 7s built for the Monongahela Railroad more than 20 years ago. Conrail wound up acquiring them in their 1993 merger of the Monongahela, but by the time it was split between CSX and NS, Conrail, Norfolk Southern and CSX had acquired more state-of-the-art examples of GE motive power. The Super 7s were dispersed to a few shortlines and reigonals such as the Providence & Worcester, Ohio Central and Arkansas-Oklahoma.

Here, railpictures.net contributor Arthur James catches two examples of the GEs rostered by the A-OK, with rebuilt Super 7 #4093 leading unrebuilt B23-7 #4061 across a small trestle at Wister, OK on a bright February 2008 day with a small cut of cars for the Kansas City Southern interchange at Howe. The locomotives are painted in colors reminiscent of Rock Island's earlier colors (although the Rock Island never owned any Dash 7s- super or otherwise). As one commenter on railpicture.net pointed out, a casual glance seems to indicate that the A-OK takes pride in it's equipment and dedicates some effort into keeping it clean.

IRON HORSE ROUNDUP: May-June 2010 Edition

EMD: Perhaps the biggest news of the month (if not the whole year) is the acquisition of locomotive manufacturer Electro-Motive Diesel by Caterpillar's Progress Rail Services from private equity firms Berkshire Partners and Greenbriar Equity LLC in a deal believed to be worth 820 million. Started in the 1930s as the Electro Motive Company and acquired by General Motors by the end of the decade, EMC started out making small, low horsepower switchers before graduating to the FT series. The introduction of the distinctive FT series in 1939 was seen as start of the demise of the steam locomotive while ushering in the streamliner-era.

Immediately after WWII, EMD's locomotive manufacturing faced competition from steam locomotive manufacturers ALCo, Baldwin and Lima-Hamilton and their early entries into the diesel locomotive market- the most resilient of which (ALCo) lasted until 1969. By that time, the EMD brand was introducing successful locomotives along the lines of the SD40 but was also facing competition from GE's burgeoning diesel manufacturing. Even with orders for the popular SD70MAC and SD70ACE from Class I haulers CSX, BNSF and Canadian National coming in, General Motors sold off their EMD subsidiary to Berkshire and Greenbriar in 2005.

Several overseas companies manufacture EMDs locally as well. India's Diesel Locomotive Works manufactures EMD engines and parts under licence, with EMD having a 50 year presence in India. Sweden would produce locomotives with EMD components up until the 1970s through Nydquist & Holm while Australia's Clyde would manufacture EMD products for the state-run railways throughout Australia as well as the privately-run ore-haulers in Western Australia.

As a side-note, a half-dozen Clyde Built SD50S that had worked for Western Australia ore-hauler Hammersley Iron were exported to the USA when they were replaced by American-made C44-9Ws a decade ago. The Clyde-built locos [which after nearly 2 decades of hauling ore in the Australian outback could hardly be described as 'gently used'- NANESB!] roamed the country briefly as loaners before being purchased by the Utah Railroad. Here, Aussie import Clyde #6064 is seen in it's distinctive Genesee & Wyoming orange paint while between assignments at Utah Rail's Midvale, UT yard in April 2009.

(railpictures.net: Jeff Terry)

NORFOLK SOUTHERN: Before purchasing EMD outright, Caterpillar subsidiary Progress Rail Services was busy re-engineing and refurbishing EMD locomotives approaching the end of their service life. In addition to the Progress Rail PR30Cs being tested extensively by Florida East Coast for much of the last year, Norfolk Southern was testing a pair of higher-horsepower Progress Rail rebuilds on their Illinois lines. The units were rebuilt from SD60s Norfolk Southern was withdraing from service, designated PR43Cs (PR for Progress Rail, 43 for 4300 HP and C for 6 axles) and worked mainly around the Peoria, IL area- headquarters of Progress Rail's parent company Caterpillar in case any servicing was required.

(Photo: Henry Dralle)

One can only learn so much about a locomotive's performance on the flat-as-a-tabletop terrain of Illinois, so in February, the Norfolk Southern decided to bring them to Virginia to test their capabilities in hillier terrain. Secondhand reports indicate that both PR43Cs handled the 1.58% Starkey Grade on the line out of Roanoke, VA with about 50 loaded hopper cars and the test car quite well. Norfolk Southern would also bring in Kansas City Southern's EMD GP22ECO mother/slug set and Brookville Equipment Corporation's 'co-generation' hybrid locomotive for road testing and evaluation in the Roanoke area over the spring.

Genesee & Wyoming subsidiary Buffalo & Pittsburgh is also reportedly interested in looking at the KCS GP22ECO rebuilds.

ARIZONA: Passenger service returned to the restored 1916 depot in the Arizona mining town of Globe for the first time in 77 years with the Copper Spike excursion. The excursions have been operating since late 2008 and the newest addition is Arizona Eastern E8A painted in a scheme reminiscent of Southern Pacific's 'Black Widow' livery. The Copper Spike's consist also includes a dome car and a rebuilt Illinois Central coach that's now a club car. The Arizona Eastern normally hauls freight between Miami, AZ to the Union Pacific interchange at Bowie, AZ- a distance of 130 miles. In 2008, AZER also gained trackage rights over UP's former Southern Pacific Sunset Route between Bowie, AZ to Lordsburg, NM and acquired the former Espee branch between Lordsburg and Clifton, AZ. The Arizona Eastern is a wholly owned subsidiary of Iowa Pacific Holdings, LLC.

