BNSF News

Montana Division Zeroes in on Slow Orders

2007-12-20

When Larry Woodley, general director, Maintenance, Montana Division, received word that four subdivisions had gone to zero, he immediately knew that zero was a good thing. Division Engineer Rick Harman and his team had eliminated all main line slow orders.

At 12:06 p.m. MST, Nov. 21, trains crossing the Kootenai River, HiLine, Milk River and Glasgow Subdivisions were operating at maximum velocity from Minot, N.D., to Sandpoint, Idaho.

"To my knowledge, this is the first time trains have operated on this corridor without any slow orders," Woodley says.

About 35 trains traverse the 860 route miles on a daily basis. The accomplishment was especially timely, now that the division is in its peak season, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Track maintenance falls to the Montana North Maintenance of Way (MOW) team, a group of about 175, who battle weather, soft subgrade and rail defects in this rugged terrain.

But the goal of achieving zero minutes of slow orders originated last summer when Harman and Woodley had a frank discussion about the increasing minutes of slow orders on this corridor.

"I realized that if we could imagine eliminating all the slow orders, we could do it," says Harman.

Harman set to work, enlisting the help of all seven division roadmasters. According to Roadmaster Dave Nilsen, who is responsible for the Milk River Subdivision, when Harman began talking about zero slow orders, it sounded like an incredible task. "All the roadmasters discussed it," says Nilsen, "and the more each of us began looking at our own particular areas, the more we realized that this was doable."

The division’s Planning office, working with each roadmaster, created a plan for each subdivision and began communicating that plan to local operations and chief dispatchers. With daily help from the division’s Planning office and the Network Operations Center (NOC), Harman says the team kept whittling away the minutes. Then, during the Nov. 21 roadmaster conference call, the news was delivered that the last of the slow orders on the Kootenai River Sub had been eliminated, bringing the number of slow order minutes for the entire corridor to zero.

Many people made a phenomenal effort to achieve zero slow orders, according to Woodley. In addition to roadmasters Arne Olson, Jeremy VanPelt, Glen Smith, Homer Giard, Dave Nilsen, Daryl Braun and Jim Kuhnhenn, and the Montana North MOW, the goal was shared by surfacing crews, bridge crews, welders and signal employees. Woodley also says that the division’s Transportation department and dispatchers played a critical role in balancing train schedules to provide the necessary track windows.

"Our Maintenance Planning office and the integration of the Maintenance Excellence process provided the final critical components," says Woodley.

How is the division doing now during their peak season? Harman confirms that they haven’t been perfect every day, but they are maintaining the zero more often than not.

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