New cross country perishable train

[greyhounds]

It's being restored.  According to the USDA these are the 107 TOFC loads of FF&V that the railroads rolled out of California on September 14th.  It's about 1/10th of what the trucks hauled, but it's a start.

APPLES	1
BROCCOLI	8
CANTALOUPS	8
CARROTS	10
CAULIFLOWER	3
CELERY	9
GRAPEFRUIT	2
GRAPES	7
GRAPES-MIXED JUICE	5
HONEYDEWS	2
LEMONS	3
LETTUCE-ICEBERG	10
LETTUCE-ROMAINE	5
ONIONS DRY	4
ORANGES	16
PEPPERS	3
SWEET POTATOES	4
TOMATOES	5
WATERMELONS, SEEDLESS	2
	107

http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/wa_fv568.txt

I was looking at some of those statistics and noticed that for most commodities, the carloads shipped by rail is down from the same time last year for almost all commodities. The page I bookmarked last night (http://marketnews.usda.gov/gear/docexch/download/FV20060831Ddaily_move.pdf) has Access Denied when I tried to go to it today. Below is another page I pulled up.

http://marketnews.usda.gov/gear/docexch/download/CA_FV400.TXT

Search Results

Are the truckoads down too?  I just took a look at the lattest USDA report:

http://www.ams.usda.gov/fv/mncs/daily_movement.pdf#search=%22usda%20%22daily%20movement%20report%22%22

Its agriculture.  It goes up and down.  This year is down from last year.  For everyone.  The "Big Kahuna" is Iceberg Lettuce.  (God, who knew spinach could kill you).  Last year = 41,338 total Iceberg loads.  This year = 36,908 total loads.  This is a "Bad Year" for lettuce and other perishable loads.  But the railroads held their own.  Last year = 1,868 loads.  This year = 1,815 loads.  It's down, but in the face of that production decline, it's a good job on the railroads' part.

Growin' Growin' Growin', just keep those trainloads Growin'.  Dont' try to understand 'em (that's the marketing deparment's job), just load, haul and place 'em, and soon we'll be livin' high and wide.

Load 'em up, couple 'em up, move 'em out. RAILROAD!.

I think railcar is a non-starter for most fresh fruits and vegeables.  They're very time sensative and TOFC beats carload every time in transit time.

But this train is focused on some perishable commodities out of Washington State that aren't that time sensative.  It's primarily apples out of there. (with pears and onions)  Washington State produces over half the apples consumed in the US and, on average, every American eats around 22 pounds of apples a year. 

Apples come out of harvest and go into controlled atmosphere storage.  Then they are shipped as needed.  You can store an apple but you can't store a head of lettuce. 

So moving a few days of that storage into railcar transit and into an eastern distribution center doesn't loose that much.  And you gain something in return. An apple in that eastern DC can be delivered the next day to a customer.  Can't do that from Washington.

This train has a really good shot at working.  But there is no certainty.  The UP fell on its *** trying to haul expidited UPS.  Hopefully, they've learned. 

And TOFC works just fine for perishable transport.  Been there, done that, want to do it again.

So if you live in the Northeast, go buy some fresh apples and help this whole thing out.  Me, I'm going to wave at the engineer.

 

 

[ericsp]

It's being restored.  According to the USDA these are the 107 TOFC loads of FF&V that the railroads rolled out of California on September 14th.  It's about 1/10th of what the trucks hauled, but it's a start.

APPLES	1
BROCCOLI	8
CANTALOUPS	8
CARROTS	10
CAULIFLOWER	3
CELERY	9
GRAPEFRUIT	2
GRAPES	7
GRAPES-MIXED JUICE	5
HONEYDEWS	2
LEMONS	3
LETTUCE-ICEBERG	10
LETTUCE-ROMAINE	5
ONIONS DRY	4
ORANGES	16
PEPPERS	3
SWEET POTATOES	4
TOMATOES	5
WATERMELONS, SEEDLESS	2
	107

http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/wa_fv568.txt

I was looking at some of those statistics and noticed that for most commodities, the carloads shipped by rail is down from the same time last year for almost all commodities. The page I bookmarked last night (http://marketnews.usda.gov/gear/docexch/download/FV20060831Ddaily_move.pdf) has Access Denied when I tried to go to it today. Below is another page I pulled up.

http://marketnews.usda.gov/gear/docexch/download/CA_FV400.TXT

Search Results

Are the truckoads down too?

