BLET 134 AUXILIARY
 
 
Formal Meeting:  OCTOBER 6, 2009
​               6:00 PM
                             211 West Henderson
 
 
We are organizing a BLET auxiliary that allows spouses of BLET members an opportunity to support the interests and welfare of the BLET and their families and to provide opportunities to get to know one another by organizing social events.  All spouses of BLET members are invited to attend.  
 
National President, Becky Schneider, will be in attendance.
 
Any questions contact Lynne Sawyer 587-2601

BNSF News

BNSF Crosses into New Frontiers with Longer Trains

2009-08-13
Recently, new train length records were set on intermodal and grain trains, as employees continue to look for innovative ways to meet customers' needs.

Both trains used distributed power (DP) locomotives to transport cars and, in one case, goods to market.

The achievements are an example of employees working together across a region to improve efficiency and meet customer needs.

Intermodal trains
BNSF started an intermodal 10,000-foot train initiative in May 2007 and has since operated more than 800 extended length trains between Southern California and either Clovis, N.M., or Chicago. To gain further efficiencies and to accommodate more intermodal customers' freight on the first available departing train, BNSF is now testing intermodal train lengths up to 12,000 feet.

The first of these test trains departed on July 10 and traveled from the Southern California on-dock facilities to Clovis, N.M., with cars measuring 12,000 feet plus the length of seven locomotives.

The train used DP and was configured with three locomotives in the front, two in the middle and two at the rear. Total tonnage was 11,256 tons and set a new record of 458 units. The train traveled 1,151 route miles.

The previous record for units was 435 - set in January 2009 -- and was on a 10,000-foot train.

"Now that we've completed several successful 'test' trains, we're looking at other ways to benefit from the longer train lengths, including changes in our power configuration, expansion to other origin locations, such as our Hobart facility in Los Angeles, and extension beyond Clovis through to Chicago," said Dave Williams, senior manager, Intermodal Service Design.

Putting a long train together
It takes intense planning to put together a 12,000-foot train. Curt Richards, manager, Hub Operations in Los Angeles, figured out how to put the first together, and the challenges continue because the trains are more than two miles long. A significant amount of track is required to get the train staged, loaded and ready to go. To simplify the job, Richards "cut" the job into more manageable pieces and used several different tracks to get the cars staged and ready to go.

"Once the cars were loaded, then we staged the train," said Keith Miller, superintendent, Operations, Southern California on-dock facilities.

Getting ready to haul grain
Meanwhile employees on the Twin Cities Division were looking at ways to improve efficiency due partly to the Mullan Tunnel closure, previously reported in BNSF News. The closure resulted in rerouting a number of trains, and that meant BNSF personnel were on the lookout for effective ways to meet customer needs.

Crews came up with the idea of putting the longer train together. So, on July 30, employees on the Twin Cities Division put together two 112-car trains, plus locomotives, for a train of more than 13,000 feet in length. David Helbling, superintendent, Operations, said the grain train had two locomotives at the head plus a remote locomotive between the 112-car sections - plus a locomotive at the rear. After traveling 225 route miles from Staples, Minn., through Northtown to Willmar, the train was literally "broken" in half and each section went its own way to two different customers for loading.

"This has made us look at how we use DP in a different way," Helbling said. "We knew it would give us more flexibility, but we hadn't really started to understand how much. We kind of feel like we're standing on the edge of a new frontier."

Planning for this intricate venture was a key to its success, and it brought together a team of field leaders and other employees from Transportation, Mechanical and the Network Operations Center that accomplished what most have said may never happen.

One employee described it this way: "The success of this endeavor only triggered the imagination of many as to what will be the next challenge."

BNSF Headquarters
BNSF Railway Company
2650 Lou Menk Dr. 2nd Floor
P.O. Box 961057
Fort Worth, TX 76161-0057
Phone: (817) 352-1000

Let the KCS help you out with that.

http://winslowblet.org/~adiv134/videos/trainmovie.wmv

CSX (CSX) and the Norfolk Southern (NSC) released their 2009 1st quarter earnings. CSX reported that they had “a better-than-expected first-quarter net profit, due in part to continued strong pricing”, while the NS said it was “aggressively cutting costs in order to offset the drop in freight volumes." Better than expected, according to CSX, is a 23% drop from 2008 (I would hate to see what they thought a bad quarter would be). Today, Burlington Northern Sante Fe (BNI) and the Union Pacific (UP) will release their 1st quarter earnings, but will Wall Street continue to celebrate their lackluster performance?

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This was a State Troopers car that was hit at the Chicken Ranch road crossing.