Tough winter day on the Kyle—2 During plowing operations after a large snowstorm, one of the points to be very watchful of is ice and snow buildup at grade crossings. Even though trains are incredibly heavy, flanges can still be lifted by ice in the flangeways, with dire consequences. After a late December storm buried parts of western Kansas in over 30 inches of snow, Kyle Railroad operated a plow extra west of Colby on January 2, 2007. Here, a Kyle MofW crew carefully cleans the flangeways of County Road 11 grade crossing at Levant, Kansas, before the arrival of the plow extra. With winter approaching, I thought it might be fun to look a series of images of Kyle battling the elements on a tough winter day in western Kansas…