Freight cars have long lives, now 50 years permitted, and are not cheap. It would seem that the shippers themselves are reluctant to make a long term commitment by buying or leasing their own cars, so it is not too surprising that the railway will in turn be averse to buying a fleet of specialized cars for what may be a short lived use. I presume the existing log cars are coming to the end of their mandated 40 or 50 year life.
MidlandMike Can I presume log cars are so specialized that no one leases them, or is there some other reason why they can't just lease them? Might CN have their own idle log cars with the shut down of much of the former BCR Dease Lake line?
Can I presume log cars are so specialized that no one leases them, or is there some other reason why they can't just lease them? Might CN have their own idle log cars with the shut down of much of the former BCR Dease Lake line?
From what I understand CN's position is yes they do have their own log cars via WC and long ago purchases but there is currently a shortage of them as CN is also cutting them up for scrap. The lumber suppliers stated to WisDOT in a survey they could load and ship more freight if they were supplied with more log cars.
CN is hesitant to buy them itself because it does not see a long-term need or feels this is just a short-term shortage, not sure which. I looked at some youtube videos Youtube SEARCH CN Hayward, WI, looks like they have plenty of log cars to me but that is just looking at passing frieghts and they do look pretty old and messed up though...........so maybe they are near retirement? Also, unsure of the last question.
Kind of weird if you ask me because you think CN with it's deep pockets would just buy them itself. Then again if the log cars are only going to be used to ship from Michigan UP to central Wisconsin..........it's not a long haul.
So as part of the response of Northeast Wisconsin to get CN to keep operating it's lines up into the North Woods. They figured out that CN can start carrying logs from the North Woods to the mills of the Paper Valley between Appleton, WI and Green Bay, WI. CN said it would like to have the cars but so far the business has not proved resilent enough for CN to buy the cars. So apparently the State or the Communities of NE Wisconsin are going to pool their money and buy 150 new log cars for CN. Just read about that currently. Another item they are discussing was opening a TOFC ramp or collection point in Green Bay or Menominee. They say the closest one otherwise is in Chicago and they feel they could generate some container traffic if CN would open a yard further North. We'll see what happens with this next initiative.
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