(The following appeared on the Democrat Herald website on March 7, 2011.)
SHEDD, Ore. — Union Pacific repairmen are packing up and heading to Nevada today after completing a 24-mile track replacement project between here and Eugene.
“We have been replacing old rail with new, heavy-duty rail,” said welding foreman Richard Kerr. “The old stuff was just worn out.”
Kerr said the crew is down to about 113 people from an average of about 125, who worked 10- to 12-hour shifts.
The project started in mid-February. Crew members came from throughout the United States and worked eight days on and seven days off. They work in any of the 23 states in which the Union Pacific has track. In Oregon, there are 1,073 miles of it.
Kerr is from Wisconsin. Other workers are from Minnesota, Idaho, Louisiana, Tennessee, Nevada and Arizona.
A 3-foot section of the new rail weighs 136 pounds, Kerr said. The rail segments are one-quarter-mile long and are transported to the project by train.
The full story is at www.democratherald.com.