People passing through Scott City for the next couple of weeks will find it hard not to notice that the train tracks are busier than usual. But not with trains.

It will remain that way until the middle of May, when the rail improvements on the 40 miles of railroad tracks running from Scott City to Dexter are completed.

This is just part of the $32 million in track improvements Union Pacific Railroad has planned for rails lying 40 miles north, south and west of Dexter.

On Thursday, the track-laying machines and Union Pacific workers were putting down new rails across from Scott City's schools.

While the work in Scott City should be finished in about two months, the whole project will take until the end of the year. When completed, the workers will have put down 143,000 ties, 43 miles of new rail and improved surface grading at 200 railroad crossings.

Although major work was completed on these tracks less than 10 years ago, age has less to do with the condition of the tracks than the amount and type of traffic it receives.

"It's based on how many tons you carry over the rails and the amount of use the rails have taken," said Justin McGowan, manager of track maintenance.

Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said the company monitors tracks closely. A daily inspection is performed by the rail inspector for the track area along with two electronic inspections about twice a year.

The electronic inspections consist of one machine that can look inside the rail to check for defects and another that checks the soil conditions under the tracks by looking at how the rail is lying on the ground.

Quite a few railroad ties, the part that holds the rails apart at a proper distance, were in poor condition on the tracks in the so-called Chester Subdivision, Davis said.

"It was just time," he said.

Track improvements are generally planned about five years ahead, Davis said. For this particular project, the planning started three years ago.

"It has to be done, because if you don't maintain the rails to a certain level of regulations, you begin to have to reduce the speed," Davis said.

Since a train's delivery schedule is based on a certain speed of travel, shipments will be late if speed is reduced, and late shipments mean a loss of money.

"It's in the interest of the railroad to keep up the track," Davis said.

In the gang

There are 150 workers from Union Pacific employed for this project. They are part of what is known as the "system gang," Davis said. These employees repair rails year-round, traveling to any location in the country where their work is needed.

Although the machines handle a lot of the heavy work, "there's still a lot of hard manual labor," Davis said. "These employees who work on the track have to be commended. It's hard work."

According to McGowan, the crew generally works six to eight hours a day for about eight days straight and then takes a few days off.

Some of their labor is eased thanks to the numerous rail machines that travel along the tracks and perform individual tasks.

There is a machine for just about every aspect of the job.

One removes old ties and pulls the spikes up; another inserts the new ties. A crane-like machine with a giant magnet picks up the old spikes and ties.

One machine, called a tamper, picks up the track slightly and shakes it so the rock ballast settles around the tracks and locks them in place.

There is also a small crane that lifts large pieces of the old rails after they have been cut into sections.

The sections are moved off to the sides of the track and will later be sent away to be used for scrap metal or on tracks that are not heavily traveled, such as in rail yards or as storage tracks.

While the rail replacement does not cause much of an inconvenience to the public -- except for cars lined up waiting to cross the tracks -- train traffic sees major changes.

Davis said some trains are rerouted around the work and other trains just wait until evening, when the rail work is finished for the day, to travel.

"It's a major planning process," McGowan said.

kalfisi@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182