I think railcar is a non-starter for most fresh fruits and vegeables.  They're very time sensative and TOFC beats carload every time in transit time.

But this train is focused on some perishable commodities out of Washington State that aren't that time sensative.  It's primarily apples out of there. (with pears and onions)  Washington State produces over half the apples consumed in the US and, on average, every American eats around 22 pounds of apples a year. 

Apples come out of harvest and go into controlled atmosphere storage.  Then they are shipped as needed.  You can store an apple but you can't store a head of lettuce. 

So moving a few days of that storage into railcar transit and into an eastern distribution center doesn't loose that much.  And you gain something in return. An apple in that eastern DC can be delivered the next day to a customer.  Can't do that from Washington.

This train has a really good shot at working.  But there is no certainty.  The UP fell on its *** trying to haul expidited UPS.  Hopefully, they've learned. 

And TOFC works just fine for perishable transport.  Been there, done that, want to do it again.

So if you live in the Northeast, go buy some fresh apples and help this whole thing out.  Me, I'm going to wave at the engineer.

 

 

Some truckloads were down but many commodities that had less railcar shipments this year than at the same time last year had as many or more truckloads than last year. The two exceptions I am excited about are grapefruits and oranges out of Central California. It seems like potatos were also up, but many commodities were down. I was also surprised to see that NM ships railcars of potatos.

In one of the threads, I remember someone who works for UP in the Midwest (not Carl, and obviously I cannot verify that the poster does work for UP) saying that the Express Lane trains are being treated like a regular freight. I wonder if that is the cause for the lower shipments this year. Has anyone heard what the Express Lane's on time performance is this year?

I hope the UP and BNSF do increase their parishable business. I would really like to see more steel wheeled reefers and less rubber wheeled ones, espicially since California has a different speed limit for trucks than for cars, which makes driving on the highways around here misable.

Is this thread making anyone else hungry?

[Anonymous]

It's being restored.  According to the USDA these are the 107 TOFC loads of FF&V that the railroads rolled out of California on September 14th.  It's about 1/10th of what the trucks hauled, but it's a start.

APPLES	1
BROCCOLI	8
CANTALOUPS	8
CARROTS	10
CAULIFLOWER	3
CELERY	9
GRAPEFRUIT	2
GRAPES	7
GRAPES-MIXED JUICE	5
HONEYDEWS	2
LEMONS	3
LETTUCE-ICEBERG	10
LETTUCE-ROMAINE	5
ONIONS DRY	4
ORANGES	16
PEPPERS	3
SWEET POTATOES	4
TOMATOES	5
WATERMELONS, SEEDLESS	2
	107

http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/wa_fv568.txt

I was looking at some of those statistics and noticed that for most commodities, the carloads shipped by rail is down from the same time last year for almost all commodities. The page I bookmarked last night (http://marketnews.usda.gov/gear/docexch/download/FV20060831Ddaily_move.pdf) has Access Denied when I tried to go to it today. Below is another page I pulled up.

http://marketnews.usda.gov/gear/docexch/download/CA_FV400.TXT

Search Results

Are the truckoads down too?

I think railcar is a non-starter for most fresh fruits and vegeables.  They're very time sensative and TOFC beats carload every time in transit time.

But this train is focused on some perishable commodities out of Washington State that aren't that time sensative.  It's primarily apples out of there. (with pears and onions)  Washington State produces over half the apples consumed in the US and, on average, every American eats around 22 pounds of apples a year. 

Apples come out of harvest and go into controlled atmosphere storage.  Then they are shipped as needed.  You can store an apple but you can't store a head of lettuce. 

