FORT WORTH, Texas — Extreme cold has hobbled BNSF Railway’s operations on its Northern Transcon in North Dakota and Montana.
“The extreme cold affecting the Northern Transcon route through Montana and North Dakota, with temperatures plunging over 20 degrees below zero in some areas overnight, has hindered normal train operations,” BNSF said in a customer advisory on Tuesday (Feb. 11). “We have also experienced reduced productivity at terminals in the region due to multiple switch and air flow issues across rail yards.”
BNSF noted that additional locomotives are required to produce proper air flow for trains’ brake systems.
“Train length restrictions have been implemented to support train braking performance in the impacted areas and will remain in effect until conditions improve. Some trains have been re-routed on a more southerly route to help minimize this disruption as much as possible,” BNSF said.
Amtrak cancelled the Empire Builder’s departures from Chicago and Seattle/Portland on Tuesday, and in an updated advisory says that today’s eastbound train has been cancelled as well.
Temperatures are expected to rise in the next few days, but BNSF said that “challenging operating conditions will persist for the next 72 hours and customers should anticipate some delays for shipments destined to move through the region.”
If the railroads would drag their feet on electric braking cold would not be such an issue.
I guess this is why Amtrak has paused the Emp Bldr BNSF has their hands full with their own problems wouldn’t want to be stuck in the middle of that.
How on earth did the Great Northern, Milwaukee Road and Northern Pacific manage? Hints: no 3 mile long freights and plenty of people!
45 years ago working on PC and Conrail in Syracuse, trains almost NEVER stopped. Now they do.
About three inches of snow and moderate temperature here in Wisconsin. Choir rehearsal was cancelled. So I signed up for Wednesday chess tournament. Chess club president e-mailed that as long as anyone comes, the club is open and the tournament was on. Later he sent a note, chess club cancelled.
So, me, rough tough Wisconsinite, driving an AWD Subaru, raised in Massachusetts where snow is measured in feet, not inches, sitting home watching TV and adjusting to the new normal where a few inches of snow, we go into bunker mode.
Waiting on Charles to tell us that he also had to walk to school in feet of snow going up hill both ways.
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But in all honesty I think Gregg brings home the reality of and or maybe its the simple fact that you literally have a couple guys managing massive machines pulling tonnage measured in miles that also utterly rely on maintaining the air pressure operating in -20 to -30 weather. It truly comes down to the fact that having massive amount of manpower for 10 to 15 or maybe 20 days out of the year makes sense but doesn’t rest of year.
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The flip side is 45 years ago the trains never stop but when weather thaws those two guys will move a massive amount of tonnage that PC and Conrail could never comprehend.
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Of course a sweet spot is somewhere out there and truly wonder if the railroad mangers, employees and unions got in a room and say what will take to grow & compete with trucks. Maybe it would be a lot shorter trains, running a lot more often but with one engineer in the cab and one conductor in a pickup truck covering a territory of trains because the people realize that the cheaper guy, trucking firms, have a lot of fricking people.