ericspThis assumes the shipper or receiver do not have rail service. I wonder how many shippers have switched to containers or trailers for receivers that have rail service due to poor rail service or railroads encouraging them to switch
This may be a clue.
UP handled 22,431 boxcars week ending 3/10/17.. That's a lot of boxcars for one week. UP handled 14,445 intermodal during the same week.
That facts and figures is available if one wishes to check that link I posted in my first reply or you can guess the number and type of cars being handled.
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
tstage My guess would be that more things are going by intermodal (shipping) containers, where trucks pickup them up or drop them off directly. This cuts down on packing and repacking the semi-trailers.
My guess would be that more things are going by intermodal (shipping) containers, where trucks pickup them up or drop them off directly. This cuts down on packing and repacking the semi-trailers.
This assumes the shipper or receiver do not have rail service. I wonder how many shippers have switched to containers or trailers for receivers that have rail service due to poor rail service or railroads encouraging them to switch.
"No soup for you!" - Yev Kassem (from Seinfeld)
Kevin, Gotta hand it to "The Professional Iconoclast" he did get his intermodal perdiction as "A means of gaining traffic now lost to trucks back" and his perdiction about "the railroads must cut the size of crews".
BRAKIEOur biggest health concern was sucking in black dust and propane fumes on a daily bases especially in the winter when every door that wasn't needed was closed.
.
Well, I guess that is one.
Although down here in South Florida we would not even shut the doors in winter time!
-Kevin
Living the dream.
SeeYou190Time is money. Boxcars take along time to load and unload. There are safety concerns with boxcars also with workers inside of them.
Kevin,Time may be money but,that boxcar equals 2 1/2 53 foot trailers.Shipping costs is money.
Concerns unloading boxcars? Really? What concerns? Before my near fatal heart attack in '05 my job was a forklift operator at a warehouse..Guess how long it takes to unload a boxcar with a lift-around 30 minutes if the operator is worth his salt. A 53' trailer or any size of container is closed in as well.
Back in the early 60s Train's columnist John G. Kneiling "The Professional Iconoclast" stated boxcars would completely disappear by the year 2000.
There is still a need for boxcars as the weekly performance report I posted shows.
Our biggest health concern was sucking in black dust and propane fumes on a daily bases especially in the winter when every door that wasn't needed was closed.
Time is money. Boxcars take along time to load and unload. There are safety concerns with boxcars also with workers inside of them.
There was once a time when railroads hated any car that could only haul specific commodities. Those days are gone. The boxcar will soon be an unusual sight.
It's a regional thing.
When I'm visiting family in Pittsburgh, nary a boxcar in sight, but plenty of coil cars and autoracks. Here in Alexandria VA, no autoracks ever and almost solid trains of boxcars.
dknelson The April 2016 issue of Trains magazine had a good article on just this topic: boxcars are being retired (mandatory due to age) at a much faster pace than they are being built, in spite of there being a continued role and demand for them. That surplus of boxcars due to the boom and bust cycle in the incentive per diem craze -- those are now old cars. Dave Nelson
The April 2016 issue of Trains magazine had a good article on just this topic: boxcars are being retired (mandatory due to age) at a much faster pace than they are being built, in spite of there being a continued role and demand for them. That surplus of boxcars due to the boom and bust cycle in the incentive per diem craze -- those are now old cars.
Dave Nelson
And like the IPD era leasers are filling the boxcax needs. GATX has a fleet now. It seems the freight car leasing companies might be the future of freight cars.
For the record..
NS handle 14,975 boxcars week ending 3/10/17
CSX handled 17,338 boxcars week ending 3/10/17
BNSF handled 12,338 week ending 3/10/17
UP handled 22,431 week ending 3/10/17
http://www.railroadpm.org/Performance%20Reports/NS.aspx
As already mentioned, often the modern "boxcar" is the container. Some goods also now ship in other types of car, such as lumber which mostly uses centerbeam cars.
There still there, doing what they always have done, just a few less now, than earlier times, for reasons that Tom accuately described in his reply.
I watch Railstream Cams, and box cars are alive and well. In my area I railfan the CN, WSOR, and CP, and you still see many box cars. Coming out of Waukesha, WI., I stopped for a departing WSOR train, a long one, with many, many box cars.
On the CN, you still see a lot of WC box cars. On the NS and CSX, you see lots of spine cars with trailers, which, I guess, replaces a lot of box cars. Why load and reload, when you can just set the trailer on a spine car.
Yes, unit tank, hopper, and container trains make up the bulk of long haul trains. I amazed at how unit trains of auto racks have increased. Years ago, railroads had them on storage tracks, all over the country. I know down in Janesville, WI., the UP had just about every unused siding and spur tracks filled with them.
The times have, and always will, change.
Mike.
My You Tube
I still see intermodal containers on flat cars but you're correct, few box cars here in the NE.
Gary
Joe,
My guess would be that more things are going by intermodal (shipping) containers, where trucks pickup them up or drop them off directly. This cuts down on packing and repacking the semi-trailers. From observation CSX has been doing this at their Collinwood yard in Cleveland (OH) for years. Trucks were always going into and out of the yard along the E. 152nd Street entrance.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
I have been watching the Rochelle web cam and local trains here in NYS and notice mixed frieght trains have very few box cars any more compared to hoppers and tank cars. Surely not everything can be shipped in a hopper or tank car. I remember seeing a lot more box cars in the 1970s and 1980s. What happen to them?