Here in Suth Central Kansas on a 'feeder line' netween Argentine Yd (N.K.C.) Gardner,Ks, and the Left Coast Destinations, West of here. The composition of the passing trains has definitely changed.... No longer,omthey seem to contain large, solid blocks of one type of car.
Particlarly, where tank cars are concerned; they are placed in small numbers, throughout the train. The 'grain worms' seem to move un-effected, both empty and loaded. While, on various Freights, they seem to have hopper cars, spread liberally, throughout the train (?).
Even where Auto Carriers are coincerned; they seem to have them, auto rack cars; seperated within their trains. Instead of, what had dispatched, previously; seemed to be the 'norm' of'solid' car carrier movememts.
Admittedly, these are just my observations,from one place, located as previously, noted, between the middle of the country, and it's Left Coast... I am curious, toksee if thjis is just an abbneration, okr is it more wide spread?
Rio Grande Valley, CFI,CFII
PJS1 From my perch in Temple, TX, which is along side the BNSF, I have seen longer trains with a greater mix of cars than I had been seeing. Yesterday I saw a long freight train that had tank cars, grain cars, auto carriers, and hopper cars mixed seemingly at random throughout it. I counted 145 cars. Usually, the auto carrier trains, which are running to and from Mexico, have just auto carriers. So too for the coal trains that are running to several points in Texas south of Temple. An intermodal train had a mix of JB Hunt and Amazon containers on it. It is the first time that I have seen the Amazon boxes. It was also trailing about 25 empty cars, which suggests that the intermodal business is slowing down. Also, on a recent trip on the Texas Eagle to El Paso, I saw a seemingly large number of empty intermodal cars parked on sidings between Del Rio and Sanderson.
The watershed point seems to have been, Post the East Palestine derailment (?).
I am curious to find out if traffic on the other cross country lines (UP or CSX, NS (?); similarly, has shown some differences in their make-up of l;ong distance trains?
Is that paradigm change driven by something else? Risk Management, Operational Controls, Safety, Management(?) . Certainly, One Major, BNSF; seems to have been effected in their Operational Scheme. Is it effecting the Other carriers, or is it just a knee-jerk,temporary, response?
Here in Ontario, not so much, but I'm only trackside once or twice a month.. not really enough to pickup on any changes.
NS webcam watcher here in NW Indiana on the busy Chicago - Elkhart - Toledo and further east line...their main line from Chicago to most eastern points.
Most of the NS regular trains are very similarly blocked and carry similar cars from day to day. I can usually tell what the train symbol is by the cars (or intermodal containers/trailers) and the time of day. There is a regular pattern to the traffic hauled and the time of day. NS is pretty good on schedule consistancy.
Since E. Palestine NS seems to be cracking down on certain issues.
1. Any reading which is "trending hot" gets inspected. These tend to be hand brakes applied. Most of these do not trigger the HBD warning, but a radio call from the "wayside" dept. Trains are stopped and inspected on a much more regular basis.
2. Detail to blocking from connecting railroads seems to be reviewed. For instance last night's 10R from BNSF - Galesburg to Elkhart had empty cars between 2 "heavy blocks"...both "heavies" were in excess of 30 cars. The empties were 2 cars. Similar situation earlier in week on a train built by IHB.
3. NS runs a daily 30Q from their Calumet Yard (Chicago ex NKP yard) to Elkhart...big train, typically 3 motors and 150 plus cars. There is a block of auto rack ALWAYS on the rear.
4. NS 34J (IHB to Elkhart) will usually have a large block of Potash cars on the head end, as does the westbound counterpart 35J. Westbound 37M will have the huge Auto Part Boxcars (whales) and the eastbound 34G will have return empties (I presume).
5. Curiously UP runthru train 18A seems to be handling John Deere tractors on flatbeds where as those would run on 16G out of Belt's Clearing Yard.
The flow of traffic thru Chicago is fascinating. Intermodal also has it's regularities.
Ed
I saw something a bit unusual yesterday from my observation point at Temple, TX. A northbound BNSF unit coal train with more than 100 cars had only one car with graffiti on it. Most of the cars had clean sides, so any graffiti would have been relatively easy to spot.
PJS1...only one car with graffiti on it...
A unit coal train through Deshler the other day featured a number of cars with what I'll call an amoeba smiley face on one end - always in the same spot. Interesting...
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
Some empty coal trains had been moving loaded sand cars. Now some empty coal trains are picking up manifest freight. I've even seen one loaded coal train that moved some manifest freight.
Jeff
Back in the day - B&O had a train handling rule that loaded open top hoppers COULD NOT be ahead of loaded auto racks in trains.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
BaltACD Back in the day - B&O had a train handling rule that loaded open top hoppers COULD NOT be ahead of loaded auto racks in trains.
