Spotlight
Managing growth
Illinois Railway adjusts to handle fast influx of shale-related business
Increased shale activity has meant growth on the Illinois Railway. The Class III shortline, based in the“ Sand Capitol of the World”, has experienced firsthand the shift in the sand industry.— Courtesy Illinois Railway
S and is no stranger to the Illinois Railway( IR). Embedded in the“ Sand Capitol of the World,” the Class III shortline has steadily provided hauling services of silica sand from the central Illinois region at a moderate pace for years. However, the recent boom in the oil and gas industries means the face of the sand industry has changed. Demand for fracking sand needed in the rich oil and gas deposits in the Bakken and Eagle Ford shales transformed the OmniTRAX-owned IR into a big little shortline.
General Manager Johnnie DeClue, a native of Ottawa, Ill., has never seen the pace of the railroad move so quickly with the railroad. More than a decade ago, he began his railroad career working track maintenance and witnessed first-hand its transformation while ascending through the ranks into management. He recalls that a big train to the Eola, Ill., terminal in his days as a conductor and engineer was 40 cars. Today, normal manifest trains average over 100 cars.
“ The growth that we’ ve had over the last two years and looking at what
6 we’ re going to be doing over this year and next year is definitely more than we’ ve ever had before,” DeClue said.“ When I started 13 years ago, it was all sand, not just fracking sand. We’ ve got a significant amount of sand coming out of here and going to Texas and North Dakota.”
IR also transports sand bound for the Great Western Industrial Park in Windsor, Colo. The sand terminal, built in partnership with Halliburton, is served by IR affiliate Great Western Railway and is an example of Omni- TRAX’ s real estate-based approach to the rail business.
An improved turnaround time on the IR has cut the time it takes for sand cars to make the loop from 45 days to 14. Recently, BNSF and IR initiated unit train service to attain a 14-day cycle time. This improvement
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