Random Update On BNSF Expansion Plans -- January 15, 2015

From the press release:

In BNSF’s North Region, the company will invest approximately $1.5 billion across eight states for engineering maintenance and line expansion projects, of which approximately $700 million^* is planned for projects to expand the rail lines and Positive Train Control (PTC) in that region.

BNSF’s North Region has experienced the most rapid growth in recent years. It is the corridor used to move agriculture and coal to export facilities in the Pacific Northwest, petroleum products produced in the region that are destined for refinery facilities, and for consumer products shipped to and from marine ports in the Pacific Northwest.

The North Region is also a destination point for materials that support the production of crude oil in the Bakken shale formation. 

The North Region includes: Illinois, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington and Wisconsin.

Expansion projects include:

• Continue to install double track on the Glasgow subdivision between Minot, ND, and Snowden, MT, located in the far western part of the state.
• Extend the siding on the Dickinson subdivision located between Mandan, ND, and Glendive, MT, and expand the terminal at the Dickinson yard to accommodate expected growth in single car volumes.
• Convert the entire Devils Lake subdivision, located between Minot, ND, and Grand Forks, ND, to centralized train control, which will improve capacity for freight operation while improving on-time performance of passenger trains.
• Complete implementation of centralized train control on the Hillsboro subdivision, located in eastern North Dakota. Upgrade connection track between the Hillsboro subdivision and the Devils Lake subdivision to permit faster train speeds.

 * Illinois is included in the disclosure of the planned expenditure for the North Region despite the state being part of the company’s South Region. In this announcement Illinois was included in the North Region because the Chicago complex also serves as an origination and destination point for traffic along that corridor. Illinois was also included in the North Region reporting when BNSF’s 2014 capital expenditure was announced in the prior year.

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A Note For The Granddaughters

It's been a good night. I finally finished James Essinger's Ada's Algorithm: How Lord Byron's Daughter Ada Lovelace Launched The Digital Age, c. 2014. Ada Lovelace is receiving some new attention this year in light of the Alan Turing movie, The Imitation Game. She is also heavily featured in the new book by Walter Isaacson (Steve Jobs [2011],  The Innovators: How a Group of Inventors, Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014). I have the new Isaacson book around here somewhere -- I think the cover has the portraits/photos of Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, and Steve Jobs. The Essinger book is "the story of the woman who wrote the first computer program -- in 1843."

The book is "endorsed" by Reshma Saujani, found of Girls Who Code and author of Women Who Don't Wait In Line. From the Girls Who Code website: In middle school, 74% of girls express interest in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM), but when choosing a college major, just 0.3% of high school girls select computer science.

Our older granddaughter, in middle school, is one of the 74%. It will be interesting where she ends up. 

The Essinger book is a quick read, but extremely well-researched it appears. One could probably read it over the course of several evenings, but I enjoy taking my time to finish a book. On completion, I felt a very intimate relationship with someone who had lived more than a 150 years ago. Really well done. It's the kind of book that Anglophiles will really enjoy; there's a little bit of British trivia on every page it seems. It's also fun to use Google maps and satellite views to check in on many of the sites mentioned in the book.

Before calling it an evening, my wife and I watched a new DVD I bought while we were out in southern California over the Christmas - New Year holidays. Due to family commitments we were able to visit only one museum this California trip, the Norton Simon museum which we had not seen in years. While there, among several books also bought, I bought the museum DVD, "The Art of Norton Simon." Surprisingly, it was narrated by Gregory Peck.

For the archives.