(The following story by Darrin Stineman appeared on the Salina Journal website on March 19.)
SALINA, Kan. — It required nine hours, one high-tech trailer and the efforts of dozens of people, but Locomotive 6301 finally reached the end of the line Tuesday.
As dusk was nearing Tuesday evening, the donated Burlington Northern-Santa Fe locomotive was welded to a set of tracks at the Smoky Hill Weapons Range nine miles southwest of Salina as part of a mock setup so that emergency personnel can train for disasters.
The locomotive, which was freshly painted in orange and black for its new endeavor, made its final trip along the rails from Topeka to the rail spur at Smoky Hill LLC, 1615 W. Magnolia. There, a 17-member crew from Kentucky-based R.J. Corman Railroad Group did something they almost never do: They loaded the locomotive onto a truck trailer.
Using side booms on four vehicles resembling Caterpillar bulldozers, the crew moved the 300,000-pound locomotive off the tracks and onto level ground, then lifted it about 10 feet off the ground so an 80-foot trailer could back under it. Once secured, the locomotive was hauled a block west on Magnolia to Centennial Road, south to Water Well Road, west to Burma Road, north to Farrelly Road, west to Englund Road, and south on Englund to the weapons range.
Top speed was about 15 mph, but an intricate hydraulic system distributed weight on the trailer and kept the load stable, and 120 individually turning wheels on the 15-axle trailer made it maneuverable.
“Where you can pull a trailer behind a pickup, he can pretty much put that thing, if it’s wide enough,” said Kevin Klenklen, special projects manager for R.J. Corman. “He made all those corners with ease and was able to weave through the traffic lights and that kind of stuff.”
Law enforcement personnel had to block off Magnolia for a time to get the trailer in and out, and Cox Communications workers had to lift overhead lines in three places for the locomotive to pass through, Klenklen said. Several city and county staff members in engineering and road departments also were involved, he said.
“It went extremely well,” Klenklen said of the state-sponsored effort. “Without the cooperation of the city and the county, all those good folks, this never would’ve happened. I wish I could take the people in Salina, Kansas, to other places to work. I mean, it’s been that good.”
Rail cars will be taken to the site today, Klenklen said, but they are considerably smaller and lighter and won’t require the same comprehensive effort.
He’s glad for that. Klenklen said even R.J. Corman, which specializes in cleaning up train derailments, hasn’t done a project like Tuesday’s in years.
“It’s very rare,” he said. “We load them up on platforms and haul them to repair facilities, but it’s not very often we load them onto a trailer.”