So moving a few days of that storage into railcar transit and into an eastern distribution center doesn't loose that much.  And you gain something in return. An apple in that eastern DC can be delivered the next day to a customer.  Can't do that from Washington.

This train has a really good shot at working.  But there is no certainty.  The UP fell on its *** trying to haul expidited UPS.  Hopefully, they've learned. 

And TOFC works just fine for perishable transport.  Been there, done that, want to do it again.

So if you live in the Northeast, go buy some fresh apples and help this whole thing out.  Me, I'm going to wave at the engineer.

 

 

Some truckloads were down but many commodities that had less railcar shipments this year than at the same time last year had as many or more truckloads than last year. The two exceptions I am excited about are grapefruits and oranges out of Central California. It seems like potatos were also up, but many commodities were down. I was also surprised to see that NM ships railcars of potatos.

In one of the threads, I remember someone who works for UP in the Midwest (not Carl, and obviously I cannot verify that the poster does work for UP) saying that the Express Lane trains are being treated like a regular freight. I wonder if that is the cause for the lower shipments this year. Has anyone heard what the Express Lane's on time performance is this year?

I hope the UP and BNSF do increase their parishable business. I would really like to see more steel wheeled reefers and less rubber wheeled ones, espicially since California has a different speed limit for trucks than for cars, which makes driving on the highways around here misable.

Is this thread making anyone else hungry?

Luckly Killjoy KAILFORNIA speed limits dont extend to the rest of the USA.

There

[greyhounds]

Safety Valve should be teaching logistics in a graduate school of business.  I'm serious.

He knows how freight moves and he can sure put it across.

[Anonymous]

Safety Valve should be teaching logistics in a graduate school of business.  I'm serious.

He knows how freight moves and he can sure put it across.

Aww, dont mind me. I lay it on my dispatchers who constantly threatened firing if I was late. They in turn were in the steam because of promises made by and to brokers and all were run into the ground by angry shippers and recievers who held the entire trucking company's account at risk if the load arrived late.

And everything inside the distribution and dock was treated with the utmost slowness and behind yesterday's commitments.

I think if the UP railroad can treat perishables as a regular freight train, it's probably because they are only one railroad and hard to replace with another railroad that will provide faster service to the customer who is chained to his siding.

It's much easier to fire trucking companies and have another deliver it earlier. But it's the driver that gets it down here at the bottom of the mountain.

The one thing I see here is the train being discussed here has it covered on both ends and it looks like they can beat trucking's time and do it probably with alot of positive things moving all of that perishable west to east.

Maybe the days of perishable trains running on top priority schedules given to unit coal trains are here again.

But what do I know? I just play with trains because it's fun!

 

See ya next time.

[ericsp]

Here are the numbers for produce shipped by rail from http://marketnews.usda.gov/gear/docexch/download/FV20060919Ddaily_move.pdf.

I noticed that when I copied it from Excel, the formatting made the column titles difficult to read.

Column 1 - Mode (T - Truck, T EX - Truck (Export), P - Piggyback, R - Rail)

