Information from Kansas City Southern BB&T Transportation Conference Report: 1. Plan to complete rebuilding of ex S.P. line from Rosenberg to Victoria and put into operation by late 2008 or early 2009 a. 84.5 miles long (will be significantly shorter than route thru Flatonia) b. Will eliminate routing KCS trains thru Flatonia c. 89 public crossings & 66 private crossings d. 136 lb rail e. 223,000 concrete ties f. 491,000 tons of ballast g. 23 timber bridges replaced by culverts h. 15 open deck timber bridges being repaired i. 32 new open deck ballast bridges built j. Reconstruct Colorado & Lavaca River bridges 2. Locomotive Plan a. Buy 210 new locos b. Down to 845 total units by end of 2008 c. Reduce road unit variety from 13 types to 7 types d. Reduce age of loco fleet from 25 yrs to 9 yrs e. Use two AC locos on all manifest & intermodal trains - with few exceptions 3. Car Plan a. Purchase new covered hoppers and coal cars 4. Business Outlook a. Agriculture & Minerals business - increase in volume b. Forest Products & Metals - about the same as this year c. Chemicals & Petroleum - increase d. Intermodal - big increase (recent opening of Lázaro Cárdenas Port) e. Automotive - big increase (small cars) f. Coal - decrease
Now I see why no older power has appeared yet in Southern Belle. They're planning to get rid of most of it shortly.
That means get those pics of SD40s, SD40-2s and those oddball SDP40s quick before they become rent-a-wrecks or scrap...........
