Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
It is nice to tighten up the schedule just a tad.
But always leave some room for goofs and red alerts. Nothing destroys an assigned run than a over tight schedule and bigwig suits descending from the ivory tower sticking pudgy demanding fingers into everyone's pie all the way down to the train crew.
Nice to hear from Bill again... I thought we would get a response on the operation after he pulled himself out from under the pile of potatoes. Congratulations!
Perhaps the UP wasn't expecting engine issues with their new Gevo's. This would be called bad planning. I was originally expecting the UP to handle any engine issues immediately, even resorting to power swaps as needed. With the schedule and speed that this train runs at though, there might be issues with the cab signals. Does the UP assisgn special engines (Gevo's) to these trains with the cab signals set to 75mph in the ex-CNW territory?
Speaking of that schedule... It's better to start with a padded schedule and then tighten it as the bugs get work than have it the other way around.
CC
jeffhergert wrote: greyhounds wrote: 2. Why are locomotives such pieces of crap? They fail regularly. It seems that a machine that cost $1.5 million plus ought to run reliably. A while back I caught a westbound intermodal with 4 brand new SD70ace's. The odometer on the computer screen was 332 miles when I got on at Boone, which is about the distance from Chicago. The new paint smell was so strong down in the nose a person could get a buzz from the fumes. Around Carroll, Iowa I started to notice a faint odor like hot electrical wiring. About half way up Arcadia hill I started getting ground relay reset faults. The locomotive help desk told me to cut out the lead truck traction motors the next time we stopped. If that didn't stop the faults, try cutting out the trailing truck. We stopped at Vail, Iowa behind a train that had to check a hot box hit. I cut out the lead truck and all my faults disappeared off the screen. We got a signal to go and started to roll. That is everything but the lead axle which had locked up and wouldn't turn. That was quite a night. Jeff
greyhounds wrote: 2. Why are locomotives such pieces of crap? They fail regularly. It seems that a machine that cost $1.5 million plus ought to run reliably.
2. Why are locomotives such pieces of crap? They fail regularly. It seems that a machine that cost $1.5 million plus ought to run reliably.
A while back I caught a westbound intermodal with 4 brand new SD70ace's. The odometer on the computer screen was 332 miles when I got on at Boone, which is about the distance from Chicago. The new paint smell was so strong down in the nose a person could get a buzz from the fumes.
Around Carroll, Iowa I started to notice a faint odor like hot electrical wiring. About half way up Arcadia hill I started getting ground relay reset faults. The locomotive help desk told me to cut out the lead truck traction motors the next time we stopped. If that didn't stop the faults, try cutting out the trailing truck. We stopped at Vail, Iowa behind a train that had to check a hot box hit. I cut out the lead truck and all my faults disappeared off the screen. We got a signal to go and started to roll. That is everything but the lead axle which had locked up and wouldn't turn. That was quite a night.
Jeff
Heh.
Root causes if not solved immediately tend to cascade into bigger failures. (More expensive ones)
But with a virgin unit? I suspect they must have maybe.. slipped it to delivery without a complete Q/A check.
CShaveRR wrote:Not lookin' good right now--scheduled to pass you in the wee hours Sunday Morning. Of course, thanks to the padding, it may pick up a bit on that, especially if they find another GEVO somewhere (so far, these trains have been powered by nothing but GEVOs).
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)
CShaveRR wrote:I've been watching these trains' progress since they started running. The eastbound run this week is having problems, it would appear, with only two units running (the third unit died, reportedly). Still, every train so far has beaten its schedule handily.
Two disturbing things.
1) They aparently built in more than a day (sometimes two days) padding in the schedule. And there's a 20 hour variance in running times. It's a high priority unit train for cripes sake. UP and CSX have to be able to schedule trains and operate better than that.
How much manpower and equiptment is it taking to transload off the train onto the trucks?
Great!
How are you doing getting the product onto the trucks and out of the gate?
Congratulations are in order.
A toast!
