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Ed had already described some of what customer switched facilities are like. It's more closely associated with large customers, such as steel mills, chemical plants, automobile assembly plants, paper mills, etc. But it's not limited to that. Anyone with a trackmobile or an end loader equipped with a knuckle can switch their own cars. Some even have electric car movers, known as mules, that move cars by shoving their ends from an adjacent track. A common example of that would be at the Panama Canal locks where ships are towed through. Coal transloading facilties sometimes uses these to dumpers, stackers, etc. More than any though, customer switching was much more conventional. You could see a strange variety of motive power, some of it ancient, some of it not kept up so well, others done very professionally and to the same standards as the carriers. One of the most professional and well-run plant operations I ever saw was Ford Motor Company's rail facility at the Rouge plant in Dearborn, Michigan. They had more locomotives and daily crew starts than one of the serving carriers. An important thing to remember about these the rail facilities is that their aim is to serve the plants' needs first and rail operations second. Consequently, tracks sometimes went places and crossed each other in patterns that would leave you scratching your head. Also, many of the safety rules which apply to carriers did not apply to plant operations, simply because they are not under the auspices of rail regulations. For instance, steel mills use cars that would not be permitted on any of the railroads, simply because they never leave the plant and those working with them are familiar with their vagaries. To me, that logic is grainy, but that's how it is. I've seen gons the were bulged so much that they wouldn't pass on adjacent tracks. Other types of cars that would not leave a facility are those used in plant processes, such as ingot buggies, hot metal cars, charging buggies, etc., all handled by plant crews. One plant we visited had a narrow guage (3Foot) system within it. This was used strictly for intraplant convenience. They even had at-grade crossings with the standard guage. Their motive power were 3 or 4 Plymouth industrial locomotives...quaint but not germane to carrier responsibilites. The Eastern Railroad Association recognized that if a customer was switching their own facility, they were, in essense, being doubled charged for placing and pulling. The customer paid for it once in line haul rates and again in the cost of their own crews. It further opined that if the customer crews were doing what a carrier crew could do, the customer was entitled a refund on that part of their cost. The parameters were, that for a customer switching to be eligible, it must be practical, feasible and safe for a carrier crew to do the same work. There's a lot more that could be said on this sub topic alone, but once again the post is getting long. This assignment took me to a lot of places I would not have ordinarily gone and showed me things I would not have ordinarily seen. It was a great education and experience. Once, we were invited aboard the Edmund Fitzgerald at Zug Island. He was unloading ore at Great Lakes Steel. Lakers are masculine and ocean going vessels are feminine, I'm told. It wasn't until much later, even after the wreck, that I realized what a distinct experience that was. Next post, we'll talk about the other types of switching. Tim, has all this information staggered you yet? Again, thanks for the kind words. Have a safe day! Later...gdc
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