I was talking to a CSX conductor last night at the tail end of his train. They'd just made a pickup or drop (I forget which) and were getting back out on the main.
He told me that someone had decided that said moves would now be made at the end of the train, instead of right behind the power. Which now meant that the conductor had to make his way over 70 cars back to his power. Not bad last night, might be a little dicey with a foot of snow on the ground...
Meanwhile, a main is tied up just that much longer.
Larry Resident Microferroequinologist (at least at my house) Everyone goes home; Safety begins with you My Opinion. Standard Disclaimers Apply. No Expiration Date Come ride the rails with me! There's one thing about humility - the moment you think you've got it, you've lost it...
CSX took the precision out of Scheduled Railroading.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
For UP, this is going back to some basics. If I remember correctly, when we (C&NW) were merged into UP, they had a system (inherited from MP) that made individual plans for each car, and could theoretically tell their customers when their car would arrive, on what train, etc. Then the railroad melted down with CNW, kind of recovered, then went completely down the tubes when the SP rail network was absorbed.If they're talking about shorter, more frequent trains, that's great. What I don't get is why they're purging their roster of units of any size. They may need them! I'm not at all sure what the current status for stored locomotives might be, but those low-horsepower units might be the ones to store, at least until things work out.In other news, UNP shares jumped nearly seven bucks today on this news. My own preduction is that these seven bucks will slowly disappear again. But the shareholders apparently see this as being good for them because they want to lower the operating ratio. They got theirs...now let's see whether customers and employees get theirs as well. (Someone recently said that when stock goes up, executive pay goes up...when stocks go back down, employees are laid off.) I hope it stays up, if for no other reason than that the lion's share of my 401K is fueled by UP stock.
Carl
Railroader Emeritus (practiced railroading for 46 years--and in 2010 I finally got it right!)
CAACSCOCOM--I don't want to behave improperly, so I just won't behave at all. (SM)
At my last review, my supervisor told me we were going to a new plan similar to PSR, but not exactly the same and they weren't calling it PSR. (Although I did see PSR mentioned in a message to employees.) I was told that some trains might become smaller and more frequent. That they didn't want to hold trains to maximum tonnage at the expense of service. Other local officials have told others about the same. That more engines and crews would be needed. Leading some of the latest batch of new hires I've worked with hoping this will keep them from getting furloughed.
I guess we shall see how it comes out. Whether we fit the customers to the plan or fit the plan to the customers.
Jeff
OMAHA, Neb. – Union Pacific’s embrace of Precision Scheduled Railroading principles came just two months after Wall Street analysts peppered CEO Lance Fritz with questions about why his railroad couldn’t be more like CSX Transportat...
http://trn.trains.com/news/news-wire/2018/09/18-union-pacific-aims-to-boost-profits-service-with-precision-scheduled-railroading
Brian Schmidt, Editor, Classic Trains magazine
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