Recently, I’ve read where some party is interested in re-opening the former Milwaukee Road branchline from Napa Junction, (west of Yankton, S.D.) to Platte, S.D. This little branchline was laid cheaply, and hurriedly in about the 1880’s. Milwaukee Road shut it down around 1980. It operated as Dakota Southern from about 1985 to 1989. Since then, it has simply disappeared into the prairie. Can a line like this be brought back from the dead? How would anyone justify such a big expediture, to haul grain out of the area? At the extreme end of the line at Platte, a rail road might save 100 miles of trucking, verses hauling grain to the BNSF lines. Is there a future there?
A $20 million rebuild can’t be paid for by hauling grain. In this case, a new ethanol plant may make it work.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SD_RAIL_LINE_SDOL-?SITE=SDSIO&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
If the traffic is there, any line can be brought back from the dead, even abandoned lines. But that is a BIG “if.” I think the question you are asking is if the traffic will support a line that depends virtually 100% on originating grain (I am not familiar with the specifics of the line you are asking about and I am not commenting on it specifically). That question depends on how much money it will require to restore the track to viability. If one is inserting 1,000 ties per mile at $100 each installed, which is probably not unlikely (and even less than what might be needed) that’s $10 million before one even gets to rail, bridges, ballast, and god forbid any active grade-crossing warning devices. A really run down line can easily soak up $600,000 to $1 million per mile to rebuild good enough for light-density traffic not including bridges. If you want 286K and unit trains the cost is more like $1.6-2.2 million/mile, not including bridges. Grain even drawn from a large basin may not generate enough carloadings to pay for the capital expense plus the operating costs.
However the state might conclude otherwise, both to reduce highway maintenance costs and because some people in some states like railroad lines from an emotional perspective uncoupled from any sort of economic reality. Now on the other hand if you told me someone wanted to put 5 or 6 millon gross tons per year over it, give me a call.
Edit – just saw Dale’s post. $20 million for 54.5 miles; I wonder where that number came from? Anyone know what kind of rail is out there, and if there are bridges, how big and how many?
Sikak
I understand an ethanol plant would go a long way toward making this idea viable. However, the discussion of the possibilities for grain shipments left me confused. This line connects to the BNSF at Yankton, and you must use the BNSF to get to Elk Point. From there, it is the D&I to Sioux City.
So to get to those five (I think the real number is two) Class I’s in Sioux City, you need track rights from the BNSF. Why would the BNSF give you track rights so you can connect with the UP?
From what I’ve seen, the line is pretty well gone, having been reclaimed by the prairie. All paved roads over the line have been paved right over the rails, etc… What I’ve read, is that the line is 60# rail. Consider that in the 70’s and 80’s,Milwaukee Road probably did no maintenence. In the last 27 or so years,there might have been a little maintenance done when Huff ran the road for a few years. The bridges, as I recall, are mostly short, wood piling bridges, over little creeks, all 100+ years old(?).
Even with an ethanol plant, it’s hard to imagine enough out-going freight to sustain such a line. I doubt that much corn would ship in to the plant, as everything for miles around is corn fields. The railroad would be 100% dependant on BNSF, for shipment to the outside world. BNSF is also who this railroad would be trying to take business away from. Interesting, as well, is that BN looked at buying this line at one time, and passed on it. What kind of outgoing freight numbers does a typical ethanol plant produce?
There has been some discussion on this board about the value of ethanol. Note in the news article, that they would burn corn, to supply 1/3 of their fuel needs!!
That last bit about being 1/3 powered by corn stalks to me is a “tell” that this thing is a giant boondoggle from the get go. Unless there’s something else there not mentioned in the article, they’re paying(!) the State $1.4 million for the line, then they’ll have to spend or borrow $20 million(?) to bring the line up to bare bones operating status, and all this for an ethanol plant that will have the highest energy costs of any such venture, presumably predicated on selling CO2 credits (a market that is ripe for corruption on a massive scale).
Answering the question, I believe that there was one rail line that was resurrected from total abandonment, fairly recently. Somebody can correct me on the details, I’m sure, but the former PRR main line into Chicago was actually taken up in northwestern Indiana, after the NS incorporated parts of it to expand capacity on its former NKP route to Fort Wayne. However, when Conrail was split up, the old PRR line was to go to CSX–and CSX rebuilt the missing line as far west as Tolleston, Indiana. It didn’t take long for CSX to decide it didn’t want the line after all, so it sold/leased/spun off the line to the Chicago, Fort Wayne & Eastern. I don’t know if they’re doing as well with it as they once were, but it’s still there, as far as I can tell.
The only part of the ex-PRR main line that was actually abandoned was the part between Whiting and Tolleston. The rest of the line was kept in place but was slowly downgraded into little more than a well-maintained branch with long sidings.
