Oil trains, cold snap put Plains farmers in a bind | The Columbian

Oil trains, cold snap put Plains farmers in a bind | The Columbian

"The extremely cold weather caused even more problems for the railroad. BNSF had to run shorter trains -- 4,500 feet long, instead of the normal 7,000-foot length -- to make sure the air brakes still worked. Crews had to manually clear frozen switches and had to spend more time indoors. Trains could not travel as fast."