These blue and gold locomotives, shown west of Makoti, are still painted in the Iowa, Chicago & Eastern colors but they are part of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

28 October 2011

Rolling Down the Track

Makoti North Dakota USA - If you've seen blue and gold locomotives with "Iowa, Chicago & Eastern" markings operating on Canadian Pacific Railway tracks in the state, they are not lost. They belong to CP.
 
On Monday, traffic on N.D. Highway 23, west of Makoti, waited for a work train when two IC&E marked locomotives and a CP Rail locomotive crossed the highway pulling rail cars loaded with rock ballast. Ballast is the industry term for the crushed rock on which the tracks are laid, said Mike LoVecchio, with Canadian Pacific media relations at its U.S. headquarters in Minneapolis.
 
As for the blue and gold painted locomotives people might be seeing in the area, LoVecchio said, "Iowa, Chicago & Eastern was a subsidiary of the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern, which CP purchased in 2007. The DM&E and IC&E have now been integrated into CP, but you still see their colors from time to time as the locomotives are too busy to be taken off line and painted."
 
CP is making upgrades to meet demand as a result of the Bakken oil boom in North Dakota but the upgrades are a benefit to everything that CP moves on the tracks, LoVecchio said.
 
He said significant upgrades are being made to the New Town tracks known as the New Town subdivision. He said those tracks are between New Town and Max and the upgrade project is one of five projects in the main line corridor in North Dakota and Minnesota.
 
He said upwards of $90 million is being invested in CP upgrades statewide.
 
LoVecchio told The Minot Daily News for a story published last week about rail terminal construction in this part of the state, that the demand for upgrades is not limited to crude. "The benefits accrue to our grain customers as well. They accrue to our intermodal customers," he said.
 
"It's all being driven by the increase in demand that we are witnessing for the transportation service that we provide. They are, in part, related directly to the demand for Bakken crude and the transportation of Bakken crude, but it's not limited to crude. The benefits accrue to our grain customers as well. They accrue to our intermodal customers," LoVecchio said.
 
CP released its third-quarter results on Tuesday. The information includes the following shipping numbers related to crude:
 
Prior to 2010:  500 carloads shipped annually system wide, Canada and U.S.
 
2010:  Number went up to 2,800 carloads shipped.
 
The increase in carloads shipped mainly is due to growth in the Bakken, LoVecchio said.
 
"CP had planned to move 8,000 carloads of Bakken crude, but expects to surpass that amount," he said of the 2011 numbers.
 
Eloise Ogden.