It appears the shutdown of Bailey Yard’s eastbound hump has happened. There were just a few dozen hopper cars in the bowl last night, and this evening there are but two lonely cars among the sea of bowl tracks. Kinda sad.
I wonder if they’ll bulldoze the hump and convert it to a flat switching yard…
I think that’s been the pattern.
Can’t leave the hump there - someone might get the bright idea to put tracks back down and start using it again…
The Saga of Pueblo Yard (and the story of big operating ego bubbas redux)
I can’t count the millions of dollars that have been ‘saved’ by closing and reopening various rail yards over the years. Normally one regime closes the yard and claims X millions in savings. Next regime comes on the property and opens they yard and claims X millions of savings. Rinse and repeat ad nauseum.
Amen.
I expect to see it reopened. When depends on when some of the senior manangement leave. There is a big push to get the OR to 55 by the end of the year. That Unified 2020 /G-55+0 plan.
The one exCN guy may or may not be leaving. His contract was up, but it may or may not have been renewed. He gets a bigger bonus if they hit the 55% OR by the end of the year.
But wait, there’s more. The new CFO has said that 55% is reachable, but the new goal should be 50% OR.
Eventually they will hit bottom, like all the others who’ve gone down the PSR road, and realize they are going to have to grow more business. Not just say they are getting ready for growth, but actually start getting business. Their biggest problem is will they be able to get back any of the customers they’ve pis… er, brushed off in the past?
Jeff
Jeff:
How do you avoid injuries from banging your head on the control stand having to put up with all this nonsense? I worked for some truly moronic management the last five years of my career but, they were amateurs compared to what UP has in Omaha.
Curt
Now they’re using the east hump again. Go figure.
They saved $1M in closing it, now they will save another $1M in reopening it. That is their figuring.[/sarcasm]
The magic of PSR accounting.
Has anyone suggested closing and then reopening the westbound hump? UP could save a few more millions by doing that…
Maybe they can alternate the days they have the humps open. On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday they have the West hump open, the East shut down. On Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday they have the East hump open and the West shut down. They can alternate East and West on Sundays.
Or, maybe one open on Thursday, Saturday and Monday. The other on Friday, Sunday, and Tuesday. On Wednesday they can have both humps working, and call it Hump Day.
Sorry, couldn’t stop myself there.
Jeff
[tup][tup][tup][tup]
Mudchicken:
What happened in Pueblo?
I have fond memories as a young MP173 of riding the MoPac in 1964 to Pueblo to visit relatives…uncle worked at the big steel mill there and gave us a tour.
In 1966 he passed away and we went back for funeral, but MoPac was done with passenger service so we took NW/UP City of Something out of St. Louis to Denver then down the DRGW to Pueblo.
Coming back we took the Chief out of LaJuanta (wow!) to KC then a MoPac mail train to St. Louis and the B&o out St. Louis. Quite a ride!
I have done the Google Maps thing for Pueblo with Satellite view trying to recall the area. There seems to be two yards there now…UP and BNSF. Is that correct? Is there a hump or has it been removed?
Ed
Jeff, you may be on to something. 
The eastbound bowl is empty again today.
This sounds like anothger topic where all you responders know what laymen don’t. Is this all revenue/logistics/corona/politics?? Thanks
I just checked the Golden Spike Tower cam, and the eastbound bowl is full of cars again after being completely empty for two weeks or so.
I’m no genius railroad executive or anything, but I fail to see how they’re saving money by operating the eastbound hump sporadically rather than either running it full time or shutting it down completely. It seems to me you’d still have to maintain the hump infrastructure and keep staff on hand if you use it periodically. When it’s not operating, you have to go through the gymnastics of getting cars from the eastbound arrival yard to the other hump, while it’s a nice straight push from the eastbound arrival yard over the eastbound hump.
Could they be using the bowl tracks for flat switching from one end of the bowl? Or does the tower cam show cars being pushed over the hump?
What about excess assets storage? Renting out the bowl tracks to generate revenue by storing freight cars?
I’d rather give some credit to UP’s management, in that they try something, and it doesn’t work, they revert. From what I gather from past posts on this Forum, at CSX under HH the reversion had to wait until he was gone. But correct me if I am wrng on that.
The last couple of times they cleared out the bowl tracks completely, then subsequently filled the bowl by humping cars. This time, I haven’t seen any activity at the hump the last few times I checked the cam. So maybe they are using it for flat switching.