Fred Wrote:
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> It is a magnificent bridge, but it results in a
> dog leg in the main line. If a second or
> replacement was built, I would hope it was up
> river a ways to straighten out the railroad.
> Recently BN put out a press release about the
> second main going in at Vaughan, NM. It said this
> was one of four single track places left on the
> Chicago to LA main line. Is the Sibley bridge
> another one of them? What are the other two. The
> press release said the four remaining single track
> locations totaled about 25 miles of track.

The four single track locations are:
1) Between West Sibley, MP and East Sibley, MO on the Marceline Subdivision.
2) About 20 miles between East Avard, OK and Loder, OK (two very long sidings in this section) on the Panhandle Sub.
3) Short single track over Pecos River just west of Fort Sumner, NM on the Clovis Sub.
4) About 6 miles or so west of Vaughn, NM (one very long siding in this section) on the Clovis Subdivision.

The Sibley Bridge is a massive and long structure. Any new bridge would be VERY expensive, maybe $500 million or so. The Oklahoma section requires a major bridge in the middle, but its not very difficult terrain, double tracking it wouldn't be too hard. The Fort Sumner Bridge over the Pecos is long but not much different that the Canadian River east of Amarillo that was double tracked around 2008, so its doable, just expensive. Finally, the Vaughn section requires extensive earthen fill work on the east end (current track is about 75-80 high on a fill) while the west end has some rock cuts that will require blasting work.