Read Fred's blog post on the topic to find out. Happy Tuesday, everyone! Jim
http://cs.trains.com/trn/b/fred-frailey/archive/2014/11/30/the-two-transcons-by-the-numbers.aspx
Its not immediately obvious what the problem is with the link above, other than it isn't clickable (at least for me).
Here is a link that does work (at least for me):
The forum software that Trains uses is not the most friendly. After using the "Insert Link" function and finding that my link also didn't work, I gave up and manually inserted (URL) ... (/URL) tags to make it work. Note that I used parenthesis ( ) in my example so the tags are displayed, but you must use square brackets [ ] for the actual tags if you expect them to work properly.
It is pretty bad when even JIM WRINN can’t make a link work!
But, that distraction was more than offset by the link’s mention of the northern Transcon having 199 trains per day, as opposed to the southern Transcon with 252 trains a day.
With such a northern count, is it any wonder BNSF is laying hundreds of miles of second main?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- K.P.’s absolute “theorem” from early, early childhood that he has seen over and over and over again: Those that CAUSE a problem in the first place will act the most violently if questioned or exposed.
K. P. Harrier It is pretty bad when even JIM WRINN can’t make a link work! But, that distraction was more than offset by the link’s mention of the northern Transcon having 199 trains per day, as opposed to the southern Transcon with 252 trains a day. With such a northern count, is it any wonder BNSF is laying hundreds of miles of second main?
First of all: The I.T. function of the FORUM is essentailly a dead horse; so for my part, we need to quit flogging the' old gal'. After all, it is a free service of the magazine we enjoy on any number of levels, as subscribers or not.
Moving on, from that destraction, to other things. I am amazed to actually see the train count of the BNSF's Southern Transcon...ie; the 252 trains a day! .
Living adjacent to the line, double tracked-mostly- between Mulvane, Ks. and Wellington,Ks; Wellington is the point of crew change for our side of it. I imagine that the 'train count' is a cumulative count for a given period of time. [ a 24 hour day?]
What one notices in this area is the traffic is not a consistant flow from day to day, some days the traffic is on a very short window of something amounting to as short as 15 minutes or much longer. The factor seems to be the number of crews available at any given time. Some of the railroad crew personnel who 'post' around here have mentioned the disparity in times which some crews can get going on their trips. Number of crews available for service at any given time. Size of the crew district operated in. Speed of the trains operated in the area. Out here we have some trains that operate at 'track speeds', and others that run at reduced speeds, whie some would seem to be slotted for higher speeds(international containers), come out and sit while passed by other traffic.
*Some of the questions that do not ever seem to be asked, or answered:
Does BNSF use a computer program to assist dispatchers in their traffic management chores?
Are similar tasks for crew asignment also computer assisted?
I understand that this area is controled out of the Corporate Center in Ft. Worth?
How do dispatchers get qualified for THEIR assignment?
Do they physically have to ride their 'assigned district', to familiarize themselves with the territory?
Thanks;
K.P., that northern Transcon count was low-balled. As Frailey pointed out, it does not include Spokane west toward Portland, which, as I stated in his blog, is about like not including Barstow-L.A. or even Needles-L.A. on the southern Transcon. (Spokane-Pasco-Vancouver/Portland is roughly 2.5 to 4 times busier than Spokane-Seattle, depending on the day.) Nor does it include the trains heading to or from the northern Transcon via MRL, which become part of the BNSF traffic mix west of Sandpoint, Idaho.
samfp1943 *Some of the questions that do not ever seem to be asked, or answered: Does BNSF use a computer program to assist dispatchers in their traffic management chores? Are similar tasks for crew asignment also computer assisted? I understand that this area is controled out of the Corporate Center in Ft. Worth? How do dispatchers get qualified for THEIR assignment? Do they physically have to ride their 'assigned district', to familiarize themselves with the territory? Thanks;
BNSF and all the other Class 1 carriers use various versions of Computer Aided Dispatching Systems (CADS).
Crew Management functions also have computer systems that support their operation.
New hire dispatchers initially get qualified on the operating rules and the operation of their CADS system. Once they are proficient and knowledgeable in these area they put in OJT on specific territories, this can take 6 to 9 weeks or even longer per territory and is governed by individual company policy and union contracts where applicable. Road Review may or maynot be given during the initial OJT period, depending on company policy. It has been found that giving Road Review to a Dispatcher before they have a 'office understanding' of how the territory 'actually works' makes the Road Review much more beneficial to the Dispatcher. In some cases Road Review won't take place until after the Dispatcher has become 'qualified' on a desk and is making his own decisions.
On my carrier new hire Dispatchers get qualified on 2 desks before they can mark up and protect those desks from the extra board. They use any days they aren't working on the desks they are qualified on to begin to qualify on a 3rd desk.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Bruce Kelly (12-2):
My, my! For years I’ve erroneously had the vision that the BNSF northern lines were like Union Pacific’s Los Angeles-Salt Lake City line, maybe 15 trains a day. But, what a different picture you’ve painted!
Sometime in the next couple of years I should drive some of the northern Transcon and see the phenomena firsthand!
Thanks, Bruce, for the great enlightenment!
Best,
K.P.
Remember, those figures are not the actual train frequency. That figure of 252 trains is how many trains are present somewhere along the length of the line at a given time. The average running time for a transcon train is unknown to me but let's say 48 hours to cover the 2000+ miles. That immediately cuts the train count in half for a railfan standing trackside. Subtracting staged trains and locals will reduce the count still further at most locations.
The northern route is slower, in part due to the amount of single track, and I believe is more prone to staging trains. So that figure of 199 trains will get an even greater reduction to yield the actual train frequency.
Statistics are wonderful. Careful selection and omission mean they can be used to support almost any position.
John
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