(The following story by Kim Skornogoski appeared on the Great Falls Tribune website on January 11, 2010.)
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — Jim Labuda saw a daily reminder of the state of the economy every day he drove to work.
The manager of the Mountain View Co-op in Big Sandy watched the number of empty railcars stored on a rarely used rail line increase — until recently.
“They’ve had (cars) stored there for the last couple of winters. It’s kind of routine anymore,” Labuda said. “But they’ve got them pretty well all cleaned off now.”
BNSF spokesman Gus Melonas said the company is finally able to put some of its parked cars to use, some of which were stored on the line outside Big Sandy.
Systemwide, BNSF is now storing 28,247 of its North American fleet of about 100,000 cars.
In Montana, stored cars line 65 miles of track — down from a peak of 87 miles of track in April.
The cars are stored between Helena and Great Falls, between Big Sandy and Havre, and near Moore and Circle.
BNSF Railway is the nation’s top hauler of container rail freight, shipping mostly consumer goods imported to the West Coast from Asia.
Across the country, rail companies are storing a total of more than 450,000 cars combined.
Craig residents protested the parked rail cars in their area, saying the cars detracted from the area’s natural beauty, which draws anglers from across the country.
In Big Sandy, businesses were equally concerned about the clogged tracks, but not for aesthetic reasons.
Mountain View Co-op pays more to lease its property because it is located along the rail line, but with the line full of unused cars, the company had to bring in fertilizer supplies by truck.
Every year, Golden Harvest Seeds owner Roger Terry brings four or five railcar loads of corn in to Big Sandy to feed cattle.
“The big issue is that the train is no longer available for grain,” Terry said. “Now farmers haul their wheat on semis to Kershaw, Rudyard or Great Falls.”
Big Sandy Chamber of Commerce President Conrad Heimbigner, who manages the town’s NAPA Auto Parts Store and co-owns the lumberyard, said that if the tracks are used for storage instead of hauling grain, the town risks losing its grain elevator.
For now, he remains hopeful that the cars on the rail line that cuts through town will be moving.
Melonas said what happens to the other cars being stored across the state and the country depends on the nation’s shipping needs. That demand is picking up, though not as fast as anyone would like, he said.
“Once the demand picks up, the goal is to get the cars back in service and begin moving freight,” Melonas said. “It’s driven by the economy — we’re certainly hoping that happens sooner rather than later.”