edblysard As of yesterday, we had three BNSF unit grain trains in Cargill unloading, one empty BNSF in the outbound siding, two loaded BNSF waiting at North Yard to go out to Cargill, and two UP loaded tied down outside our property waiting to get in.
As of yesterday, we had three BNSF unit grain trains in Cargill unloading, one empty BNSF in the outbound siding, two loaded BNSF waiting at North Yard to go out to Cargill, and two UP loaded tied down outside our property waiting to get in.
This is the part of the picture that the railfans (and probably farmers) don't see. In addition to all those trains, the BNSF and UP probably have 1 or 2 trains each within 24 hours of the Houston, another 1 or 2 each within 48 hours of Houston, another 1 or 2 each within 72 hours and several more loaded, being loaded or empties planned to spot. The railroads have to watch the entire supply chain. If the destination backs up they intentionally reduce the launches out of origins, to match the capabilities of the destination.
Many times when a train is holding its not because there is a problem at the location the train is, the constraint may actually be literally 1000 miles away.
One way to increase the empty car supply is to unload the loads quickly.
Dave H. Painted side goes up. My website : wnbranch.com
We, the PTRA, get a bonus if we can get the unit train turned and ready to depart in 24 hours from the time it hits our property….real good incentive to keep them moving, we will call as many extra crews as needed…the next few months will be busy.
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edblysard As of yesterday, we had three BNSF unit grain trains in Cargill unloading, one empty BNSF in the outbound siding, two loaded BNSF waiting at North Yard to go out to Cargill, and two UP loaded tied down outside our property waiting to get in. Last year, we built another receiving track to hold 125 car unit trains at North Yard because the projections said we would need it, if this keeps up, I think we may have to build one more.
Last year, we built another receiving track to hold 125 car unit trains at North Yard because the projections said we would need it, if this keeps up, I think we may have to build one more.
And the farmers and their psychophant politicians are screaming for more cars while one consignee has 8 trains, at least 800 cars tied up. Damn those dastardly railroads!
Serious question - why does Cargill have 8 trains backed up?
Mac
PNWRMNM edblysard As of yesterday, we had three BNSF unit grain trains in Cargill unloading, one empty BNSF in the outbound siding, two loaded BNSF waiting at North Yard to go out to Cargill, and two UP loaded tied down outside our property waiting to get in. Last year, we built another receiving track to hold 125 car unit trains at North Yard because the projections said we would need it, if this keeps up, I think we may have to build one more. And the farmers and their psychophant politicians are screaming for more cars while one consignee has 8 trains, at least 800 cars tied up. Damn those dastardly railroads! Serious question - why does Cargill have 8 trains backed up?
They aren't really that backed up. One is empty, ready to return for loading. 3 are being unloaded. 2 from each railroad are waiting for a train ahead to be emptied. Cargill can unload multiple trains, 24x7. Within 24-36 hours all of those trains should be emptied.
Now the next part of the puzzle enters in. They took the grain out of the hoppers and put it in the elevator. Where does it go from there? At Cargill most likely a ship. So the next question is whether there is a ship on berth, is it clean, what is it loading, how big is it? If the ship is loading milo and the trains holding are corn then the trains may have to wait until the ship is loaded or to let other milo trains around the corn trains to finish the ship.
If you talk to a railroad grain manager he/she will know all about ship schedules, when they are due, what they will be loaded with, how big they are, whether they have passed inspection.
As Dave pointed out, it is not all that backed up.
Last night we cabbed a crew to the empty in the siding, pulled it up to the crew change point at North Yard, and handed it off to a BNSF crew.
Same crew cabbed back to Cargill, pulled another one out and to North Yard, brought in one of the UP’s trains, took it out to Cargill, parked it on the main, pulled a second BNSF out of Cargill into the siding, then spotted the UP in its place…as Dave pointed out, all of this is going overseas in ships, and that’s the biggest hold up of all, because it all has to be timed right, the ships tie up out at Bolivar Roads just off the Galveston coast, and begin their transit of the ship channel, timed to place them in Cargill at a specific time,
I have no clue as to how or why, but the grain inbound from the BNSF is almost always loaded directly out to ships, while the grain from the UP almost always goes into the elevator…I would assume whoever is shipping on the BN is selling direct to a particular customer and paying for an expedited service.
The grain business is so lucrative that the local union and the my carrier had worked out an agreement for a engineer and conductor extra boards devoted only to grain, with the crew being on duty 12 hours per shift, working nothing but grain trains.
We service two elevators on our property, Cargill, which is huge, and Hansen Muller, which is a small public elevator, a stone throw away from North Yard; we can shove over to it and pull it then spot 80 cars in there with a switch crew in under an hour.
And, we service a company that deals with bagged grain for export, who get 40 to 50 boxcars of bagged USDA export grain every other shift, 50 pound bags of rice, lentil, dried peas and sometimes dried corn, this stuff also goes direct from the boxcar to ship.
These extra boards would be bulletined from August 1 to December 31.
Regular pay rates applied, (8 straight and 4 overtime hours per shift) and the normal 6th day requirement in place, plus a guarantee of a 12 day half, which I doubt would ever be claimed, and the crews could not be assigned to any other work, grain and grain only….the deal fell through because the union wanted the normal meal period time, (5 hours 40 minutes after shift begins) to apply, with a second meal period left floating, if not taken, then a meal period claim.
The carrier wanted only the one meal period….they could never come to a compromise, so the deal never materialized, which is a shame, for a single guy with no commitments outside the railroad it would have been a serious money train!
As it is right now, our extra boards get run through every day, and the carrier will blank some assigned jobs to move the crews to grain trains.
Not the best solution, but for the crews, it means a pretty good paycheck, they get a time claim for being moved from their regular assigned job, plus they can expect a 12 hour day on top of that.
We just finished two back to back new hire classes with 15 guys in each class, and an engineer’s class with 5 guys in that, and expect another new hire class to form up last of October, with another engineer’s class close to the same time.
We don’t foresee the grain business dropping off drastically anytime soon.
Unloading to the elevator, I suspect, is for blending purposes. All corn, from the ultimate users perspective, is not the same. There are various grades of virtually all commodities - corn, beans, wheat, hay, coal. Just because all coal is black, doesn't mean all coal has the same chemical & metallurgical properties. The same qualitative differences apply to agricultural commodities. Just like anything else, higher quality product costs more than lower quality product. By blending various grades of product, the elevator can deliver virtually any grade of product that the buyer desires.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
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