Repairs to Cimarron Valley Railroad to begin

Eds: UPDATES with quotes, details; ADDS byline.

SUBLETTE, Kan. (AP) -- Train whistles sounded as railcars filled with wheat slowly moved eastward along the tracks, headed for export to Mexico via Dodge City.

Here in the heart of Kansas' agricultural region, farmers and grain merchants have relied on the Cimarron Valley Railroad, a short-line railroad that helps get their crops to market, for the past 13 years.

Now, with the help of a public and private partnership between the Kansas Department of Transportation, the Port Authority of the Southwest and the Cimarron Valley Railroad, much needed upgrades will be made to the track.

"It's a major rehabilitation project," said John Maddox, with the freight and rail unit of the Kansas Department of Transportation. New cross ties will be installed and new ballast, as well as other track components, including some rail replacement. The project will cost $15 million, with each partner contributing $5 million.

According to Maddox, KDOT's money is coming from a grant and a convertible incentive-based loan.

"This is not federal money," he said. "These are state funds through the rail service improvement fund."

The rail lines run from Boise City, Okla., through Elkhart, Satanta and to Dodge City. It also travels west from Satanta, through Grant and Stanton counties and into eastern Colorado.

Although the short line runs smoothly, Teresa Propeck, marketing director for The Western Group, the parent company of the railroad, based in Ogden, Utah, explained the line's business was growing.

"To keep rail lines viable for co-ops, farmers and the 90 percent-plus agricultural base of this region, the railroad improvements are literally a foundation for growth," said Greg Kissel, executive vice president of The Western Group. "Cimarron Valley Railroad is committed to enticing more industry to the area via the utilization of this freight line, and upgrading the track structure should make it possible to attract new businesses to a number of cities and counties scattered across southwest Kansas."

In Sublette, with a bumper fall harvest, the line of trucks dumping crops at the Sublette Cooperative has been causing traffic jams.

Meanwhile, not only are crops being brought in from the fields, but workers are shipping off tons of grain from the past summer's harvest.

On a recent afternoon, workers loaded cars of corn to be shipped southwest to Hugoton and Seaboard Farms, said Gaylord Sanneman, manager of the Sublette Co-operative.

At Dodge City and Boise City, the short-line rail connects with the Burlington Northern Santa Fe line.

In recent years, the Cimarron Valley Railroad has grown to include 24 employees supervised by Satanta resident Henry Hale, a former Santa Fe railroad conductor.

"For a short-line railroad they do a wonderful job," Sanneman said. "This year they purchased some of their own cars, used on their own tracks."

Loading grain cars and sending them directly southwest to Seaboard is something new this year.

"It helps us to be more efficient to move grain. It's a little cheaper to move by railcar than truck," Sanneman said.

Based in Satanta, the railroad was once owned by the Atchison Topeka, and Santa Fe before it merged.

The blue and white engines handle five to 110 cars a day and haul about 11,000 carloads per year. Their speed limit is 10 mph, so it takes five hours to get from Sublette to Dodge City.

No definite starting date has been set to begin the improvements, Maddox said. A notice to proceed has been issued, however.

The project will take about five years to complete.