I discovered a couple of YT videos showing the impressive Lake Pend Orielle bridge that BNSF is planning to augment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Nu7SJvE_Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojPlhBeiCJA
So far I have not found any recent status reports on Kootenai Sub signaling upgrades - about 11 sidings were still unbonded at last count.
Mike, on the 11th I did some shooting at the bridge. Grading is still under way along Lake Cocolalla. No track for second main laid there yet.
Track-laying and ballast dumping for the second main along Lake Cocolalla began last week. West Algoma is gone and a new control point, CP Reasor, has been added just west of there. BNSF tells me the name is in honor of a railroad family who once lived in the area. In just a matter of weeks, the Funnel will be solid 2MT from Otis Orchards, WA, to just short of the Lake Pend Oreille bridge at East Algoma.
Wife and I spent Saturday in Sandpoint, photographing 31 trains between 6am and 8pm. That’s not counting the 5 or 6 trains we passed during the 45 minute drive north and likewise on the way home, plus the half-dozen or more trains that rolled through Sandpoint during the high-sun middle hours of the day when we grabbed lunch and enjoyed some non-camera time at the beach.
Thanks for the status update, Bruce!
That’s an astonishing amount of traffic, is it typical for this time of year?
Someone [:-^] needs to sponsor a webcam on this segment of the northern transcon; the southern is well covered.
Mike, this part of BNSF often out-performs the national trend. It does have its share of intermodal (nowhere near what the southern Transcon handles) but is also blessed with a wide variety of domestic carload traffic, bulk ag traffic (mostly grain), crude bound for terminals up and down the west coast, and coal bound for two PNW powerplants as well as for export (the latter via B.C. ports).
Trade wars or not, peak season/fall rush in the PNW typically begins in late July, everything from harvested grain moving west to back-to-school and holiday (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas) merchandise moving east. It gets heaviest during October-November. To be fair, without a month’s worth of lineups at my fingertips, I can only give you anectdotal observations from the Funnel. I live within eyesight and earshot of West Hauser, and with clear scanner reception at home that ranges from well west of Spokane to slightly east of Sandpoint. Some days and nights lately have been slower or busier than others. What I witnessed last Saturday at Sandpoint was typical of recent years, but seemed oddly abundant for what is supposedly a depressed period for rail traffic in general.
MRL has been averaging 25-30 trains per day over Mullan Pass (up considerably from previous years), the majority of which are overhead BNSF trains which join the Funnel at Sandpoint. Just so happens that on my multiple visits to Sandpoint so far this year, it seemed as though half (if not more) of the trains through that lovely city and crossing the Lake Pend Oreille bridge were coming off of or heading onto MRL.
Are there plans to double track Otis Orchards-Spokane ?
Yes, BNSF plans to add a second main between Otis Orchards and Irvin, WA. A distance of just over four miles. It will require a pretty large bridge over the Spokane River and an awful lot of approach fill. Here’s a link to one of the last local news stories about it. The expected spring 2019 start-up hasn’t begun, and the news story mis-identifies the east end of the proposed project as Hauser, ID. That’s obviously incorrect, since there’s been 2MT between Hauser and Otis Orchards for 21 years.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/feb/26/bnsf-to-double-track-on-line-linking-spokane-valle/
Here’s a pic of the existing bridge via Bridgehunter:
More details: http://bridgehunter.com/wa/spokane/bh50196/
Apparently there was another bridge north of this one decades ago; the footings can be seen from the Hwy-290/Trent Ave street view. Anyone know the history?
Those old stone piers are from the original 1881 NP alignment, which made more of a sweeping S-bend crossing of the river. BN track charts from the 1990s indicate the current bridge and alignment were built 1909-1911. That was when NP was shifting much of its main line slightly to the south where it runs through Parkwater, Yardley, and Erie Street Yard, utilizing a long, low trench between Yardley and Erie Street. Some segments of the original main are still in service for a mile or two west of Yardley and east of Parkwater. All of this was in conjunction with NP’s construction of its elevated viaduct through downtown to eliminate the numerous street crossings.
Will that close the double track gap all the way to Spokane?
Yes.
BTW the second main track section next to Cocolalla Lake has been put in service recently. CP Reasor, a new universal crossover at MP 14.3, also is in service with CP Cocolalla and CP W Algoma being retired. 2MT CTC is now continuous from CP Otis Orchards MP 58.9 east to CP East Algoma MP 5.1 on the Spokane sub.
Found a related article penned by our correspondent Bruce Kelly: https://www.railwayage.com/mw/bnsf-forges-more-funnel-double-track/
Some of the unbonded sidings between Sandpoint ID and Whitefish MT should be ‘signalized’ by now, need to check ATCS Monitor for kit updates. Or maybe some sightings by some locals … [:O]
Here’s some additional background on the Lake Coke 2nd main, including a visual.
https://www.railwayage.com/mw/bnsf-forges-more-funnel-double-track/?RAchannel=home
Not mentioned in the RA story is the fact that BNSF put up a sturdy barbed wire fence along its property on the northeast end of the lake to prevent people from walking from the highway parking areas across the two mains to access the shoreline. A smaller section of fence tops a retaining wall that was added at the southeast end of the lake.
As for the signal upgrade between Sandpoint and Whitefish, I can’t speak for the entire route, but from what I’ve personally observed between Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry this year, there have been some new signals installed at unbonded sidings, but trains have still been entering those sidings at restricted speed. That tells the transformation was only part way done, at least as of this past summer. I haven’t been east of Bonners Ferry since this time last year.
On the southern transcon front, a post on another forum states that a contractor has been seen grading for a second MT between Cassoway siding and El Dorado Lake, KS (Chelsea). Furthermore, this 10 miles reportedly is part of a ~50 mile contract (bounds unknown). BNSF has previously announced ‘intent’ but no further details AFAIK.
Grading far in advance is typical for a large 2MT project as it gives time for the ROW a chance to ‘settle’, relocating utilities, etc. before building final touches like prefab bridges.
Anyone with pictures or useful links, please post!
In looking at google satellite views, there appears to be about 6 miles of single track here. It looks like the grading and bridge work was completed some time ago. I have to wonder why this was not double tracked long ago. There does not appear to be any major obstacles like other recent two tracking projects.
Looking at a street view in the area it looks like work was started as early as 2007
2007
2012
I agree that adding a second MT should proceed quickly being pretty flat territory, IIRC some of the area is referred to as the ‘Flint Hills’. Be interesting to see if they extend / join sidings a la P.S.R. or do the whole shebang. The directional routing via Newton/Wichita may be running out of capacity, especially since the Ark City sub sidings are pretty short.
Hmm, looks like normal grading for a maintenance road to me, or perhaps they ran out of $$$ for more second main. The road overpass looks pretty short and probably was built when the ROW was graded c.1970 to bypass the old route now underwater. More wait and see …
I did not see any news articles about a new bridge. Wonder if they were just regrading the road.
Here is a single track section in the Flint Hills:
Flint Hills region is something to see. It was never farmed. The soil was too rocky. You can easily imagine what the pioneers faced as they ventured west. I-35 cuts through it on a narrow ROW. You can make out semis traveling on it in the distance in the BNSF drone video on the post above. Virtually unspoiled prairie from horizon to horizon, mile after mile. In the fall, it’s all golden brown. Awe inspiring in its own way.