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!)
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)
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?
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.
CC
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
Congratulations are in order.
A toast!
Great!
How are you doing getting the product onto the trucks and out of the gate?
How much manpower and equiptment is it taking to transload off the train onto the trucks?
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.
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.
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.
Brian (IA) http://blhanel.rrpicturearchives.net.
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).
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
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
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.
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.
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.
"We have met the enemy and he is us." Pogo Possum "We have met the anemone... and he is Russ." Bucky Katt "Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future." Niels Bohr, Nobel laureate in physics
Gorgeous shot, Brian! That sweeping curve again--love it!
Of course, your success spells doom for me: the train will go through here past my bedtime.
Chris30 wrote: 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
I agree.
But padding it by 30-50 hours and having that 20 hour swing in delivery time pretty much shows that they don't know how to manage a railroad operation. UP and CSX are the loosers. BNSF and NS rule.
I can see some hours lost because of engine failure. (Although I see locomoitve reliabilty as a big hole in the boat.) But over an extra day in the schedule is bad railroading. And sometimes it's an extra two days.
This isn't the "City of Portland", it's a freight train. It's not going to go by Cedar Rapids at 3:55 AM on the dot every time. But the UP/CSX missed the schedule by over a day. Not knowing what you can do will hurt the company. And the only reason any person is employed in railroad management it to make the company earn more money, not to limit its opportunities.
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