Interesting…I did some more searching about info pertinent to this. From the book Rails Through the Grass, The Milwaukee’s branch to Platte, by Rick A. Van Zee: The last year of operation, 1987, approximately 150 grain cars came off the line. A couple years earlier, it seems that figure may have been double that amount. From VanZee: “End of the line…maintenance…investment…elevators were too small…only one connection with one railroad (BN)…farmers discovered trucking their own grain to market” From the book, a quote from Alex Huff, the man who ran the line in 1987, and is trying to get it started again: “Our real competition was the truck right at the farmer’s gate”.
I see now, that the proposal is to only re-open 50 some miles of the original 93 mile branch. That would eliminate about half the elevators that shipped grain back in the 80’s, assuming they are even still there, and interested in putting back in their spur tracks.
Related to the article Dale linked- I went to high school with the State guy, Bruce Lindholm.
Two? I would think UP, BNSF, & CN. I’m not sure where they’re coming up with five.
I believe the CN has track rights to Sioux City but does not use them. Prior to 1985 the IC ran from Dubuque to LeMars in Iowa, but I believe their access to Sioux City was via the C&NW. In that year, the Chicago, Central & Pacific was spun out of the IC as a seperate company running that route. Presumably, the track rights went with it.
Then, in 1996, the IC reacquired the Chicago, Central and operated it as a subsidiary. That remained the situation until the CN takeover.
What I am puzzled about is I believe the track rights were a substitute for the abandonment of a parallel Sioux City/LeMars line that belonged to the Milwaukee. Did such a line once exist or is that something I am confused about?
I thought CN still had the old IC line that ran down to Sioux City from Storm Lake. I’ve never had a chance to explore rail lines around Sioux City. It’s probably worth the 90 mile drive. A couple of years ago, I did see a GTW locomotive doing some switching, so I assumed it was a CN train, but who knows.
Where’s a good railroad map guy when you need him? (Dale?[;)])
There were two lines running north from Sioux City, both of which are still in use. The Great Northern line (BNSF) goes up to Willmar. The other line was Illinois Central, now CN, to Le Mars and Fort Dodge. The CSPM&O (C&NW) had rights on IC to Le Mars, which UP now has to reach St. Paul. The C&NW itself also had rights to Wren, part of a line to Hawarden, IA, abandoned in 1978. I don’t know which line the C&NW had rights on.
I believe there was only one bridge across the Missouri into Nebraska, which was GN (?), with CB&Q and CSPM&O having rights on.
Murphy, the line you refer to running thru Storm Lake and the one I refer to running thru LeMars are the same line. It now belongs to the CN.
A map of current Iowa railroads is here: Iowa Railroad Maps - Office of Rail Transportation One of the things it shows pretty clearly is that I was wrong – the old IC was the owner of the tracks between Sioux City and LeMars and the C&NW merely the holder of track rights.
I believe that answers my question about the abandoned Milwaukee route – it never existed, but instead it is the IC/CN route.
Dale,
The CNW also had rights on the IC from Sioux City to Wren- the CNW line then diverged on the south side of the GN/IC interlocker to swing to the northwest and briefly parallel the GN(between the GN and Hwy 75) all the way up to Merrill before breaking away.
Here is a link to a good shot of the interlocking at Wren- you can see the immediate GN/IC diamond- then just beyond that one can partially see the diverging CNW line (the poor raster of the picture and the interlocking shack obscure a clear view of the diverging switch.)
http://72.185.86.34/ftparchive/Chuck%20Lyman/headend%20of%20%2311%20at%20Wren%20tower,%20Iowa%20Div,%20Cherokee%20Dist[1].%20(IC_%20CNW_BN%20interlocki.jpg
How much traffic would a rail line need to support a $20 million infrastrucure investment? When the line shut down in the 80’s, one problem sighted, was the difficulty of filling out 54 car unit grain trains for BN,from several small country elevators. The new line would eliminate 1/2 those elevators. I can’t imagine that BNSF wants anything short of unit trains off this line. Would a 50 million gallon a year ethanol plant provide enough traffic?
Dakguy201- I like your avatar. I see them daily in Sioux Falls. Where are you?
Murphy – I’m in a small town in southern Union County. Do you have any idea what the “gorilla” development down here is going to be? I’m guessing it is a power plant, which would mean a major increase in traffic on the D&I.
Is that what was discussed here ? -
http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/948099/ShowPost.aspx
(Nordique, thanks for the answer.)
Nanaimo, “gorilla” is the local name for that project in the clipping. All that is known is that:
A front company is writing options to purchase roughly 5 square miles of property in a specific location.
This is not the only area of the country being considered.
Access to rail and the Interstate system is required.
Access to as much as 20 million gallons of water a day is important.
To me, that screams power plant, but there is a lot of other guesses going around. The land involved is good farmland, but the price of the option is still very considerably above market. And, yes, without even knowing what they are dealing with, there are already some NIMBY’s pointing out possible effects on a small, rural county seat town.