ndbprrAt on e time there was a tank car with five or seven domes for moving bulk wine. MR had drawings in the 50s. I think Ambroid made a kit. I think the customer was a bottler in Philadelphia.
OERM has a wine car in its collection and it has four domes. The car is often used to store conditioned water for VC #2.
- Erik
Deggesty Eric, when I read your post in my email, I wondered how you could have been a train--and when I read it in the forum, I saw your correction of the dysgraphic posting ("was" in the original post; corrected to "saw"). Don't take me as an authority on "dysgraphic."
Eric, when I read your post in my email, I wondered how you could have been a train--and when I read it in the forum, I saw your correction of the dysgraphic posting ("was" in the original post; corrected to "saw").
Don't take me as an authority on "dysgraphic."
My fingers seem to confuse was and saw often.
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
Rader Sidetrack You mean this one .... Photo Credit
You mean this one ....
Photo Credit
Rader Sidetrack You mean this one .... Photo Credit I meant exactly this one! Bravo to you for finding it!
I meant exactly this one! Bravo to you for finding it!
I wish I could post here a cartoon from The New Yorker some years ago that reminds me of "wine trains" and "box cars."
On a freeway crowded with cars we see a huge tanker truck (the kind used for milk) in gleaming stainless steel. On the side of the truck, in bold letters: "Cheap white wine."
Johnny
I know BNSF used to have an H MODSEL (or H MODGAL) that was mostly wine loads from the Gallo winery in Modesto. I saw an eastbound BNSF train on Friday that was composed almost entirely of ATSF and BNSF RBLs, so I suspect it still exists.
MP173 Don:That leads me to the next question....do intermodal loads carry a commodity, or are they simply know as FAK (Freight All Kinds)? Perhaps the hazmat loads are so noted (by full legal name)?A couple hundred carloads a week is not insignificant. Ed
Don:That leads me to the next question....do intermodal loads carry a commodity, or are they simply know as FAK (Freight All Kinds)? Perhaps the hazmat loads are so noted (by full legal name)?A couple hundred carloads a week is not insignificant.
Ed
On the train lists, containers may have a specific load listed, such as "tires," or more common for containers loaded with various article, "mix frt" for mixed freight. (A conductor once commented on how much fruit cocktail we were hauling in containers because of the "mix frt" listings.)
Containers with any quantity of hazardous materials has the normal hazmat information, contact phone numbers and emergency response information listed. Even if the majority of the load is mixed freight.
Jeff
Intermodal loads may move either as FAK or on a specific commodity rate.
Regular Hazmat rules applie to IM. Whether or not Hazmat can move on an FAK rate depends on how the railroad writes it rates.
UP's "Salad Shooter" trains would (back when I was able to check such things) bring loads of wine back west from Railex's facility at Rotterdam, New York. The train may have had 55 or so reefers, but only a few of them would contain loads. It wouldn't be surprising to me if the business is still there, or has grown. Perhaps BNSF has a similar operation now...just because you see a big block of reefers (or box cars, whatever) does't necessarily mean they're all loaded.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
MP173 Is BNSF/NS shipping wine in boxcars? NS train 10R today had about 25 large BNSF boxcars at the front of the train. It seems to me that I have heard there is wine moving by rail. Ed
Is BNSF/NS shipping wine in boxcars?
NS train 10R today had about 25 large BNSF boxcars at the front of the train. It seems to me that I have heard there is wine moving by rail.
Yes. Wine moves in box cars. Not lots of it, but not nothing, either. (A little model railroad research from company data ) Perhaps a couple hunderd carloads a week... Then, there's more that moves intermodal where the RR may or may not actually know what's in the box.
-Don (Random stuff, mostly about trains - what else? http://blerfblog.blogspot.com/)
Some time back ,within the last few years, I had a manifest train. I think it was the train that goes to the CSX, QNPCXP. (Formerly known as the QNPSKP, and has been going via KC and St Louis instead of across Iowa since last winter.) Looking through the conductor's wheel, I noticed on that particular day's train that 10% of the loaded cars was wine in box cars. Wine wasn't that unusual on that train, but usually didn't reach 1/10th of the loads. Have seen wine on other manifests too, but not as often as that train. (I like looking through the conductor's copy because it lists car types. Mine just gives weight and car length. I like looking at what kind of car is where so I can figure where the long/cushioned draw bars are in the train.)
I'm not a big fan of wine in box cars. (Or in a glass for that matter.) Early on as an engineer I got a knuckle on a box car of wine. Starting up in a difficult location, I gave her another notch on the throttle too early. Two or three months later, while pulling into the yard, I got a wrong end draw bar on a car of wine. That one wasn't my fault, the car had a bad order pin that came out allowing the entire coupler to come out. (Not to be confused with the pin that operates the locking mechanism on the knuckle itself.) Fortunately, the rear of the train was past a point where the yard engine could run around the end to set out the car. Had it happened out on the main line, it could have easily caused hours of misery.
Would the volume of wine moving to the east coast dictate 25 boxcars? That was a large block of cars of similar size. Perhaps it was a coincidence. Does the wine move once per week, but in regular daily service?Ed
Thank you Rader for bringing up the M&ET. (Half asleep, couldn't remember them and they are a biggie in this)
As a Southern CA roadmaster CA on the old Santa Fe, I remember a steady stream of boxcars going into rather plain warehouses (on purpose) in the LA Basin for local distribution from M&ET and others in short ATSF high cube carslabelled food grade. (These were nice cars, not the crap that some of the Mexican beer is diguised in). As a rule, the high dollar wine cars got kid glove treatment by the local switch crews and tended to be switched as soon as they got 'em to avoid the chances of being broken into.
MP173 Is BNSF/NS shipping wine in boxcars?
The shortline Modesto & Empire Traction in Central California has both BNSF and UP connections. M&ET has an impressive customer list, including both E&J Gallo Winery and the Gallo Glass Company.
More on the M&ET including a customer list is available at their website:
http://www.metrr.com/sections/industries
Maybe coming from the Oregon area, since the ones MC mentioned are probably served by UP instead ?
Here's a worthwhile research mission: Visit many wineries - see if they're large enough and close enough to a rail line to ship by rail (directly or via a transload). Tasting of the products is optional - but likely !
- Paul North.
Gallo and several others have shipped by rail for years. CCT and SN have plenty of the business.
Nothing new.
Years ago when Coors open up on the East Cost, the beer was moved from Clorarido via tank cars as a concentrate to the new facility for final processing. Think this was back around 95/96. So as beer moves by rail so too can wine.
Keep in mind wineries buy 'juice' to be mixed with the local grapes for a specific taste. Good question to ask next time you visit a winery, where does the grapes come from and how does it get there.
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