(The following appeared on The Register-Mail website on November 4.)
GALESBURG, Ill. — At the rate of 2,000 railroad ties a day for 74 days, a 45-person BNSF track gang replaced more than 140,000 ties on the Chillicothe subdivision in Illinois.
Replacement crews used tie cranes, spike pullers and tie insertion/removal machines to do work during an 8-hour window each day between Galesburg and Verona, about 20 miles northeast of Streator in LaSalle County.
Ties replaced on the rail line will be reused or recycled in keeping with BNSF’s environmental stewardship policies.
Additionally, a second BNSF gang was conducting track undercutting operations on the Chillicothe line between Willow Springs and Niota. Undercutting involves the removal, cleaning and replacement of ballast (rocks) under the track. Ballast makes up the visible portion of the railway’s roadbed and must be occasionally screened to remove broken rocks, dirt and other debris.
Together, the tie replacement and the undercutting projects cost about $12 million.
As part of a $2.85 billion capital commitment in 2008, BNSF currently expects to spend more than $1.8 billion this year to keep the railway’s infrastructure strong by refreshing track, signal systems, structures, freight cars and upgrading technologies.