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Show D&RG Planning ' impnsvesiierils To Rail Line The Rio Grande railroad f; has autorized an improve- y? ment program for 1967 to- h tailing 514.8 million. This g will bring to $195 million ;d the amount invested in im- provements to plant and e- quipment in a 20-year per- iod beginning in 194S. The 1967 figure includes l" the 10.9 million for new f; locomotives and freight cars previously announced. I The balance has been alio- s cated to track and other roadway improvements to further upgrade the rail- f road's physical plant. Largest single item is the ; rail replacement program t totaling $L5 million. New 136-pound rail will replace j lighter weight rail in 16 miles of main line track at s various locations in Colo- rado and Utah, and 20 trac ) miles of 112 pound relay ' rail will be installed on J various branch lines and sidings. j Another major item is ! the installation of Central- ized Traffic Control from I Pueblo to Salida, Colorado I at a cost of $1.3 million. Under Un-der CTC operation, all j j switches and signals are directly controlled by the dispatcher, making possible much tighter scheduling. With this installation, all main line trackage between Denver and Ogden ,and between be-tween Pueblo and Ogden, will be CTC controlled except ex-cept for a 40-mile . section of double track railroad between be-tween Gilluly and Provo, Utah. Ajlso on the 1957 program pro-gram are improvements to communications and signals, sig-nals, new roadway maintenance maint-enance equipment, upgrading upgrad-ing bridges and culverts, concrete lining of 5 tunnels tun-nels on the Craig branch, and other misicellanecus items. Equipment on order for 1S67 delivery includes 22 diesel-electric lomomotives rated at 3,000 horsepower, for high-speed main line service; alsgL. 350,. roller-bearing roller-bearing high-capacity, freight frei-ght cars of various types, many equipped for specialized special-ized service as requested; by shippers. An additional 250 "damage free" box cars will be acquired under lease. I |