A couple of press releases from the Railex website regarding the first train:
http://www.railexusa.com/pressroom.php?id=51&article=Press
http://www.railexusa.com/pressroom.php?id=52
Quote by CShaveRR:
The train left Wallula on the 19th. It's due in Proviso this evening, but could make it before dark (that's moving!). Five GEVOs for power, 55 cars. I might report again after I see it. Oh--the correct symbol is ZWASKP (SK=Selkirk).
Oh--the correct symbol is ZWASKP (SK=Selkirk).
Quote by me (CC) from 6/8/06:
Ok, just for fun, I'll take a shot at the UP symbol for this new unit train. The new refer cars are good for 70mph? Interesting. Then again, if you're trying to get from Washington to New York in five days those cars better move! ZWASKP (Z=high priority, WA=Wallula, WA or Washington, SK=Selkirk, NY, P=perishable)
I'm going to take a guess and say the train wasn't delivered immediately because it was the first train and there might have been some kind of special dedication / grand opening.
How many yellow or red lights do you think that this train had?? I'm going to say not many and none.
If you can trace cars on CSX, use ARMN 111110 as an example.
Edit: I just tried the CSX touch-trace number, and it shows this car as having arrived in Schenectady last night, but not scheduled to be placed at the industry before tomorrow. What, I wonder, is with that?
It got by me, darn it! Would have been nice with those newer GEVOs (five of them!) on the point. Anyway, I hope CSX has it by now, and doesn't drop the ball.
(I missed it an hour ago--it's now only an hour and a half before it was expected!)
greyhounds wrote: Safety Valve wrote: greyhounds wrote: You know, there's not a damn reason in the world that this train can't pick up potatoes in Idaho along the way or carry Container/TOFC shipments of produce. Hmm. I think it's time that kills such flexibility. But.. if you could have area railroads GET the loads and set it out for pickup along the way.... Well, my idea would be to have an Idaho "assembly center", kind of a distribution center in reverse. That's what they're doing in Washington state. Use the trucks for what they do best. Pick up and aggregate the loads. Then load the carboxes at the assembly center. Ideally, you'd do it at a crew change point where a switch or local crew would be on duty to put the potato loads on the back of the train. That way you wouldn't add an extra stop and would have more people than just the conductor to work on the ground. My guess - about 15 minutes extra time. I think this could and should be expanded to move beef from Amarillo and western Kansas, chicken from Arkansas, etc. This is one of the most exciting developments in railroading since the advent of stack trains.
Safety Valve wrote: greyhounds wrote: You know, there's not a damn reason in the world that this train can't pick up potatoes in Idaho along the way or carry Container/TOFC shipments of produce. Hmm. I think it's time that kills such flexibility. But.. if you could have area railroads GET the loads and set it out for pickup along the way....
greyhounds wrote: You know, there's not a damn reason in the world that this train can't pick up potatoes in Idaho along the way or carry Container/TOFC shipments of produce.
You know, there's not a damn reason in the world that this train can't pick up potatoes in Idaho along the way or carry Container/TOFC shipments of produce.
Hmm.
I think it's time that kills such flexibility.
But.. if you could have area railroads GET the loads and set it out for pickup along the way....
Well, my idea would be to have an Idaho "assembly center", kind of a distribution center in reverse. That's what they're doing in Washington state. Use the trucks for what they do best. Pick up and aggregate the loads. Then load the carboxes at the assembly center.
Ideally, you'd do it at a crew change point where a switch or local crew would be on duty to put the potato loads on the back of the train. That way you wouldn't add an extra stop and would have more people than just the conductor to work on the ground.
My guess - about 15 minutes extra time.
I think this could and should be expanded to move beef from Amarillo and western Kansas, chicken from Arkansas, etc. This is one of the most exciting developments in railroading since the advent of stack trains.
Do it from Liberal, Dumas, Garden City, Fort Collins and have regional truckers take it to ... perhaps Salinas Kansas or Emporia and reload onto the train. That way they dont have to endure the long waits or really critical shipping.
Part of the problem is the Meat Triangle is both East bound and Westbound. (Sound and North too)
Chicken from Arkansas wont merit the additional rail traffic. Fayetteville and Russelville is already "Maxed out" on trucks and there are other processing plants in the Ozarks that will be faced with REALLY steep terrain that matches or bests Saluda in engineering problems.
