BNSF Observations

Trains Magazine General Discussion
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From time to time there have been posts about sightings and unusual moves from members arond the country. Specifically, I’m just east of MP126 on the Emporia Sub between Mulvane and Wellington on the BNSF Transcon( an area that is mostly double tracked).

This morning I watched a fairly long empty table move going west powered by one of the smaller diesels. and then 15 min later was another eastbound empty table move with two GE’s leading. With no scanner to provide extra info on the moves, only observation is available. Seems strange that the two moves in opposite directions woud pass. You have to wonder sometimes as to whys.

Another observation is over the past year, but not recently every train seemed to have DP power of one, but mostly 2 units on DP at the rear ( seems like each train has at least three units on the head end. But in the last couple of months there have been a number of trains with a unit cut in as a midtrain helper, but in the last month I’ve noticed less tyrains with DP on the rear and no midtrain helpers.

I was curious if others have noticed these kinds of changes in their areas as well?

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Economy improved just a tad; relocation of power; relocation of possibly stored “whatever” during the downturn and my favorite - spring cleaning!

Haven’t seen the midtrain DPU’s here, but always seem to have at least one on each end and sometimes 2:1 or 2:2.

Our storage items have all moved on - either sold, scrapped or back in service.

3

Here in the Allentown area I’ve never seen DPUs in mid-train or rear-end helpers of any kind.

Over the winter months the NS freights seemed pretty short - esp. the multi-level/ auto-racks, a couple of which were only 20 cars or so.

But starting about a month ago I’ve seen some humongous mid-day mixed freights in both directions on the Reading Line. Had I anticipated how long they would be, I would have counted the cars - I don’t have a scanner. Since I didn’t, I have to estimate - at least 150 cars, and maybe as long as 200 cars. They had 3 or 4 of the big units on the front, and they were all on-line and yelling westbound, drifting on in dynamic braking eastbound. Next time I’ll likely count to see just how long they really are.

  • Paul North.
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Hey, Paul, I thought this thread was going to be about observation cars. Was I ever deceived![:)]

5

Dear Johnny:[#oops]

[:-^]

Regards!

Sam[%-)]

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I’m on the CN up in East Central WI. I have noticed train lengths have increased generally, more loads moving in both directions (NB/SB). I have also noticed more trains with mid or DPUs (though mostly SB trains) lately.

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Where are the “real” railroaders on this? I trust you not to let me wander off on any subject.

I counted 135 on a coal train not that long ago. Well, why not - what else do I have to do besides read and nap trackside!

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Mookie:

Is this what ‘Cornhuskers’ do when it’s not football season?[(-D][swg]

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So did I, how about starting a thread on observation cars.

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The reason you saw two empties running in opposite directions so close together is part coincidence and partly because cars are ordered sometime months in advance, marshaled up and assembled into a train and sent on their way.

Your logical mind says it makes more sense if both the sets were empty, why not simply leave them there respectively, or have one shipper use the set closest to them and vice versa…but they may have been ordered up at different times and you just happened to be at the exact point they passed each other.

And one of them may be a semi dedicated set of cars being returned over and over to the same shipper for loading.

I know the Caterpillar plant in Peoria(?) Illinois needs certain slightly modified flats, and once the cars are unloaded at the destination, they are returned to Cat as a set…we get them down here a lot.

The DP question might be answered by this…

Here, none of the grain elevators or bulk plants have balloon tracks , so having a mid train helper creates problems,…all of our moves spotting these places require us to shove into the plants.

With a rear end DP unit, the member line crew simply drags into our receiving yard, and leaves the head end power attached, they cab back to the rear unit and cut it off, either leaving it there tied down or running it light over to South Yard, if it is a BNSF train or Englewood for the UP.

With a mid train helper they would have to some how switch out the unit from the middle, and depending on the local agreement, that is a extra days pay, plus most shippers leasing unit trains don’t want them broken up like that.

We take the train with the head end power out to the elevator, cut off, run around it and shove…with a mid train helper DP, we would have to break the train up and create a lot more work and time loss.

Now, if a plant has a balloon track to the unloader, you can drag the whole thing through, so a educated guess says you are seeing trains destined for b

11

As one of my engineers says: “we’re here for the dollars, not the sense”

Don’t ever try to apply logic to certain RR moves. It just does not exist. You will have yard A order empty intermodal cars from yard B and yard B will order empty intermodal cars from yard A. And they will pass each other. If nothing else, it does boost car-handling numbers.

Around here, business has picked up with a vengeance. Vacation season hasn’t started and we are short on men and locomotives. Going to be a fun summer.

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“…Now, if a plant has a balloon track to the unloader, you can drag the whole thing through, so a educated guess says you are seeing trains destined for both plants with and with out balloon tracks…”

“…Around here, business has picked up with a vengeance. Vacation season hasn’t started and we are short on men and locomotives. Going to be a fun summer. …”

I appreciate The response Ed, There are at least two, possibly three dedicated grain trains that run through this area. The are pretty easy to spot because they run two units on the head end going north and one in DPU and whn they go south they run one unit on head and two in DPU going south.

