I've been seeing this trend all week. Obviously container traffic is down.
I am monitoring the NS on the Chicago - Elkhart line. Intermodal appears to be strong. Todays:
21J had 141 units, mainly TOFC
20E had 110 units, mainly TOFC
21m had 103 units, mix of TOFC and DS...22 UPS (down from normal)
21G had 128 containers (down from normal)
23Z had 161 mix of TOFC and containers
294 was big 247 containers, all domestics
21N had only 31 international containers...return from Detroit to Asia, probably empties
23M had 120 domestic containers....down from normal
26N to Columbus was down...only 114, usually about 200 - 250.
Yet to pass is the hot afternoon Chicago - Croxton TOFC train...usually has about 90. Edit: 20k just OSed Chesterton with 124 TOFC and containers....bigger than normal. see comments below.
General freights are heavy but today's 37M did not have auto parts box cars...first time in ages...no doubt due to plant shut downs.
Comments - my take is that domestics intermodal will increase as drivers find it difficult to function (eat, sleep, use bathrooms, etc). The international traffic is obviously down, but probably will start to pickup in a month or so, unless things hit the fan.
ed
Non-bulk commodity trains 'genereally' vary in size by day of the week. Monday is normally light, Tuesday and on to Friday are generally heavier than each preceeding day. If 'everything' got moved M-F then the weekends will be light; if not the carriers will be playing catch up on the weekends to get back to Monday on a 'normal' footing.
Manufacturing concerns want to get their products out of the plant by Friday.
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Most EB UP container trains have been singles but WBs are double stacks, with a lot of Asian (empties?).
I normally keep an eye on the feed from Deshler - the trains are looking pretty much normal. Every now and then a shorty will come through, but the "land barges" still make regular appearances as well.
With North Baltimore just down the line, there's a lot of IM through Deshler, and I haven't noticed any major changes.
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Today I see a mix on EB container trains. Some shipping containers are single, some are double stacks. Domestic containers are mostly doubles.
Regularly I watch the Tehachapi trains, and as long as I can remember westbound UP manifests just look like repos - empty spine cars and some tank and boxcars thrown in.
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Is the CP still running single stacks thru the Detroit tunnel to Canada? Could the UP singles then be for CP?
MidlandMike Is the CP still running single stacks thru the Detroit tunnel to Canada? Could the UP singles then be for CP?
Maybe, but it's only recently that I started seeing so many singles.
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