Murphy,
Mudchicken's point #2 is the best idea for a physical fix. It gives you a runaround track without any involvement with BNSF, which makes it the cheapest and most simple idea of the bunch. 600 feet seems a bit much, BUT better more track today than have to move a switch in the future.
Mac
edblysard your car may float around Marion yard a few days, get routinely bad ordered, you get the point.
Must be nice to have extra capacity. Heck, we usually can't wait to get the cars out of our yard to the customers!
It's been fun. But it isn't much fun anymore. Signing off for now.
The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer, any other railroad, company, or person.t fun any
A “drop” is not going to happen…while still allowed in the GCOR, BNSF’s own safety rules forbids them, and do most railroads do.
Your best bet is a call, maybe in person, to the Marion yardmaster expressing your concern.
Most of the time, if they can manage it, yard masters do try and help out local customers.
As Balt pointed out, if the local crew has to do more than double over to a few tracks and leave heading north, then the odds of your car getting back on the same day are slim.
Depending on how long you guys plan on being in your current location, Mudchickens suggestion #2, adding to your exsisting siding/spur may be the best choice operation wise over the long run, but again, if the expense isn’t overall a economical one, then talking to the operational folks is the way to go…start at the bottom of the food chain with the yard master at Marion, then the trainmaster, then the BN corridor manager on up…don’t start at the top and work down, railroaders are real “turf” minded, if the yardmaster gets his tail twisted, your car may float around Marion yard a few days, get routinely bad ordered, you get the point.
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(1) IIRC - It wasn't that long ago that you folks moved. A little buyers remorse?
(2) How about two #9 turnouts and about 600 feet of track (on your side of the R/W line)? IIRC you folks did not build the original track at the new site. Is it worth the capital outlay versus "the wait"?
(3) If all you ever do is wait to complain to the local operating supervision, you won't get far.
(4) The operating rulebook will just about kill any part of a drop in a conversation. The world is now risk-adverse and roadswitchers keep getting fewer in number.
(5) Anybody investigated the nearby transload operation when logistics get critical?
narig01Option C. Call a truck.Rgds IGN
If you are calling 1 truck - you better call 2 for the lumber that the rail car is carrying.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
One other thing that plays into the HOS situation. Yard crew built the train for Local freights and the cars were switched into the train in 'station working' order, if they weren't in the proper order the Local Freight crew was due an arbitrary payment for 'reswitching' their train. That arbitrary was done away with a decade or more ago. The best the Local Freight crew can expect today, is to have all their cars switch to a track(s) so that they can come on duty, get their power and couple to their track(s) and depart; more likely however, with yard crews being cut to the bone - the Local Freight crew will have to switch together their train from the serving yard, so it is very likely that by the time you see the crew for the first time the crew may have already been on duty 5 or 6 hours.
Outside of relocation of your track, the best tactic is to have a civil conversation with the local trainmaster concerning your observations. I wish you luck, as the limited volume your company generates gives you very little bargining power.
No way on God's Green Earth will you get BNSF to do the second option.
Look at the root causes of your problem.
You are on a spur that opens to the north and your load comes from a local yard located north of you. That makes the southward, or first, move a "facing point" move, but to set a car out, or pick it up, the move must be "trailing point", that is done on the northward movement. In the "good old days" your car would have been on the head end of the train and the crew would have dropped the car into the spur. Between having fewer trainmen on the crew and today's safety rules, dropping the car in is impossible.
If the crew is not spotting the car on the way back then one of two things is happening. One, the crew has so much other work that they are running close to their hours of service limit, which is 12 hours on duty. Two, the crew is lazy.
Solutions. Start with the easy stuff. I suspect the crew is about two hours into their day when you first see them and have about an hour's work after they go by northward. What time do they generally go by northward? The point is you can make a reasonable estimate of their HOS situation.
Even if you do not know the HOS situation, go talk to the local Trainmaster. He is the crew's boss. If it is an HOS issue he can, and will, tell you. If the crew is lazy he can encourage them to do the work.
The other issue is your spur. I looked on Google Earth and whoever laid it out to open north should be shot, since there is plenty of open ground to the south. It appears that the spur could have, and certainly should have been, built to open to the south. Had it been you would not have this problem.