Column 2 - 40,000 lb as of 09/13 for 2006

Column 3 - 40,000 lb as of 09/13 for 2005

Column 4 - 2006 percentage of 2005

Mode	40k LB as of 09/13 for 2006	40k LB as of 09/13 for 2005	2005 Total	2006 % of 2005
APPLES - WASHINGTON
T	1652	2416	68433	68.37
T EX	342	812	29736	42.11
P	17	39	744	43.59
R	0	25	1658	0.00
CARROTS - CALIFORNIA-CENTRAL (KERN DISTRICT, SALINAS-WATSONVILLE)
T	13749	14495	15091	94.85
T	122	107	115	114.02
P	1486	1749	1812	84.96
R	1867	1769	1831	105.53
CELERY - CALIFORNIA-CENTRAL (SALINAS-WATSONVILLE, SANTA MARIA)
T	5258	6201	11970	84.79
T	2756	2479	5142	111.17
P	375	417	799	89.93
R	30	77	153	38.96
GRAPEFRUIT - CALIFORNIA-SOUTH
P	90	108	111	83.33
R	51	57	66	89.47
LEMONS - CALIFORNIA-CENTRAL
P	59	24	321	245.83
CALIFORNIA-SOUTH
P	90	99	582	90.91
R	27	53	372	50.94
ONIONS, DRY – CALIFORNIA (SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY)
T	6778	9749	9749	69.53
P	655	962	968	68.09
R	118	141	147	83.69
ONIONS, DRY - IDAHO
T	401	786	8704	51.02
T EX	1	10	431	10.00
R	3	23	2099	13.04
ONIONS, DRY – OREGON (MALHEUR COUNTY)
T	690	844	7756	81.75
T EX	6	17	365	35.29
P	33	69	479	47.83
R	12	66	1877	18.18
ORANGES - CALIFORNIA-CENTRAL
P	3518	4323	4731	81.38
R	1035	867	915	119.38
ORANGE - CALIFORNIA-SOUTH
P	414	1043	1118	39.69
R	633	1152	1281	54.95
PEARS - CALIFORNIA-CENTRAL
R	5	7	11	71.43
POTATOES - COLORADO
T	759	661	38167	114.83
T	508	415	2273	122.41
R	7	65	3162	10.77
IDAHO
T	4287	3351	54813	127.93
T EX	1	45	710	2.22
R	807	525	21378	153.71
KANSAS
T	2028	1367	1397	148.35
R	15	228	474	6.58
NEW MEXICO
T	89	240	1695	37.08
R	696	636	636	109.43
OREGON (UMATILLA BASIN)
T	517	442	3524	116.97
T EX	182	136	847	133.82
P	19	0	16	N/A
R	138	188	772	73.40

[Anonymous]

I guess Nogales Green produce and Yuma Az Lemons etc are not covered?

Nursery Trees and plants from Oregon is extremely hot going west and some Flowers running west from Delaware is pretty demanding too.

[ericsp]

I guess Nogales Green produce and Yuma Az Lemons etc are not covered?

Nursery Trees and plants from Oregon is extremely hot going west and some Flowers running west from Delaware is pretty demanding too.

If a certain commodity was not shipped by rail, I did not include it. Certainly not everything was covered. They did not list the truckloads for oranges and pears, and possibly others.

[Anonymous]

       My God guys.....It looks like I'm getting a free focus group here.  You have all put a lot of thought to this.  LOL
     Any venture has risk, to be truthful, but we have spent a tremendous amount of time poking holes in our process and then filling them, using people in all aspects of our industry for info and input as well as our tremendous pool of experience.  We can only hope at this point that it works, and it falls to me to make it happen.  Everyone at this point, in operations anyway, has a "failure is not an option" mentality, we have received a TREMENDOUS amount of nearly unprecedented cooperation from both the UP and CSX at all levels committed to getting this to work.
    The biggest selling point here is freight forwarded warehousing.  The train, and Railex in general, is merely a platform for shippers to get their goods northeast.  They will drive the process.  You see the numbers there on your sheets, we will never ever replace trucks, that has never been the plan, we are merely a heavy volume, low cost, alternate route to move their product.  Pinpoint delivery by truck will alwys have a place.  But Safety Valve will surely agree, the trucking industry, like the railroads, is no longer enjoying a heydey either.  Drivers are scarce, less skilled and expensive, especially in the more demanding  hauler occupations like refrigerated.
Just some thoughts
B Collins

[edbenton]

One reason that drivers are more scare is due to the new HOS regs. The DOT in their infinate wisdom got rid of the off duty once you come on duty that is it for 14 hours then you take a 10 hour break. Now you can legally run 800 miles+ in a day however you are dead tired and strung out at the end of it.  The HOS are what needs to redone go back to the old 70 hrs in 8 days the drivers know how to run that way but give them a 36 hour reset off for 36 straight a fresh 70 is there.  That right there would bring alot of drivers back into the industry and help with the shortage.  I know I would have left as soon as the new 14-10 came out. that is way to unsafe.

