TTX spine cars parked???

[trainwrekd]

while on vacation last week in colorado and in Montana I noticed miles uppon miles of TTX container spine cars parked on a railline. In Colorado there was approx 5 miles of spine cars all sitting on a main rail......only uncoupled when there was a crossing...same in montana......anyone know what happening with them?

[NS2591]

My guess is they're all cars stored on a line thats not being used, the Great Lakes Central here in michigan is storing a bunch of LPG cars around Cheasing Michigan. CN is storing AOK Centerbeams in the Durand yard.

[amtrakjackson]

There are a bunch stored on the NS in Lansing, Michigan as well. One could not find a more distant location on the NS intermodal network than Lansing. Nearest line in 'the family' to ever host a regular van train is 37 miles south. And that train (Conrail's TV-16) was discontinued nearly 30 years ago.

[loathar]

There's a bunch of TTX well cars parked the same way near me. They've been sitting for almost 2 years.

[Jimmydieselfan]

These cars are for hauling lumber and with the new home construction industry at at standstill these cars are at a standstill too.

[dehusman]

Different markets ship in different modes, some use long containers, some use shorter containers, some use TOFC.  Some routes can only be single stacked due to clearances.  Newer, more versitile cars are built.

As the market flows change and various routes are improved to handle double stacks, the need for certain car types changes and some of the older, less efficient cars are side lined.

For example if those cars are truly single stack container cars and the route they used to run on was improved to accept double stacks, then the single stack cars are now obsolete.

Dave H.

[csmith9474]

There was actually a thread in regards to this fairly recently on the Trains magazine forum. I can't recall the name of the thread off hand, but there was some really good info.

[jasperofzeal]

These cars are for hauling lumber and with the new home construction industry at at standstill these cars are at a standstill too.

Spine cars haul trailers, containers, or a combination of the two.  You're probably thinking of some other type of car that hauls lumber such as a centerbeam flat, bulkhead flat, or the like.

[NS2591]

Another great example of stored cars is the CSXT McGrew yard in Flint. The entire south end of the yard is full of 86' Boxcars, and the lead and exsisting track that went to Buick City is full of 86' Boxcars. My guess is that those where the cars that Served McGrew, and with the dwindling number of parts plants in the area(only 2 GM plants left in flint now SPO and Truck Assembly) CSX just shoved them all there to get them out of the way. Most of the those cars will sit there until their 40 year date comes up and then the'll be scrapped onsite.

[riogrande5761]

My guess is that they are stored because of a down turn in the economy.  When things are slow, cars are stored and if/when they pick up, they will be pulled out again.

[chutton01]

I'm sure there have been bigger groups of stashed rolling stock stored for longer periods, but in 1988 the LIRR order a large number of intermodal 'bogies' (This site has lots of images to provide TOFC service on it's restricted clearance lines - they didn't use them for very long (a few years), and eventually after parking them here and there, left them on an unused track on the Montauk cut-off (near Long Island City) for over 15 years (last images on that site) - I think I read that some of the LIC cut has been moved, not sure where or why.

[BRAKIE]

My guess is that they are stored because of a down turn in the economy.  When things are slow, cars are stored and if/when they pick up, they will be pulled out again.

 

Some times but, let's take a closer look shall we? Domestic intermodal shipments is up while international intermodal loadings are still declining.

 

http://www.logisticsmgmt.com/article/CA6585320.html

 

Shocking is the number of boxcars being handled.

Week ending 08/15/08 NS handled 22,442 boxcars vs.7,416 Intermodal cars!!

During the same week CSX handled 23,085 boxcars vs.6,225 Intermodal cars!!

Both BNSF and CPR handled more Intermodal cars then boxcars.

BNSF 15,604 boxcars vs. 16,162 Intermodal

CPR 6,164 boxcars vs.8,990 Intermodal.

 

Information from

http://www.railroadpm.org/Performance%20Reports/NS.aspx

Those are interesting figures.

 

[coborn35]

They are being stored wherever they can until their lease runs out. On the CP up here, some are stored on a track that isnt even connected even more.

[wm3798]

I'm sure many of us remember the boxcar boom of the late 70's early 80's...  Lots of tiny shortlines leased out hundreds of boxcars because they could collect substantial per diem fees as long as they weren't on home rails.  Then the rules changed, and many of these lines found themselves with more rolling stock than they had track to store it. 

I recall reading somewhere that the longest train ever handled by the Maryland and Pennsylvania was the result of all those "chickens" coming home to roost...

Lee

[jasperofzeal]

I'm sure there have been bigger groups of stashed rolling stock stored for longer periods, but in 1988 the LIRR order a large number of intermodal 'bogies' (This site has lots of images to provide TOFC service on it's restricted clearance lines - they didn't use them for very long (a few years), and eventually after parking them here and there, left them on an unused track on the Montauk cut-off (near Long Island City) for over 15 years (last images on that site) - I think I read that some of the LIC cut has been moved, not sure where or why.

Those "bogies" are pretty cool looking, kind of like a first attempt at making a roadrailer type pig train.  I wonder if anyone has attempted to model these?