http://www.progressiverailroading.com/bnsf_railway/news/BNSF-McKay-TransCold-to-launch-refrigerated-service-next-year--37474 BNSF is launching a service with McKay TransCold between Selma, Ca(located in the San Joaquin valley south of Fresno) and Wilmington, Il (south of Joliet, Il) . I guess if imitation is the best form of flattery hats off to UP? Selma is a major centre for the shipping of table grapes. Fresno has Gallo Bros winery. In addition I remember any number of potato growers in that area. Also BNSF has had a major intermodal ramp in Fresno and it has been a major loading point for refrigerated trailers. Thx IGN
Well good. I’m always glad to see a railroad at least attempt to get the perishable business. It’s long haul and high volume. Tailor made for a good, high quality rail operation. But I don’t think once a week boxcar trains are the way to get at it.
Having said that, I’ll revert to my John Kneiling mode. Gee Whiz. They found a track between the San Joaquin Valley and the Chicago area. And now they’re going to establish a freight train to haul what is produced in the valley to Chicago. Holly Cow, what will they think of next? This freight has only been moving for over 100 years.
The railroads simply don’t understand what they are not hauling.
Is the limiting factor on an enterprise like this, the fact that the boxcars ride empty from Chicago to California, while competing semi’s find a back-haul load?
I can tell you that the UP/CSX westbound apple trains are, for the most part, not empty They are up to 4 trains a week.
The apples are westbound? [:^)]
No, I believe n012944 was referring to the westbound Railex unit trains. Railex’s original train ran east from Wallula, WA and may have hauled a significant amount of apples. Railex now also has a second origination location in Delano, CA. More here:
http://www.railexusa.com/site/
Note that backhauls in these unit reefer trains are not necessarily refrigerated/frozen loads.
So, just what are those boxcars hauling west to Delano? Not much me thinks. But you could pleasantly surprise me with some information.
The RailEx trains haven’t made a dent in the huge volume, long haul, potentially lucrative perishable business off the west coast. And they won’t ever do so. It’s still mainly trucked thousands of miles. The way to get at this gold mine is by intermodal with westbound reefer container/trailer loads of animal protein. Anything else is a token effort.
Gosh, greyhounds, you make this sound like the only way to make this work, would be to ship huge amounts of produce east, and huge amounts of pig parts west. I don’t see that happening, unless, maybe some Chinese company buys big into the pork producing business, and…hmmm… [:-^]
Whenever I’ve bothered to check the totals on the westbounds, I usually only see a handful of loads on them.
Jeff
And Greyhounds, said:
“…Holy Cow, what will they think of next? This freight has only been moving for over 100 years…”
“…he railroads simply don’t understand what they are not hauling…”
Not just pig parts. Chicken parts and cow parts too!
The US west coast (along with Arizona and Nevada) has a rather large population. They do produce some animal protein. But not near enough for their population. To get the “Meat” portion of “Meat and Potatoes” they bring in the killed animal protein from the Midwest and Southeast.
Getting those westbound reefer loads is the absolute key to large scale success in this market. You need revenue loads in both directions. And you ain’t gonna’ get 'em with boxcar unit trains.
Sometimes, they don’t even understand what they ARE hauling - thinking of pieced together, rubber tire through Chicago, intermodal trips. [:)]
I’ve always been a big defender of the rubber tire interchange in Chicago (and elsewhere). It’s fast, inexpensive, simple, and reliable.
As an example, let’s say there were several trains from several origins (Atlanta, Baltimore, Harrisburg, Memphis, etc.) Each train has one or a few loads destined to the Twin Cities. How best to get the containers/trailers from the inbound train to the BNSF Cicero terminal to make the St. Paul train?
Well, you can’t make a St. Paul block out of Memphis because there aren’t enough loads. So what would you do, send a switch engine and crew over to Cicero, through the Chicago maze, with one car?
Then what would the BNSF do with that car? They’d have to switch it into the St. Paul train. All this would get expensive and eat up time.
By putting the freight on the street the transfer and classification are accomplished in one simple, inexpensive step. The driver takes the load to Cicero and can be told to drop it facing west on track #2 next to TTX123456. The load has been transferred and classified in under two hours. No need to waste time aggregating.
Rubber tire interchange allows intermodal loads to move through Chicago inexpensively within hours. Something that cannot be done on railcars unless there is a large enough volume. Rubber tire interchange has its place and works very well.
Greyhound:
n012944 states the Apple Trains are running about 4x per week…that is significant increase from 3 or 4 years ago when it was about 1, perhaps 2x per week. That business has really grown.
I look for BNSF to do the same with the inbound to Chicago. Have you every gone down to the produce markets in Chicago? Before Mr. Mayor moved them out, there was quite an operation on the south side. That entire area is now condos and the produce folks have moved, primarily over to Blue Island Avenue and Damen area. My guess is you will see considerable movement of individual shipments from Willington into the markets. Perhaps the distributor will run peddle LTL runs, or perhaps the individual produce guys will run down to pickup.
Meat will probably move from Chicago once the service is deemed to be reliable. This should be a positive for BNSF.
Ed
Hi Ed,
What I go by are the USDA reported movements of fresh produce.
You are certainly correct that those hogs are killed in Iowa and other states. However, there is considerable value added to those hogs (and steers) in Chicago. Think companies such as Vienna, Carl Buddig, Land O Frost. Those come to mind right off the top. None are huge, but there is some volume there.
Most companies wouldn’t handle this direct by rail, but this is where a freight forwarder could come into play. If those refers are moving west empty, that is one heck of an opportunity. The issue is to coordinate the assembly and distribution (which isn’t rocket science).
Ed
Funny thing, after I read this post I really checked the load/empties on the westbounds. Yea, I was wrong, not a whole lotta loads going west.
.
You’re right about the value added meats out of Chicago. “Frankly”, I had never heard of “Land O’ Frost”.
I don’t know the volume. I’ll try to find out.
Meanwhile, you’ve made me hungry for a Chicago Dog. I’ll still try to order a salad, but that hot dog idea sure seems good.
I find it quite amusing that Land O’ Frost is actively seeking backhaul business for its in-house delivery trucks. Their main processing plants are in Lansing IL (near Chicago) and Searcy AR ( near Memphis). See this section of its website:
http://www.landofrost.com/carrier_services.php
In effect, Land O’ Frost is competing with both Railex/UP and McKay/BNSF for loads heading east.
A couple of random thoughts. 1. In the case of Land O’Frost they are looking for backhauls after delivering goods to grocery warehouses. 2. Can someone quantify in real terms what it costs a railroad to run an empty train as opposed to a loaded? Say as an example a loaded coal train from Wyoming to Georgia. Against an empty back to Wyoming. I can remember watching one nite an empty coal train trundling by with only the 2nd unit actually doing any work. By way of contrast deadheading for a truck is pretty expensive. On a loaded truck I usually saw fuel mileage being from 5.5mpg loaded and 6.5 empty on one truck to another being 6mpg loaded and 7.2 empty. I read somewhere that on the Powder River line a loaded engine in run 8 crawling up a hill consumes a gallon of fuel every 50 feet! Thx IGN