This has two possible cures. One is to revise the spur to open south. The other is for BNSF to build a short "run around" track adjacent to your switch. I would put it south of your existing switch. This will involve a new switch in your spur and a new switch in the main track, plus 300-400 feet of track. Either solution will be in the $250,000 to $1,000,000 range, and you should expect to pay for it.
If you were a regular customer, and thus a regular pain in the a$$ to the crew and the Trainmaster, he might be moved to get marketing involved in paying for a solution. A few years back BNSF was actively looking to revise bonehead track arrangements to speed up local switching. I have no idea whether or not they are still doing that. In any case the place to start a discussion about any track changes is the trainmaster.
Do not bring up your pal's "brilliant idea" since it will make you look like an idiot to the Trainmaster. No need to start off on the wrong foot.
Mac McCulloch
You might see the car Friday.
Splitting power to set the car out (option 2) is quite the operation, especially if there is snow to complicate matters. If the car is in the middle of the train, the engineer is loathe to walk all those cars to get where he needs to be, tie down the unattended portions of the train with the requisite handbrakes, etc.
There might also be arbitraries and penalties to pay out.
It would have to be a super hot car to go through that level of extra moves.
Is it downhill into the lumber yard? If the car would roll from the main into your yard that would be more feasible than your option 2, but not likely with current work rules. In the old days a power drop would get the car into the yard a lot quicker.
Mike WSOR engineer | HO scale since 1988 | Visit our club www.WCGandyDancers.com
We were supposed to get a carload of lumber in Monday. It didn't work out that way. The local come from the north, but our lead faces north. At about 2:00 o'clock Monday, I saw our carload of CanFor 2X6's go by in the middle of the train. Generally, it runs past our switch, and goes 2 hours down the line to Marion, where cars are switched, and then heads back to us to be switched into our loading dock when the train is heading back north. We figured the car would be spotted after 5 on Monday, but it had not shown up by the time we left at noon on Tuesday, Christmas Eve. The BNSF generally delivers to us on Mon-Wed-Fri, so we'll probably see our wayward car Friday. Our yard crew that unloads is fit to be tied, about why the railroad won't do things that are best for them, as opposed to what's easiest for the railroad. They can't understand why the railroad can't just drop off our car on the way through. Here's a question about time frame to spot a car- 2 scenarios, one favoring the railroad, one favoring the receiver- a lumberyard in dire need of a carload of 2x6's from Canada. How long would it take to switch each way?1) The local is heading south. At the head of the train are 3 engines of the GP-28 variety. The train is approximately 40 cars, and a lone car of lumber is about in the middle of the train. As the local is heading south, the lead going into the receiver is facing north. The local passes the receiver, and spots the car, typically, 4-6 hours later, on the return trip north into the main yard. To spot the car, the train stops, splits the train just behind our car, and pulls north past the switch. The conductor throws the switch, and the car back through the switch into our yard. After dropping off our car, the train pulls back out onto the main, then relines the switch. The train backs up, re-coupling onto the rest of the train. Then. it's ready to head north into the home yard for the night.2) The local stops north of the switch. The switch is thrown, and the front locomotive is split from the other two, and pulled onto the siding. The switch is relined for the main. The train is split just north of the lumber car. The train is then pulled south of the switch. The switch is line for the lead again. The single locomotive is backed north, back onto the main. Switch is lined for the main again. Single engine moves south on the main, couples to the lumber car, and back north of the switch. The switch is lined for the lead into the yard, and the car is spotted. While the single engine is still on the lead, the switch would have to be lined for the main again. The train south of the switch, with the 2 locomotives on the front end, would then have to back north of the switch. The switch is then lined for the lead. The single engine pulls north through the switch, back onto the main, and re-couples onto the front of the train. The switch is re-lined for the main, and the local can continue south. In talking through this with a lumberyard foreman ( who used to work at a grain elevator, and therefore knows everything about trains), I found myself lacking in trying to explain just how much time it would take to make him happy. As I see it, the easy move, #1, takes about 20 to 30 minutes. That's pretty consistent with past performance, as our dock is about 1/4 mile off the main. I picture the harder option, #2, taking 1:15 to 1-1/2 hours. Any thoughts?
Thanks to Chris / CopCarSS for my avatar.
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