Five inches of rain in three hours followed by intermittent rains several days later caused numerous washouts along a 20-mile stretch of track on the KO Railroad in Central Kansas, putting a halt to 30 loaded grain cars headed to Abilene.
But General Manager Jimmy Patterson, Roadmaster Herb Lamkin, and Trainmaster Jeff White praised Team members and contractors alike for their hard work over several long days to make repairs that would allow the line to get back in service.
“The call came in on Easter,” Patterson said. “A citizen called to report water going over a rail, and rather than call Team members out on Easter, we went out to look on Monday morning.”
Robin Combs rode the rails to locate the washouts and soon learned how widespread the problem was: Seventeen of them occurred along the stretch east and west of Westfall.
“We got more rain than what the tubes could move under the tracks, so it backed up and started shoving on tracks and rail bed, and pushed out until dirt and rock gave way,” Patterson said.
In some places, the washouts were 10 feet deep and 15 feet long.
That meant bringing in a lot of rock — nearly 2,000 tons of it.
To compound issues, vehicles with wheels couldn’t be brought in, because in some places, there was no road access, and in most, sinking would have been an issue in the soft mud. That meant arranging for track hoes, track loaders, and track skid steers, as well as a rotary dump truck that rides the rails and can dump not only parallel to the track, but also perpendicular.
“We needed to backfill all the holes and realign the tracks, which meant throwing as many people at it as we could,” Patterson said, even as more rain began to fall on the area on Friday. “It’s pouring buckets right now.”
Lamkin said on the subdivision northwest of Salina, the major part that was hit was between Juneyeta and Lincoln, where bridges and culverts couldn’t handle the massive flow of water.
“There was even one bridge plugged up with straw from fields, and a couple hundred feet of track in one location washed out and was pushed completely off grade,” he said.
Patterson, Lamkin and White praised Team members who worked 12-hour days to get the tracks back in service, including Salina Section Gang Foreman Patrick Flower, and his Track Team members Tyler Haycook and Jeff Robertson.
“We’ve really got a good group of guys who take pride in their work,” Lamkin said. “They really pull through in these times of need.”
Young Construction out of Cheney, Kansas, also provided valuable help.
Trainmaster Jeff White who heads up the Salina, Kansas, area, credited the UP for assistance.
“Our guys are working hard on it, but the UP also helped us by loaning power to service Customers out of Salina,” he said. “It was a big help to keep things going on that end.”
He praised Engineer Jim Lynn and Conductor Laramie Gahman for their contributions.
“They deserve a big shout-out,” he said.
More equipment was expected to arrive this week, including a tamper and regulator, to continue repairs. Six culverts will be added to the locations to help prevent issues in the future.
“I guess we’re like mailmen — we deal with every scope of weather. Hot, cold, snow, rain. We’ve got to get through,” Lamkin said. “Our Customers depend on us.”
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The Kansas and Oklahoma Railroad began operations in July 2001. With 904 miles of track reaching out in three directions from Wichita, Kansas, to the Colorado border, the KO carries more than 50,000 carloads annually. One of the largest single short lines in the industry, the KO carries diverse agricultural commodities such as grain and grain products, and industrial products such as chemicals and paper.