Ivan and CSX Sunset Route Future

They need to cut the Sunset

The chances are that it will never run through to Florida again... the line between Mobile and Chatahooche was basically destroyed, and I think CSX will be rerouting freights through the Montgomery line to Waycross rather than rebuild the line.

Nice to see you again Mr.Nip
Was this CSX line completley washed out? and do you have a link for a news story on it?
i saw a while back where N&S wants to start running passenger trains again in the south with money from the goverment .
i think it maybe better if all the passenger routes were bid out but also a subsity from the Feds and/or State Goverment
something has to change

Check this link:

Click to page 6 (though you may get a kick out of the name of the school on page 4). The really bad ones start on 11.

Robert Madison

It would appear that the "destroyed" CSX line is back in business.

http://www.csx.com/?fuseaction=company. ... ws_year=-1


Must have been a "miraculous" change of heart at 500 Water Street!

What say we keep the rumor mill quiet for a while?

Thanks Robert those are nice Pics

Where is Waycross? Also is the Sunset still running out of NOL?

AmtrakFan

FWIW,

After the Central States Flood of 93, the old CB&Q main line, Kansas City to Lincoln, was destroyed from Waldron, Missouri to the Platte River Bridge south of Farley Missouri.

The FILL was gone... all the way down to the floor of the floodplain.

All that was left was the track. BN had, in 1991 IIRC, come through and laid welded rail and concrete ties.

BN came through with rock train after rock train. They built a new fill in this 5 mile chunk of the main. After filling, they laid new dirt overlay, ANOTHER layer of rock (as riprap), and finally placed a new roadbed and relaid every bloody tie.

I remember the first couple of weeks after the line was placed in service ... BN ran every train on a 10mph slow order.

Today, doublestack containers do 60+ on this chunk of line.

Just some thoughts on rebuilding a line.

John

I find it hard to believe that they fixed THIS so quickly...







but if they did, kudo's to them

CSX' predecessors did a respectable freight business on this line long before the Sunset was re-established, and I'm sure that continued traffic growth into Florida, not to mention possible recapture of traffic from truckers if fuel-price pressures persist, will justify the reconstruction.

And it shows just what kind of railroad CSX CAN be, when it gets its priorities straight.

http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/bus ... 8DC4.shtml

just curious from the story , I wonder if ties float ?. Wooden ones that is .

FYI - The tie migration situation is covered in this story:

http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/new ... 8E4E.shtml

David,

Lots of US mainline is still laid with wooden ties.

Mr Crazy-Nip,

Q main here in Missouri was in WORSE shape than the images you show. Fill height averages 10 feet. It was all gone, literally transported away by the Missouri floodflow.

BN rebuilt in under three months.

John

No doubt somebody will try to sue CSX for damage done to their property by an errant crosstie.

Yes, they do float.

According to the newspaper article, six miles of track were washed out. Track has 3,200 ties per mile, and a mechanized tie gang can replace around 1,500 per day, so in round terms tie renewal ought to take a couple of weeks. Then they'll drop enough ballast to stabilize things, surface the track, and bring in cars of riprap to widen the bank. I'd guess three to four weeks to do the whole job.

This line has survived many hurricanes, including Camille in 1969, which came ashore with 200 MPH winds. Camille was the strongest hurricane ever to hit the continental United States, and the rail line was back in service in a couple of months, IIRC.