Yes, that’s the one Dale. It’s big news in our end of the state. Like most other things tend to be, it’s probably just over-hype but our local news media circus. Everybody keeps screaming 2000 jobs!!![:O] Using my media vs. reality multiplier, I’d guess it’s more like 200 jobs.[;)]
Given the area they are looking at, I’d say the project needs water, cheap land,low taxes, available workforce, and transportation accesability. I’d put my bet on something ag realated, ethanol, biodiesel, etc…
Does the D&I own the track from Canton to Sioux City? If so, it would seem this site may be accesable from BNSF, from the west, of D&I( / UP / CN ) from the south. I thought the D&I was in pretty rough shape in that area, with lots of slow orders. Has that changed, or is that only in the area north of the BNSF line from Mitchell?
I believe D&I only owns Sioux Falls to Dell Rapids, and leases Canton-Elk Point and Hawarden-Beresford from the State, and operates through trackage rights on BNSF Sioux Falls-Canton and Elk Point-Sioux City.
Did BNSF buy both of those segments from the State last year ?
…Rail lines returning from the dead: I might as well add this event. A coal branch in southwestern Pennsylvania near Shanksville…yes the famous one of Flight 93…had a coal operation that ended 8 or more years ago and has been dormant since…Rails were obscured down in the mud and covered with brush growth in some areas, etc…Typical of what one looks like in abandoned stage.
Now after some rehabilitation of the ROW and ditches and all involved it has been brought back to life with the rebuild and already has supported a 70 car coal train with six axle engines.
I understand it belongs to PBS Coal now. It is about 8 miles in length and connects to CSX, S&C branch at Coleman, Pa. Anyone that wants a look on satellite can find it just west of Shanksville…{Coal loading tiple and sidings there}, and the other end is generally west at Coleman. The S&C branch of CSX runs between Johnstown and Rockwood, Pa.
This is from a post on 5-01-05 by pltbrnch, on a thread titled BNSF & The State of South Dakota, which I am not smart enough to link to, or quote from.([:I])
The state and BNSF announced the agreement yesterday (sale worth over $41 million to South Dakota), both offering glowing comments about the other. Pending STB approval, this deal settles the lawsuits the two sides had against each other. Lines covered are ex-Milwaukee Road lines, Aberdeen-Mitchell-Sioux City, and Canton-Mitchell-Sioux Falls.
South Dakota purchased the lines for about $15 million after the Milwaukee embargo in 1980, and contracted with BN to run them. BN had a purchase option and wanted to excercise it recently, but due to the growing beligerent attitude by BNSF regarding grain-rate pricing and trackage rights issues for smaller companies (DM&E, Dakota Southern, etc) the state refused to sell these lines to BNSF. The whole thing was headed to Federal Court before the agreement was announced.
The agreement also provides haulage rights for Dakota Southern, Dakota and Iowa and Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern over the core system and gives possible new life to two other state-owned branches (Mitchell to Kadoka and Yankton to Platte) that have long been out of service due partly to BNSF pricing policy making hauling grain outside of 110-car shuttle trains prohibitive.
If the above is correct, it appears the line from Napa Junction to Ravena would have an outlet to Sioux City. Can anybody confirm if the above info is correct?
I know BNSF bought the Sioux Falls>Canton>Mitchell line, and the Aberdeen>Mitchell>Sioux City line. I haven’t, as yet, figured out the Canton>Elk Point line, but I’d bet that was sold to BNSF as well. Hawarden Iowa>Beresford, I would guess, is still State owned. It hauls nothing but grain from elevators in Beresford.
I found some more info of interest, on the State Railroad Official Map, of all places ([:I]). It shows that the line from Canton to Elk Point is still owned by the State, both D&I and BNSF have trackage rights.
I also read that, as part of the sale of the Core lines to BNSF, trackage rights were to given from Napa Junction, to Sioux City. The state, and BNSF are going to reconstruct the interchange at Napa Junction.
The line from Elk Point to Sioux City is in excellent shape as BNSF installed new CWR a couple of years ago. They also put in a new siding – I would guess about 8000 feet – at North Sioux City. It has been years since I paid any attention to the state owned line from Elk Point to Canton, so I’m not sure what its condition might be.
Modelcar and gabe mentioned a couple of short, 5 to 10 mile, rail lines that were brought back from extinction to haul coal from inactive coal mines. The short distance, and the instant traffic involved in plans like that sound like no-brainer decissions to me. What about a 40-50 mile line, being brought back from extinction, to haul only grain, and possibly service an upcoming ethanol plant? Has anyone heard of a similar grain collecting branch being re-opened?
