Train Crews and Directional Running

[One Track Mind]

KCSfan/Mark: a BNSF trainmaster/road foreman just happened to stop by my store today. With the trackage rights over the UP I figured their crews must do about the same as UP crews, so I asked him your question.

He said that the crew change is at Shreveport, as you know. Some crews run on down to Houston and then back up to the Marshall/Longview/Big Sandy area on another run. But some crews are indeed limo'd over from Shreveport to Longview. He said "it isn't that far."

He also said about three weeks ago the limo service had been changed from AAA to Rail Serve with a dispatcher in Canada. Now that crews are not held out here at "the donut shop" all that often I rarely see a crew van anymore.

[One Track Mind]

Yeah I can't claim to be an expert on the Lewisville to Shreveport trip. (don't claim to be an expert on anything really) I do know something about what the UP actually considers the directional running as I have several friends/customers who are crew members on those trains...besides the NB tracks running about 100 feet from my store so we see a lot of them go by. If I get a chance I'll ask someone about that run from Lewisville to Shreveport...someone else can answer sooner probably.

This is not a swipe at UP, but it would appear that they are not all that concerned about unproductivity of train crews. When the crews sit out here (near the store) hot and bored for hours until they hog out, Omaha must not care all that much about wasted time. Although this seems to have improved some over the years. Used to have a customer that was a limo driver...some of the stories he told about picking crews up in the middle of nowhere for a long ride back to NLR...seemed fairly common there for awhile.

[KCSfan]

One Track, you may be right about crews on the St.Louis - Dallas trains running from Pine Bluff to Marshall. But the St. Louis - Houston trains run from Pine Bluff to Lewisville and on down to Shreveport over the former Cotton Belt's Shreveport Subdivision where crews are changed for the rest of the run to Houston over the ex-SP "Rabbit Line". I can't imagine these crews being returned by taxi from Shreveport to Pine Bluff which would be close to a three hour ride. I guess it's possible that they take a van to Longview (about 70 miles) and after a layover in either Shreveport or Longview run a northbound train from Longview to Little Rock then take another about 2 hour van ride from Little Rock back to Pine Bluff. This seems to me to be rather cumbersome and expensive since it would require not only the cost of the van trips but at least 4 hours of unproductive pay for the time the crews spent travelling on the vans.

Mark  

[KCSfan]

One Track, you may be right about crews on the St.Louis - Dallas trains running from Pine Bluff to Marshall. But the St. Louis - Houston trains run from Pine Bluff to Lewisville and on down to Shreveport over the former Cotton Belt's Shreveport Subdivision where crews are changed for the rest of the run to Houston over the ex-SP "Rabbit Line". I can't imagine these crews being returned by taxi to Pine Bluff which would be close to a three hour ride. I guess it's possible that they take a van to Longview (about 70 miles) and after a layover in either Shreveport or Longview run a northbound train from Longview to Little Rock then take another about 2 hour van ride from Little Rock back to Pine Bluff. This seems to me to be rather cumbersome and expensive since it would require not only the cost of the van trips but at least 4 hours of unproductive pay for the time the crews spent travelling on the vans.

Mark  

[One Track Mind]

Actually I think the crews run from Dexter, MO down to Pine Bluff, AR and then Pine Bluff to Marshall, TX...then limo over to Longview, TX where they run northbound up here to North Little Rock, AR...and then run NLR to Poplar Bluff, MO...then over to Dexter. I believe this is the actual directional running routes through here. Someone may correct me if I'm wrong, maybe someone else can explain it better than me. But the crews are trained on the southbound Pine Bluff to Marshall, and then like another poster mentioned, is also trained for the northbound route to NLR. Same with the crews that run NB out of NLR to Poplar Bluff and then south from Dexter to Pine Bluff.

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

I'll go out on a limb here and suggest that crews would be qualified over both lines in such a situation.  Such an arrangement would probably involve negotiations with the operating Brotherhoods  regarding new crew districts, seniority lists, etc. before directional running was actually started.

[mackb4]

 They more than likely return in a taxi,or "deadhead" home.Is there any return route from where they go to,that's not on the same track  

[KCSfan]

I really need to talk to some of the train crews about this subject but in the meantime maybe some reader can answer my question. The UP runs the former SP and Cotton Belt through Shreveport, LA where I live as a southbound only line for its trains from St. Louis to Houston. Northbound trains between these cities run over the ex-MoPac lines via Longview, TX and Little Rock. Crews run between Pine Bluff and Shreveport where a new crew takes over for the run to Houston. With no northbound trains to run my question is how do the crews get back to Pine Bluff from Shreveport and from Houston to Shreveport for their next assignment? This is but one example of the many routes on which directional running is the practice and each requires some way of returning crews to their starting terminal.

Mark