Was that before the enclosed auto racks?
rdamon BaltACD Back in the day - B&O had a train handling rule that loaded open top hoppers COULD NOT be ahead of loaded auto racks in trains. Was that before the enclosed auto racks?
Before and continuing.
KCKBAR & GALBAR trains are hauling large amounts of auto racks making these nervous slingshots to be on. Having TO engaged for a junker like these is crossing fingers hoping no break-in-two comes about. Sam
In my OTR driving days; It seemed to be a common practice that damaged-in-transit vehicles, were scrapped. Auto manufacturers, did not wnat llto 'compete' with 'new' repaired vehicles.
Vehicles damaged in rail derailments, iwere 'extracted' from their damaged rail tranmsport. Generally, then conviently 'windrowed', near-by; a side-boom CAT would 'walk them flat, then buried, they became, a total loss. Insurance folks wrote,one check, and the problem was mitigated.... Problems solved....
samfp1943a side-boom CAT would 'walk them flat.
GM used to do that with test vehicles at their Michigan Proving Grounds. Can't take a chance on them making it out to the general public.
tree68GM used to do that with test vehicles at their Michigan Proving Grounds. Can't take a chance on them making it out to the general public.
Lots of articles/online lore say the producers of Knight Rider were able to secure a dozen or so Trans Ams/Firebirds (which were hard to get due to high demand) because SP derailed a carload of them, and GM sold them to the studio for something trivial like a dollar, with the requirement they be scrapped after production ended.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.
samfp1943 In my OTR driving days; It seemed to be a common practice that damaged-in-transit vehicles, were scrapped. Auto manufacturers, did not wnat llto 'compete' with 'new' repaired vehicles. Vehicles damaged in rail derailments, iwere 'extracted' from their damaged rail tranmsport. Generally, then conviently 'windrowed', near-by; a side-boom CAT would 'walk them flat, then buried, they became, a total loss. Insurance folks wrote,one check, and the problem was mitigated.... Problems solved....
About 20 years ago out on the double track, one train derailed into the side of another. The one knocked off the rails included 4 or 5 auto racks of Cadillac Escalades. They scrapped all of them, even the load on one rack that only had one wheel of one truck off the rail. They wouldn't even let those be parted out. All because of liability issues if a part from an involved vehicle failed.
There were also about 4 or 5 boxcars of tomato sauce derailed. For a good week the area stunk of tomato sauce and chewed up dirt.
jeffhergert samfp1943 In my OTR driving days; It seemed to be a common practice that damaged-in-transit vehicles, were scrapped. Auto manufacturers, did not wnat llto 'compete' with 'new' repaired vehicles. Vehicles damaged in rail derailments, iwere 'extracted' from their damaged rail tranmsport. Generally, then conviently 'windrowed', near-by; a side-boom CAT would 'walk them flat, then buried, they became, a total loss. Insurance folks wrote,one check, and the problem was mitigated.... Problems solved.... About 20 years ago out on the double track, one train derailed into the side of another. The one knocked off the rails included 4 or 5 auto racks of Cadillac Escalades. They scrapped all of them, even the load on one rack that only had one wheel of one truck off the rail. They wouldn't even let those be parted out. All because of liability issues if a part from an involved vehicle failed. There were also about 4 or 5 boxcars of tomato sauce derailed. For a good week the area stunk of tomato sauce and chewed up dirt. Jeff
When I was working in Baltimore's Bayview yard in the early 1970's and the GM assembly plant was undergoing model changeover - the unused parts from the old model would be damaged in some appropriate way and shipped out as scrap metal, rather than even shipping the parts to one of the GM Parts distribution facilities.
While supervising train crews in the vicinity of the plant - you could easily hear the plant's drivers moving completed production from the end of the assembly line to that shipping holding area - they were making liberal use of the throttle, handling and braking abilities of the vehicles - the ultimate owners wouldn't have approved.
BaltACDWhile supervising train crews in the vicinity of the plant - you could easily hear the plant's drivers moving completed production from the end of the assembly line to that shipping holding area - they were making liberal use of the throttle, handling and braking abilities of the vehicles - the ultimate owners wouldn't have approved.
Cars manufactured at the Ford Wixom, MI, plant (T-Birds and Lincolns) were all taken for a short drive on public roads (mostly Pontiac Trail) when they came off the line. They left the plant by rail, much of which is still there - although the plant is long gone.
I have had several vehicles over the years that were manufactured at Wixom, and all of them had excellent build quality and no overt signs of abuse.
Overmod I have had several vehicles over the years that were manufactured at Wixom, and all of them had excellent build quality and no overt signs of abuse.
OvermodI have had several vehicles over the years that were manufactured at Wixom, and all of them had excellent build quality and no overt signs of abuse.
I've always been of the impression that those short drives were along the lines of a "shakedown cruise." As I said, they were on public roads, so there wasn't a lot of horsing around that they could do.
Grew up not many miles from the plant.
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