kgbw49 If I recall correctly, the original concept behind North Baltimore was that it was to function like an airline hub but for intermodal instead of people. It was discussed in detail in a Trains feature article. The result was added mileage and transit time for intermodal across much of the CSX network. From reading all the various articles about it over time in Trains, the recollection is that the hub and spoken aspect of it was what was shut down. The terminal itself never closed and has continued operating instead primarily as a regional terminal with boxes drayed in and out. North Baltimore is a four-hour-or-less dray from all the major cities in Ohio and Southern Michigan, and Indianapolis and even Lousiville, KY. BNSF also worked out a haulage agreement from Chicago to North Baltimore and shows North Baltimore as the easternmost terminis of its intermodal network. (Longitudinally just a hair further east than Atlanta.) https://www.bnsf.com/bnsf-resources/pdf/ship-with-bnsf/maps-and-shipping-locations/intermodal-map-large.pdf So like the USS Lexington and USS Saratoga that were originally laid down as battlecruisers but were converted mid-construction to the first true combat-capable through-deck aircraft carriers after the 1922 Naval Treaty and served with great distinction as aircraft carriers, North Baltimore is serving successfully in a role different from the original purpose of its construction. I am sure some of the industry insiders on this forum can give better information and correct any incorrect understandings that might be contained in this forum contribution.
If I recall correctly, the original concept behind North Baltimore was that it was to function like an airline hub but for intermodal instead of people. It was discussed in detail in a Trains feature article.
The result was added mileage and transit time for intermodal across much of the CSX network.
From reading all the various articles about it over time in Trains, the recollection is that the hub and spoken aspect of it was what was shut down.
The terminal itself never closed and has continued operating instead primarily as a regional terminal with boxes drayed in and out.
North Baltimore is a four-hour-or-less dray from all the major cities in Ohio and Southern Michigan, and Indianapolis and even Lousiville, KY.
BNSF also worked out a haulage agreement from Chicago to North Baltimore and shows North Baltimore as the easternmost terminis of its intermodal network. (Longitudinally just a hair further east than Atlanta.)
https://www.bnsf.com/bnsf-resources/pdf/ship-with-bnsf/maps-and-shipping-locations/intermodal-map-large.pdf
So like the USS Lexington and USS Saratoga that were originally laid down as battlecruisers but were converted mid-construction to the first true combat-capable through-deck aircraft carriers after the 1922 Naval Treaty and served with great distinction as aircraft carriers, North Baltimore is serving successfully in a role different from the original purpose of its construction.
I am sure some of the industry insiders on this forum can give better information and correct any incorrect understandings that might be contained in this forum contribution.
In Hunter Harrison's opinion North Baltimore wasn't working well. That opinion was based on the extra costs incurred in grounding and reloading containers so that CSX could serve a much larger number of origin-destination pairs AND the lower revenue per unit numbers associated with truck-competitive intermodal traffic. Yeah, CSX's OR dropped like a rock but so did their future traffic growth prospects, which have been borne out in real life. In 2016 CSX's OR was 69.4% so it wasn't like North Baltimore was bankrupting them.
My inlaws live a few miles west of Deshler, OH. I have vistited the NW Ohio area every year since 1998. Once North Baltimore got up and running, the number of intermodal trains operating in the area, especially to/from the Cincinnati gateway and points in the southeast increased significantly. I did a little poking around in CSX's annual reports and after opening in 2011 North Baltimore became the 2nd largest terminal by volume on the CSX system. Intermodal units increased from 2.22 million in 2010 to 2.81 million in 2016 (which, btw, was a rail recession year). By 2019 CSX's intermodal volume fell to 2.67 million units.
Some of North Baltimore's resurgence has to do with the practical idling of the former B&O Willard, OH hump yard and repurposing as a block swapping facility. Under Jim Foote some of Harrison's more brutal cost-cutting measures were relaxed. North Baltimore is still used blend/split southeast intermodal traffic with that moving on the I-90 corridor, but via block swaps rather than grounding and resorting containers. Also, BNSF obtained haulage rights over CSX to access and use the facility for traffic CSX was no longer interested in hauling themselves.
CSX built the North West Ohio (NWO) intermodal center at North Baltimore, OH.
EHH/PSR closed it, but then CSX opened it up again, and now it's expanded, and as busy as ever.
Global 3 made sense to someone, and maybe it'll make sense again in the future.
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...
BaltACD Falcon48 Let me give you a little more technicolor on this one, since I was at UP at the time. UP actually wanted to build Global 3 near Maple Park, Illinois, which would have put it roughly 30 miles closer to Chicago than the eventual location near Rochelle. Maple Park fell through because of local opposition. Global 3 was an idea implemented before PSR came to the fore for operating railroads. CSX built a intermodal terminal at McKees Rocks, PA under the Michael Ward regime, he successor killed it and I believe sold or leased the property upon which it had been built. All of which serves to prove that over the time of 1000 issues,The times they have changed, just as management and its'new' ideas change. Sure keeps rairoader's, railfans and journalists, on their toes...
Falcon48 Let me give you a little more technicolor on this one, since I was at UP at the time. UP actually wanted to build Global 3 near Maple Park, Illinois, which would have put it roughly 30 miles closer to Chicago than the eventual location near Rochelle. Maple Park fell through because of local opposition.
Global 3 was an idea implemented before PSR came to the fore for operating railroads.
CSX built a intermodal terminal at McKees Rocks, PA under the Michael Ward regime, he successor killed it and I believe sold or leased the property upon which it had been built.
All of which serves to prove that over the time of 1000 issues,The times they have changed, just as management and its'new' ideas change. Sure keeps rairoader's, railfans and journalists, on their toes...
**Posting a quote from the article on TRAINS Neweswire regarding the 1,000 issue of the Magazine.... FTA:"...“I’ll leave you with this thought. Very few magazines make it to 1,000 issues. Perhaps as few as 50 magazines have ever reached this number. Kalmbach Media now has two of them. Thank you for being part of our success story.” — Trains Editor Carl Swanson "
New ideas in railroadiing, and in business, seem to last...NEW administrations like to leave their own historical imprints.
Falcon48Let me give you a little more technicolor on this one, since I was at UP at the time. UP actually wanted to build Global 3 near Maple Park, Illinois, which would have put it roughly 30 miles closer to Chicago than the eventual location near Rochelle. Maple Park fell through because of local opposition.
Company managements have idea. When management changes the idea also change.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
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