RJ Corman and dozens of BNSF employees spent their Fourth of July finishing up work on the flooded tracks through downtown Minot. After posting on their computers the tracks would be open at 20:00 on Monday the 4th, I expected the first train to be a Westbound Q. While running errands, getting stuff for the new house I'm living in (yes, it is high and dry), I heard the yard utility engineer being talked through a Form B, then mentioned they'll be shoving through Soo Tower. I knew right then, that whatever she was on, would be the first train through the flooded out KO and Glasgow Subdivisions. Around 19:00, BNSF 4855 and an ES44AC teamed up to swim through the high waters of the flooding Souris River and shove a 50-something car loaded ballast train West... The river has gone down, and just over ten days ago I posted a shot of the last train through Minot. Tracks washed away, dikes broke, and Minot will never be the same, and the newspaper today in town said "BNSF Railway opens tracks; last to close, first to open". I have to give a big thumbs up to all of my fellow BNSF co-workers and the RJ Corman team, along with the other contractors who helped re-open the Northern Transcon in such a quick time. Even though the trains are running, 4,000 homes are still under water; and 800+ will need to be demolished by the time the river drops...