MICHIGAN: The Escanaba & Lake Superior filed a request with the Surface Transportaton Board to abandon 43 miles of trackage between Ontonagon and Frost in Michigan's upper peninsula. Smurfit-Stone Container, the largest shipper on that line, and the Ontonagon Economic Partnership have agreed to draft a joint letter to the STB requesting a stay. Both the board and Smurfit-Stone are in talks with outside parties to sell the currently idle paper plant. In anticipation of the pending abandonment request, the E&LS began moving equipment off the line and elsewhere as early as November 2009- when railpictures.net contributor Dean Sauvola caught E&LS SD9 #1224 and SD40-2 #501 hauling a string of empty boxcars stored at the mill across the Ontonagon River. Hit particularly hard by the recession, Ontanogon County MI has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation.

INDIA: At least 145 people were killed and another 250 injured when suspected Maoist terrorists in West Bengal sabotaged a stretch of track that the the Gyaneshwari Express was travelling on, derailing the train and knocking some of the passenger cars into the path of an oncoming freight train. Indian Railways minister Mamatma Banerjee said that rebels removed a 50cm section of rail and timed it so that the Gyanshwari Express would collide with another train. Local investigators found Naxalite literature at the scene, although they wouldn't identify which specific group. According to the Ministy or Railways, the engineer had just left the station in the Paschim Medinipur district when the train hit the sabotaged portion of track, derailing 13 cars from the Gyanshwari Express.

Today's Train of Thought- Hops and Hopper cars in the Big Easy; Dec 15th 2009

For all the 'old-world' charm that guidebooks praise the Crescent City for let it not be forgotten that even post-Katrina, the city of New Orleans is still a vital transportation crossroads, both by sea and by land. Here, on a sweltering June 2009 afternoon, a mixed freight bound for the New Orleans Public Belt yard with a NOPB crew and Kansas City Southern C44-9Ws #4597 and #4601 trundle past the old Jackson brewery. Railpictures.net contributor Jim O. also pointed out that the New Orleans streetcar runs parralell to the tracks here (seen to the immdeiate left of the #4597).

Today's Train of Thought- Full Circle; November 24, 2009

Today's Train of thought comes to us from way down south courtesey of railpictures.net contributor Joe Blackwell. Here, he caught Kansas City Southern train MSHME (M = Manifest; SH = Shreveport, LA; ME = Meridian, MS) cruising eastbound across the Big Black River viaduct just outside of Bovina, MS on an April 2007 day. KCS SD40-2 #3138 leads a duo of leased former LMX B39-8s across the graceful arches of the viaduct as it's reflected in the river below.

Buffet's Berkshire-Hathaway Announces BNSF Deal- Railroad Stocks Surge

Already owning a 22% stake in the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, Warren Buffet announced earlier Tuesday that his Berkshire-Hathaway Group reached an agreement with BNSF's board of directors to purchase the remaining shares of BNSF in a $44 billion deal. This would make the railroad the single largest investment by Berkshire-Hathaway [NYSE: BRK-A].

Wall Street seemed to take the news rather well.

Burlington Northern Santa Fe [NYSE: BNI] closed at $97 a share, up 27.51% in a single day.

Canadian National [NYSE: CNI] closed at $49.99, up 2.73%

Canadian Pacific [NYSE: CP] closed at $45.53, up 4.24%

CSX Transportation [NYSE: CSX] closed at $45.97, up 7.31%

Kansas City Southern [NYSE: KSU] closed at $25.79, up 7.1%

Norfolk Southern [NYSE: NSC] closed at $45.15, up 5.4%

Omaha-based Union Pacific [NYSE: UNP] closed at $59.41, up 7.9%

Today's Train of Thought- It's Going to Be a Super (7) Day; Oct. 25 2009

Today's Train of Thought features one odder creations to have come from General Electric's Erie, PA factory in the last 20 years- the experimental 'Super 7' series. The Super 7s were basically heavily rebuilt 'Universal' series locomotives that were traded into General Electric for newer Dash 8 locomotives. Instead of scrapping them completely, GE decided to keep the frames and trucks and give the vintage trade-ins new motors and carbodies. It was only marginally successful- with the Monongahela Railway being the only domestic customer for an order of what was essentially eleven heavily rebuilt ex-Western Pacific U23Bs [U= Universal; 23 = 2300 HP; B = 4-axle wheel arrangement]. However, the Super 7 series generated some interest south of the border, as Mexico's Ferrocarriles Nacionales Mexico (the then state-run railroad) ordered close to 100 to be rebuilt from their retired U36Cs as well as some former Delaware & Hudson and Southern U33Cs and Milwaukee Road and Union Pacific U30Cs. This fleet survived the subsequent privatization of Mexico's railroads and was included in the fleet of TFM (Transportes Ferroviaria Mexicana- now Kansas City Southern de Mexico) and can still be seen operating anywhere between Veracruz and Chicago. Some of the Super 7 demonstrators found their way north to a new home on Quebec ore-hauler Roberval & Saguenay, as well.

Within a few years of ordering the Super 7s, the Monongahela was taken over by Conrail. Conrail, in turn, was split between CSX and Norfolk Southern in 1999. The Super 7s dutifully served Conrail and CSX before the latter decided to sell off the oddities. Takers for the 11-unit fleet included the Providence & Worcester, Ohi-Rail, the New Castle Industrial Railroad, Arkansas & Oklahoma and Ohio Central. On a bright August 2008 day, railpictures.net contributor Mike Mautner caught OHCR B23-S7 #4093 and a sister Super 7 heading up the Coshocton-Zanesville, OH 'Steel train' across the Tuscawaras River bridge in West Lafayette, OH.

Since this photo was taken, shortline operator Genesee & Wyoming announced their acquisition of the Ohio Central railroad. So it's entirely possible that besides wearing the paint of Ohio Central, CSX, Conrail and the Monongehela, the 4093 might also be wearing G&W's trademark orange in due time.