well they have been delt a serious blow to there business.

The Bridge in Pine City has been closed and all operations south of there, which
is almost all of there business, have been shut down. the Geep is stationed on
the north end of Pine City and the SW is stuck in Rush City.there isn't much
happening since all cars have to get south of Pine city. we had 4 cars of
nitrogen that had to get diverted over to cambridge since they cant get down to
North Branch. if anyone gets over this way be sure to swing by and get some
shots. poor economy and bridge repairs aren't exactly the best thing to happen
right now....

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A BNSF fan by default.

That would explain the 80 cars from Hinckley that arrived at Northtown this afternoon. Any word on fixing or is this the end of the line?

as of now nothing has been publiced so can't say what is going to happen. I can say its the south bridge peir. I will be heading over there friday for sure to have a look see for myself, with the camera of course.

I saw the 80+ cars that came back in. they had the normal local power and they stole the grove job unit for extra power.

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A BNSF fan by default.

I always thought it would be the bridge over Highway 70.

That's a horrible thing to happen though. Hopefully funds can become available and soon. Do they own the line or does BNSF lease it to them?

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Jared F.
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BNSF owns the track the SCXV maintaines it.

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A BNSF fan by default.

Would the BNSF have any responsibility with that scenario or would it be in BNSF's best interst to help them out?

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I have not heard if BNSF will help out. I highly doubt they will. Horizon Milling also has said they have no interest in helping pay for the bridge work.

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A BNSF fan by default.

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Jared F.
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Horizon Milling also has said they have no interest in helping pay for the bridge work.[/quote]






I'm a little curious as to how you arrived at this conclusion. Do you work for them or is this just a rumor that was overheard somewhere?

intel. I know people.

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A BNSF fan by default.

Mine are on the corporate level, with Cargill.

are they now saying they will pay out money??? last I knew they weren't to interested.

_________________
A BNSF fan by default.

No answer has been formally announced to either party. I will gaurentee that the last thing Cargill is interested in is loosing that plant or any plant for that matter. I'm sure the SCV is not too interested in shutting down the operation either. Dry milling nationwide is on the verge of an all out explosion of production. Loosing any facility would be detrimental at this stage of the economy to any company or location.

How situations like this normally play out is incident (bridge in this case) occurs. Class 1 if looking to dump, abandon or spin off industry trackage or branchline tells customer that customer must pay to repair or replace. Customer looks at all infrastucture to which track is leading to and decides accordingly. See Crystal Sugar/ MN river bridge in Chaska. In a lot of situations especcially with regionals, customers on the larger scales will assist with low interest loans or even grants.

This is going to be a large expense to someone. I think the survival of both companies involved meaning remaining at present locations will depend on the ability to find funding or liquid assets to help offset costs directly to the railroad. If they require assistance is not my business to know. Say for example they do, the ability to remain open will hinge on the ability to free up any nessecary monetary lines and get a fix or repair moving as soon as possible.

One thing that concerns me on the problem being corrected, is how fast the railroad pulled as many pieces of rolling stock out of the district as they could. That could be a very accurate foretelling of things to come, possibly not the best ending. This will be a very interesting situation to watch play out.

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Jared F.
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[quote="foss0244"][quote="Chris"]One thing that concerns me on the problem being corrected, is how fast the railroad pulled as many pieces of rolling stock out of the district as they could. That could be a very accurate foretelling of things to come, possibly not the best ending. This will be a very interesting situation to watch play out.[/quote]

So, you're saying that it would have maybe been better to leave most of the rolling stock in Rush City and just say to BNSF/Cargill/Rolling Stock owners "if you want your rolling stock back, build a new bridge". I understand that it would create some leverage for the railroad. I think it was probably smart to move it out versus deal with probable litigation over who is at fault and who will have to pay to truck everything out.




No, not meaning force or extortion. I was only eluding as to how quickly the appearance of jumping ship was made. I would not want the liability for the inabillity to move equipment either. Usually when a "jump ship" action is made from what I have seen in the past, it usually means the railroad is leaving for good.