Actually, although the Indiana Rail Road line I was referring to was once owned by a coal company and led to a coal mine, it is not used for coal service now, and that was not why it was brought back from the dead. The Indiana Rail Road uses it to expidite interchange between its now-ex Milwaukee Road Chicago-Louisville line to the western half of its Effingham - Indianapolis line. The primary use of this line is bridge traffic for PRB coal to a power plant in Newton–although I have been told it has been used for other traffic as well.
There is currently talk of bringing a 20-mile ex-IC Evansville line back from the dead–and I do mean “dead” as the tracks have been pulled. This is the line that Ed gives great stories about. The goal of this talked-of rebirth is to serve an ethenol plant and a grain silo.
Also, I am pretty sure when the ex-SP , ex Rock Island St. Louis-Kansas City line was “dead” before the current operater/Missouri Central opened up about a 100 mile segment of this line. I know coal was involved in that decision, but I think they are hauling other goods as well.
Finally, the Indiana Railroad brought a line back from the dead for a very short time that ran from Indianapolis to Tipton, IN (about 45 miles). Although it served a power plant about 20 miles up the line, the primary decision to try to make a go of this line had little if anything to do wi
Also, now that I think of it, there was a line in New England recently brought back from the dead by the Providence and Worchester–I think. I seem to remember that it was a 20 mile line or so. I think there was a picture of the first run in the last or second to last Trains.
About five years or so ago, I think they reopened a line in Delaware. But, that was many moons ago, and I seem to have fogotten the details.
“Dead”, in reference to the S.D. line I’m talking about, means you would have to locate the line by looking for familiar patterns in the treelines through cornfields. Once you get the scents of some “tracks”, you would still need a metal detector, and a shovel, to find the existing rails under the brush. Another good way to find those rascals, is to find the tallest structure in a small town-the elevator. From there, there is usually an invisible line going in each direction, from nowhere to nowhere.[:P]
In our part of the world, you can bet that no rail lines will be re-built to increase traffic flow. We don’t have enough traffi now. That’s the problem. Do you know if the re-opened lines you mention received any state funding, as part of the financing?
The Indiana Railroad resurection to create a bypass for its ex-Milwaukee line was not financed by the State but was financed by a coal company to encourage competition.
The Indiana Railroad resurection from Indianapolis to Tipton was self-financed. But, this line was not nearly as dead as per “your definition.” I think on the whole, it was in pretty good shape.
I am certain both the Delaware and P&W lines referred to above had substantial state funding.
I don’t think the Missouri Central received state funding.
The talk of resurecting the ex-IC line in Souther Illinois/Indiana will probably seek state funding.
Gabe
P.S. I wonder what the law is on abandoned rail property. Some forms of abandoned property, people are free to simply take. With scrap as high as it is, I am surprised you could have 100 miles or rail burried in the mud–to say nothing of other metal aspects of the line–
The Wisconsin Southern has a proposal on the table to re-install the 47 mile branch between Monroe and Mineral Point. Also a short brach off of this from Gratiot to Shullsburg. The Mineral Point line was removed in 1988 and is an ATV trail. The branch to shullsburg was removed in 1956 and is used in some spots by farmers to access their fields and will need to be purchased from the landowners.The need to do this is to haul grain.The WSOR will soon have at least 4 ethanol plants on their system. Funding is to be 80% state and federal and the other 20% will be WSOR,local transit commissions that own the right of way, and anyone else they can sucker in to help pay for it. Will it happen? Wisconsin has money problems like every other state so who knows for sure.
KCS has an active project to reopen the line between Roseville and Victoria in Texas. Last time I drove along the UP line between Roseville and Flatonia (along which KCS has trackage rights), there was a KCS train in every siding. I have heard that the KCS run from Houston to Corpus Christi takes about 36 hours due to congestion. Roseville/Victoria will really help KCS on that time.
(1) Abandoned rail free for the taking. Watched any of the Honey Creek RR case back there.?? (One construction company found out it ain’t free and some of your trade are gainfully employed because of the ongoing court case.)
(2) Missouri Central is dead for now. Thanks to AMEREN, it goes no further east than Union and is run under contract by INRD. Until AMEREN goes away, it won’t return. It is a power company’s leveraged plaything.