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Seven BNSF Railway Co. crews recently spent three days upgrading track on a nine-mile portion of a coal line east of Gillette, Wyo. During the Campbell Subdivision track maintenance blitz, more than 250 workers accomplished tasks that would have taken more than a month to complete as individual projects.

Held May 23-25, the blitz involved four surfacing, two rail and one undercutting crew, and dozens of pieces of machinery. During 14-hour work windows, crews relaid 25,800 lineal feet of rail, undercut more than 18,500 feet of track, surfaced 22.2 pass miles, completed 138 thermite welds, eliminated 80 rail joints, replaced three switch machines and two turnouts, and installed 187 wood and 180 concrete ties, and five insulated-joint panels.

Despite relentless wind and rain, crews completed the work on time and without a reportable incident or injury, according to BNSF.

“The weather didn’t stop these crews, but made for some miserable conditions,” said BNSF Supervisor of Maintenance Planning Scott Lockwood in a prepared statement. “It was work that needed to be done, so we decided to have it all completed at once.”