On 12/26/2014 12:40 PM, 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...

--
Trains run east west from Dallas. The Main heavy line runs from San
Antonio and stays south and moves north of Big Bend on the line to the
Rio Grande and then north into El Paso. Was 3 oil/gas refineries there
and Army and Air Force bases. Then onward to LA or to Pheonix...

It runs north from LA though to (I want to say) Washington.

Martin