(The Craig Daily Press published the following story by Jeremy Browning on its website on October 23.)
CRAIG, Colo. — As motorists driving between Craig and Steamboat no doubt have noticed, railroad maintenance crews have been working on the line that carries coal out of the Yampa Valley to various destinations.
Work on the Union Pacific line, which ends at Axial, has been under way for about a month. Crews expect to be finished within a few days, according to John Bronley, a Union Pacific spokesman.
The company sent two tie gangs to replace damaged or rotted railroad ties along a stretch of track between Axial and Steamboat.
One crew is working west of Steamboat and the other is south of Craig, replacing ties on a 9-mile stretch of track that will culminate with work on the track in Craig.
Coal cars are “pretty heavy” on the ties, Bronley said, but they still last quite a while here. In Colorado, the ties last approximately 25 to 30 years. Weather and the type of freight contribute to the life spans of ties. They tend to last longer out west than in the humid South. Bronley said Union Pacific sends crews in intervals to replace the ties.
“The trick is not to replace all of them at once so the railroad doesn’t wear out all at once,” Bronley said. But, he said, they’re always replacing ties on the main line.
According to Bronley, the tie gangs replace every third or fourth tie, as needed. One Union Pacific worker said the tie gangs sometimes have to replace as many as 10 in a row, depending on the condition of the ties.
Trains still run on the line, scheduled around maintenance windows, usually at night and during the tie gangs’ days off. In the meantime, stacks of ties, 15 to a bundle, are staged along the track, awaiting installation.
The valley section of the Union Pacific line carries coal from local mines, but not much else.
“I don’t know if we move anything else but coal. It’s primarily a coal line,” Bronley said.
Bronley said the line is a “steady producer,” that averages five trains a day. Statewide, Union Pacific runs about 30 trains a day. A train full of coal carries about 13,000 to 14,000 tons of coal, with a single car carrying about 100 tons. The trains head east to Bond, where they meet the main line, heading elsewhere in the country, Bronley said.
Kennecott Energy and Colowyo Coal are among the top Union Pacific customers.