Zug’s point of traffic picking up is noticeable as well, even with the double track there seem to be fleets of several trains in one direction, and then several in the other direction as well, and there seem to be more instances of trains passing each other through here as well. Those get particularly noisy in the late night or early morning hours ( four fairly closely spaced crossings through town to my north and just a couple within a half mile going south). This latter excercise seems to be met with a lot of exhuberance by some crews, [zzz]

more than others! [:-,]. Over all traffic seems to be increasing out here, although not nearly to the levels of a yaear and a half ago when it seemed there were trains on a ten or fifteen minute headway.

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Welcome to “cell city”! Football games are the only thing that interferes with constant cell talk! Spring game this weekend, so phone revenues will drop!

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ICAN HEAR YOU! CAN YOU HEAR ME? [(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][(-D][banghead]

[soapbox] Cell Phones The bane of our modern life![soapbox]

P.S.

I’ve also noticed recently( over the last couple of weeks, actually) a peppering of CN units in westbounds (Container trains , and pulling auto racks as well)

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I saw some “icold express” 53’ refrigerated containers on an EB BNSF double-stacker/domestic trailer/container train for the first time this morning. Four containers on a 3-pack. They were just behind the power. The rest of the train was a mix of double stack/trailers belonging to Schneider, J. B. Hunt, and UPS. It rested in Shelby for a long while until Amtrak #8 (OT) overtook it, after a long (40+ min) dwell. The “stacker” lost over an hour. This is a ‘high-priority’ train! If it had some business cars on the rear, that never would have happened, even if they had no guests on board! Nothin’ holds up a “Silver Z”, don’cha know? Dunno why this “Z” was delayed. No opposing traffic, but I was without my scanner. It could have been 50-miles east befor Amtrak left town.

Bare-tables abound, being pulled out of all sorts of under-utilized trackage. Maybe the ones in question were going “home for service/repairs”, before being put back in regular service. That’s a good sign. I have yet to see a mid-train DP utilized on our BNSF Northern Transcon. Most heavy trains (grain, coal, some intermodal) go with 2+2, front and rear. Some of the heavy potash trains, from Canada, go 3+2, with CP units mixed in or leading. They be monsters!!! 140-cars, or so!

I, like the “Count” on Sesame Street, can’t break the habit of counting railroad cars! There is a name for this affliction, but I can’t recall it at the moment. CRS!

Hays

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Link to Photo of BNSF Locomotive 7641/ES44DC:

http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=1820199

{I thought I’d share the following with theFprum so the members who keep up with GE reliability could note.}

Article from Belle Plaine News of April 15,2010 ( with pictures) “The third axle of BNSF’s (abrv.) train engine 7641 broke thursday evening around 8:10 PM near the 1000 block of North Oliver. Its bearings had frozen and the wheel caught fire. Traffic was blocked on all crossings from 90th to 100th Avenues. Engine 7365 (note: another ES44DC) with its two mile long train arrived about 20 minutes later (note: This area of the Transcon is double tracked) and had to wait. Fireguys police and this photographer, had to hop a fence to get to the scene. The stopped train was 15,000 feet long. The entire cab was filled with smoke. BNSF maintenance had to cut the axle. Agencies on the scene included the BellePlaine Police Dept. Sumner County Fire District 9. One of County 9’s fire trucks got stuck in the mud. BNSF and traffic sustained a delay of about four hours. County 9 used a white powder to put the fire out. The train was surrounded by various emergency vehicles. Wires were smoking. While observing the scene this photographer suffered a cut on her leg from fence-hopping.”

( Additional info- the dead locomotive was towed or pushed up to a siding at Mulvane about 5 miles± where it sat for a couple of days.)

Needless to say it was a slow spring night in Kansas! [sigh]

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I am not real knowledgeable about the way railroads operate, I mainly just enjoy watching them and taking pics and I have learned a lot recently about the locomotives themselves by reading books and reading Trainsmag. With that said however, the last 2 years I have done some railfanning in Mulvane while we visited family on my vacation. I spent most of my time at mp 214.31 or 215.29 I have noticed one big change just in one year. In 2009 I watch many intermodals with multiple engines on the lead of a train. Anywhere from 2-5… However this year I believe every Intermodal I witnessed had at least one DP on the rear of the consist “pushing”. Most of the consist where made up of 3-4 engines on the front, and 1-2 “pushing” on the rear. I even saw a westbound fuel unit train with only one 9-44CW on the front but with 2 DP 9-44CW’s on the rear…

Unfortunately, I never witnessed mid-train helpers…

18

Get ready, good buddy - they’re coming at ya ! In about 1/2 hour at lunch today, 2 WB mixed freights went by on the NS Reading Line at MP 32, plus 1 EB - the daily RoadRailer at about 12:35 PM, with 3 big C-C units on the head end - bet that one handled real sweet ! [swg]

The 1st WB went by at about 12:30 PM fairly slowly, but I only saw the last few of cars - covered hoppers - so I can’t tell you much about it, though it seemed to have blocked the crossing for a while, judging from the line-up of cars there. The 2nd WB went by about 15 minutes later , also at a slow pace, with a Dash 8 chugging away as the leader and a Dash 9 trailing - but it was only