From the Railspot group on Yahoo, the latest report on construction on the ex-SP "Macaroni Line" in south Texas: 05/11/08: Behold, some significant progress in a week! NEW RAIL: KCS's last remaining section of SP 90lb. rail on the north end of their trackage has been replaced with welded rail and concrete ties. At the intermodal facility, the siding has been connected to the main on the north end with a switch. ROW CLEARING: This has progressed almost to Hungerford. SAN BERNARD RIVER BRIDGE construction continues south of Kendleton, with a couple of piers complete. Some of the SP bridge is still intact, but it appears that the decking from that bridge is being salvaged, as there are intact parts of it on the ROW south of the bridge. INTERMODAL FACILITY: quite a lot of earth work has been going on here now, but it is hard to describe. TRAINS: There was one train on KCS property Sunday, a ballast train made of KCS system of gondolas with SD40's 6611 and 6615 on the siding at Kendleton. Another similar train was on UP trackage just north of McHattie. This train was loaded and had SD40's 6601 and 6612.
Bob, We drove from Corpus Christi to Houston and back on Friday. The last trip was three months ago. Significant progress, especially at the San Bernard. It looks like clearing the ROW is progressing nicely. I am excited to know this line will be in operation again. It will greatly help the KCS move tonnage.
That's funny, the "Macaroni" Is what we Front Range fans call the Roper Yard-North Yard Manifest on UP.. "M-RONY".... At any rate, any time a railroad alignment is improved, that' a good thing. More capacity, more competition with trucks.