Now if we can get the Produce out of Salinas, Nursery out of Portland, Perishables out of Yuma, Nogales and Eagle Pass then we will have the beginnings of a good rail network.
A bonus would be loading railcars in secure areas with Customs right inside the facility to pre-screen the trains for contrabrand, illegals and other problems that routinely get put on the unwary truckers.
Unloading these trains in places like Scranton, Harrisburg, Baltimore, Binghampton and points close to the major metro areas like what is happening in Albany will support trucking in high intensity.
Maybe this will cool it on the tight scheduling and problems with long haul burn out and make the drivers more useful in time-producting loaded and rolling with less critical items across the USA.
The train left Wallula on the 19th. It's due in Proviso this evening, but could make it before dark (that's moving!). Five GEVOs for power, 55 cars. I might report again after I see it.
greyhounds wrote: MP173 wrote:Safety valve:Thanks for the lesson. I worked in trucking for 13 years. My concern with the early picture was the nature it was being loaded. The second picture by Chris clearly shows the skids of apples are being doubled. So, high utilization of equipment is being realized.Anyone have any idea of the number of skids (pallets) one of these boxcars will hold? Thanks,ed Well, if you're just asking for an "Idea"... It's a 64 foot car, but you need to reduce the interior length for the refrigeration thingies. So if we assume a 58' interior length and 48" x 40 " pallets turned so the 48" length is side to side; if we assume all that, then we get 34 pallets on the floor and 34 on the second "deck". That B 68 pallets. They might have to reduce that to ensure air flow around the perishable product. You know, there's not a damn reason in the world that this train can't pick up potatoes in Idaho along the way or carry Container/TOFC shipments of produce.
MP173 wrote:Safety valve:Thanks for the lesson. I worked in trucking for 13 years. My concern with the early picture was the nature it was being loaded. The second picture by Chris clearly shows the skids of apples are being doubled. So, high utilization of equipment is being realized.Anyone have any idea of the number of skids (pallets) one of these boxcars will hold? Thanks,ed
Well, if you're just asking for an "Idea"...
It's a 64 foot car, but you need to reduce the interior length for the refrigeration thingies. So if we assume a 58' interior length and 48" x 40 " pallets turned so the 48" length is side to side; if we assume all that, then we get 34 pallets on the floor and 34 on the second "deck". That B 68 pallets.
They might have to reduce that to ensure air flow around the perishable product.
Chris30 wrote: According to the website www.railexusa.com the Washington facility is already open and shipping individual cars until the New York facility is ready to accept unit trains. I read that one of the reasons the Washington facility is open first is to test/train the workers on loading the cars. As long as we're talking about loading, here's a nother picture of a car being loading at the Washington facility (from the Railex website): One other thing that I read in one of the press releases is that all cars will remain attached. What I didn't find was any info regarding the date of the first unit train. Based on the latest pictures from the New York facility (9/21/06) it doesn't look like it's quite ready yet. CC
According to the website www.railexusa.com the Washington facility is already open and shipping individual cars until the New York facility is ready to accept unit trains. I read that one of the reasons the Washington facility is open first is to test/train the workers on loading the cars. As long as we're talking about loading, here's a nother picture of a car being loading at the Washington facility (from the Railex website):
One other thing that I read in one of the press releases is that all cars will remain attached.
What I didn't find was any info regarding the date of the first unit train. Based on the latest pictures from the New York facility (9/21/06) it doesn't look like it's quite ready yet.
NOW THIS IS A PURTY LOAD.
With the nice clean (Germ free?) floor and intact interior.
OUTSTANDING.
Not like the crappy boxes ive seen (And that includes shipping containers)
Looks like there is alot of product (Onions?) going into that box. I wonder what the tare and gross is for that railcar?
MP173, I feel as if I should edit my trucking lesson and just make it short. Im sorry if you felt offended or otherwise put off by my pathetic attempt at cargo schooling. I dont know of any other way to present a scenario regarding trailer or cargo usage.
My Boss presented me with three new people this morning and asked me to break em in to thier tasks. They listened to what I taught them reinforced by MY boss and his gospel and all was well. No one got injured or killed and we all got the work done.
Cheers.
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