[Anonymous]

One reason that drivers are more scare is due to the new HOS regs. The DOT in their infinate wisdom got rid of the off duty once you come on duty that is it for 14 hours then you take a 10 hour break. Now you can legally run 800 miles+ in a day however you are dead tired and strung out at the end of it.  The HOS are what needs to redone go back to the old 70 hrs in 8 days the drivers know how to run that way but give them a 36 hour reset off for 36 straight a fresh 70 is there.  That right there would bring alot of drivers back into the industry and help with the shortage.  I know I would have left as soon as the new 14-10 came out. that is way to unsafe.

The DOT will never be able to regulate trucking with the obselete HOS. One morning person's 14 hour work day driving a Million dollar McKesson Medicine load is not the same as another's prospect of lumping 48,000 pounds of widgets in a overheated trailer while expecting to have to deliever 700 miles away by the next morning.

The last time I was inside a truckstop revealed a place of stress and fear. Not a refuge of light, food and fellowship... no one has time for that anymore. Im glad I got out when I did.

I do remember the first time I saw a container train carrying two truckloads on every car across the country at 70mph... my trainer said to me, that.. is the future and does NOT include you and me on the big road.

[Chris30]

quote by bcrailex (B Collins):

OK gents....first train scheduled to roll 10/12 out of WA arriving in NY on 10/17.

Since today is October 11 is the first departure for this new service/train still on schedule for tomorrow? Or, has it been pushed back?

quote by bcrailex (B Collins):

My God guys.....It looks like I'm getting a free focus group here.

  That's funny... just be thankful you're not in the grain business.

CC

[CShaveRR]

I'm hoping that the train comes through here on about October 15 (Sunday).  It can't be too much later than that, I'd bet.

I tried tracing ARMN 111110, assuming that it's going to be in the first train.  Shows it being placed at industry (no location) on September 2, but no scheduling information.  I'll take it to work with me, as well as the projected identity of the train.

[rrandb]

What your trainer failed to realize is that each of those TOFC loads will provide jobs for not one but two drivers. One to deliver it to the railhead and one to deliver it to the customer. Both of them will probably be slepping at home tonight. Where would you rather be. Somewhere in America on the big road spending 3/4 of your life in a sleeper or at home sleeping in your sweet babies arms. I know where I would rather be tonight. The same concept applies to each load of produce that moves from road to rail.The  local Teamsters I know make as much or more as they ever made OTR and can raise there kids and spend time with there wife if they choose to. I would think both railroaders and truckers will be cheering if this works.

[Anonymous]

What your trainer failed to realize is that each of those TOFC loads will provide jobs for not one but two drivers. One to deliver it to the railhead and one to deliver it to the customer. Both of them will probably be slepping at home tonight. Where would you rather be. Somewhere in America on the big road spending 3/4 of your life in a sleeper or at home sleeping in your sweet babies arms. I know where I would rather be tonight. The same concept applies to each load of produce that moves from road to rail.The  local Teamsters I know make as much or more as they ever made OTR and can raise there kids and spend time with there wife if they choose to. I would think both railroaders and truckers will be cheering if this works.

Yep.

I never said I had a problem with getting the stuff to and from a ship or train, I just indicated that the mileage would not be there.

If any driver is smart today they would be in dedicated or local daycab work for home sleeping at night.

However, there will always be some who are quite content rolling the miles away because this is a big country and we need such people.

[ericsp]

Looks like a PCF built car snuck in there (behind the forklift).

[Anonymous]

Looks like each one of those Reefers were broken and set apart at the dock.

[CShaveRR]

Looks like each one of those Reefers were broken and set apart at the dock.

Ouch!  That may take valuable time to put back together again.  Don't know why that's necessary, unless they have specific door spots and that short reefer had to be separated to spot the door where it should be.

[MP173]

I assume that is a photo from the loading of the first train.

