On 12/26/2014 11:40 AM, dpb wrote:
On 12/26/2014 11:49 AM, John McCoy wrote:
"G. wrote in news:36idnbiF8tme8gDJnZ2dnUU7-U-
:

The long coal trains in west Texas someone mentioned travel on
parallel tracks so they don't have to worry about sidings and such
unless there is a derailment or breakdown.

Actually, that's not so - slower trains, such as coal trains,
need to be overtaken by faster trains (container trains,
passenger trains if it happens to be a line with Amtrak
service, etc). Having double track makes life easier, but
it doesn't eliminate the need for sidings.

And, I don't think there's all that much of W Texas that has dual
mainline, anyway, really. I couldn't find a UP route map with
sufficient detail in a quick search to confirm, but I've driven the
stretch north of Amarillo where there's a goodly-size coal-fired plant
burning Powder Basin coal and seen them on sidings there...and there's
certainly no double line when get on up across E Colorado. I also
travel US 287 from Lamar thru Eads to Limon as it cuts off the 90 corner
for us to get to Denver and there's a couple-mile siding along there. It
doesn't show on UP route map that I saw but I don't think those maps
were any but main routes; not every mile of track. Or, it could be that
is an interconnection local line across there; I've not investigated.
There's another coal-fired plant W of Garden City, KS, that gets service
via an interconnect to the Santa Fe that comes from up across that way
as well to/from Powder Basin and/or Wyoming...

--

UP has dual track on most if not all of the route between El Paso and
LA. They've been doing ballast work and replacing ties - much with
concrete for quite a few years now.

I heard several years ago that their traffic would pick up from 80 to
100 trains a week - or was that a day? - through Casa Grande, AZ. It
does seem like one rolls through every 15 minutes or so.


--
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure,the creed of ignorance, and the
gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery"
-Winston Churchill