Talked to m6y freinds at a comaod trading company and they told me that private rr car owners baught up the rr cars and horded them for the highest price for last winter
[color=blue]Class 1’s have been doing their best to get out of the car supply business and put it in the hands of private owner/leasor’s for a number of years. Carrier investment needed for cars can thereby be used for other purposes.[/color]
I have another headache…[X-)]
Troll Alert!
Based on simular posting styles representing similar content and geographical position, as well as the name, the OP seems a lot like OhioRiverTrail.
I concur.
That’s what John Kneiling often advocated, too: Let the users/ shippers buy and own the cars, so they can look out for their own needs and interests, and not be dependent on (or saddle) the railroads with that responsibility. No car, no shipment.
In response to the other posts/ comments: Are railtrail’s spelling and syntax errors about the same, too ? Normally I don’t point out that kind of thing (this isn’t an English usage forum), but the Original Post on this thread here was pretty bad in that regard - was it even casually reviewed after being typed and before posting, or was any thought given to it ?
- Paul North.
By definition, if you don’t know what you’re looking for, you won’t know when you find it. Which says a lot about how some folks handle spelling and grammar on the web…
Hey, Trailmix,
Capitalism is the reason the grain cars, and the grain business, exists in the first place.
I do have a link you might be interested in though…
http://theflatearthsociety.org/cms/
Basicaly when i ship UPS I go to the UPS store and get a UPS box and ship that box UPS. (who may or may not put it on a train. If I have grain I should get a grain car and stuff it with grain and go. But if someone has baught up the grain cars how is that fair? The STB board and antitrust should kick in. However what does the railroad do? If its transportation thats one thing. You cant start a auto company if the big 3 auto companys own all the railroad cars.
If the grain elevator has to lease covered hoppers in order to ship, he probably has a choice of several leasing companies from which to obtain said equipment. No antitrust issues there. He might even get a better rail rate because the railroad doesn’t have to provide the cars. Of course, the elevator owner probably has to compete with a multitude of other shippers to obtain cars unless he chooses to own and maintain his own equipment.
The railroads are the largest owners of grain hopper cars collectively, though GE Capital is the largest single owner. After that you come to the large grain dealers, Cargill, ADM, ConAgra, etc. If you are an Elevator company not part of one of the big companies, then you most likely ship using railroad owned cars. Small grain dealers don’t normally lease railcars, but a few do so. Southern Illinois Railcar Leasing (SIRX) is a supplier to smaller shippers.
If you want to ship some grain via railroad, you are not limited to hopper cars, railroad owned or otherwise.
You can ship grain in a boxcar. The old way was to put in a temporary barrier across the lower part of the doorway and load the grain right onto the boxcar floor. I don’t know why you couldn’t still do that today. [:P] Other options of shipping grain in boxcars include putting grain in those pallet sized bins, or sacking the grain and stacking sacks on pallets.
If none of those options appeals to you, you can always buy your own hopper car(s). If there is truly a scarce supply of hopper cars, then the [rent] price to rent it out to others in the same situation will be high. Rent out your hopper car and over time make back the cost of the car + a profit. Do that with enough cars and you just might become a millionaire. THAT is capitalism! [:-,] [:D]
Shipping grain in boxcars has pretty much gone the way of the Railway Post Office. The last regular grain shipments in boxcars were to the port of Churchill, MN, mostly because the track couldn’t support the weight of loaded covered hoppers. Shipping grain in boxcars is labor-intensive and inefficient, losses from leakage are also an issue. I doubt that there are any facilities still set up to load or unload grain in boxcars.
You certainly don’t need a “facility” to load grain in boxcars! A portable auger will work just fine …
Poke the delivery end of the auger over the temporary boxcar door and fill-er-up.
Unloading without a specialized facility is not quite as simple, but a vacuum system could be established relatively easily. After all, vacuum trucks are used to clean up spilled grain at derailments.
My suggestion of floorloading grain on boxcar floors was not meant to be an economic competitor to the current practice of unit trains of hopper cars - it was meant to point out there are always alternatives.
If you really need to ship your grain NOW, and want to do so in hopper cars, just outbid everyone else for BNSF’s next Certificate of Transportation auction. After all, money talks! [}:)]
http://www.feedcorp.com/feed-ingredient/staff/ source for quote on rr car shortage.
Mike Omeara traffic manager for Feed Ingreadiate Trading
Well there was enough reason in Canada for Alberta and the Canadian Grain Board had socialised the Grain Car Supply and in some effect they still do that. Here in the US Ethonal is taking up the supply and slower oil trains holding up the line.
Are you able to translate this into English?
The two major Canadian railroads justifiably refused to invest in covered hoppers for grain service since they were stuck with non-compensatory grain rates under the Crows Nest Pass Act. As a result, the Canadian Wheat Board and the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan bought covered hoppers to lease for grain service.