Will the loads be only one pallet on the floor?  It appears there will be a considerable amount of wasted space.  I dont know what the weight would be for these cars, but it seems as if a method of racking for double stacking might be considered.

ed

[JSGreen]

Looks like each one of those Reefers were broken and set apart at the dock.

Could the distance between the cars be from cushioned couplers?  Or maybe even just hte perspective/angle of the photo?

[Anonymous]

I assume that is a photo from the loading of the first train.

Will the loads be only one pallet on the floor?  It appears there will be a considerable amount of wasted space.  I dont know what the weight would be for these cars, but it seems as if a method of racking for double stacking might be considered.

ed

There is not alot of wasted space.

The box is just that. Pallets carry weight. You can have two layers of Gold Bars one foot high on each pallet and leave ... 7 feet of vertical space empty because of the weight on the pallets.

Dusting off my pallet sheet in a dark corner of my memory reveals a pallet weight of 2000 pounds give or take a little bit. If you stack 30 pound bags of Cat Litter 5 to a layer you will have approx 150 pounds. Now you could stack em 10 high and will take up about...oh... **taps calculator... 7 feet in height leaving one foot or so to the ceiling clear. That pallet now weights 1500 pounds for 50x30 pound bags of cat litter.

Multiply 40 inches by 48 inches by 7 feet gives you cubic volume. Cat litter will weight out first before it cubes out the availible volume of the box.

Now if it was toilet paper you can fill that entire box and it wont weight anything.

Call it roughly 26 pallets in a 53' box trailer you will have about roughly one foot left to the back doors. The pallets will total about roughly 1400 pounds and the freight of cat litter will run you about 39,000 pounds; for a total of roughly 41,500 pounds.

Taking this one step further, there is a total volume of only so many cubes expressed in a box one foot long by one foot wide by one foot high. 53' Trailers like to cube out light stuff like toilet paper before it "Grosses out" (Weight) and 48' trailers like to haul heavy stuff.

The Bridge law for 18 wheelers (Class 8) still remains the same. 12,000 on the steer, 34,000 on the first tandem and 34,000 on the rear tandem subject to several state's kingpin distance laws.

One may cheat california out of thier righteous tickets by spec'ing a 10 foot spread axle under the trailer allowing you to carry 20K on each axle back there and making thier little revenue producing kingpin law irrevelant.

Now that we are loaded and ready to go, you must be rather confused by now.

Railroad Boxcars... those carry more cargo in both cube and weight. I bet you those pallets of food will come out to pretty numbers in weight, count and cubic capacity but still leave a little space in there hauling air.

There are many twists to the problem but three commandments are clear:

1- Shipper WILL sneak a few extra widgets into the box and bill accordinly. Heck stuff a extra few pallets in there and write it down on the bills expecially if they are broken pallets.

2- Anything extra like dunnage or icing etc.. will push you over gross weight. But that is ok, you will burn that excess off in fuel by the time you hit the scales anyhow.

3- Loaded or empty that box will generate a bill somewhere for it's move. You might not get paid the empty miles but someone will further up the revenue chain.

Dont worry about how much wasted space there is in that box.

Now.

Center of Gravity. (Oh joy! Graduate Course in cargo!)

You have a little pallet of gold bars a few inches off the floor. They weight alot. As long you dont stack it much more than one foot off that floor your vehicle will behave as if it was chained to the road.

If you stuff it full of cat litter and meow to boot until it bursts and barely squeeze those doors shut.. that rig will sway and teeter dangerously from side to side with every puff of wind threatening to roll over and show the dirty side to the sky. (Burying you and the family next to you.)

[Chris30]

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

[CShaveRR]

The car I've been checking, ARMN 111110, is definitely at Wallula.  However, I tried checking on ZWASSP 12 (its designation if it were to leave today), and came up empty-handed.

[MP173]

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

[Anonymous]

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

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.

[greyhounds]

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.

 

[Anonymous]

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.

 

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....

[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).

[greyhounds]

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.

 

[Anonymous]

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.