Specified locations into specific tracks and then only after ‘job briefing’ with the trainmaster. This isn’t ‘were’; this is NOW!
I once saw several PRR passenger cars going over the hump at Elkhart, IN. I was in the hump tower at the time and casually asked the yardmaster, who was looking away just then, why The Broad Way was going over his hump .[}:)]
After cleaning up the coffee he spilled, we looked into it a bit and found the cars were whitelined and billed to NdeM.
Automobile Unit trains only exist after the multi-levels are accumulated into a common yard. The The automobile industry cannot figure out how to accumulate product by destination and then advance it on a Unit train. This would also assist the auto haulers that deliver the product. The manufacturers ship to alol destinations daily and the railroads have to consolidate and resconsolidate the shipments as they move toward their destinations. This results in increased switching. To avoid passed drawbasrs, the railroads would be prudent if they flat switched and shoved each car to a coupling. Kicking and humpoing increases damage and the consuming public does not want something that was remanufactured in a auto body shop before they get it. This is all the more reason that the 1.4 revenue trips per month of a multi level do not increase.
Several years ago in Zanesville, Ohio I watched black tank cars being kicked on the Ohio Central. The cars were probably empty because they made a resounding BOOM when coupled.
“Mom! 99 is blowing for 16th Street. Dad will be home soon.”
Years ago, I had full access to the SP Santa Clara yard and was in the Santa Clara tower which is at the north end of the yard… I watched cars being switched in the bowl yard. A box car would not couple the switch engine no matter how hard he coupled to it. He hit it so hard that he tipped it on its side with a lourd bang. We stood there in sheer awe when the yardmaster who was in the Newhall tower at th south end of the yard came over the radio with words that were defininetly an FCC violation (All were explictives NOT deleted). We laughted so hard we rolled on the floor and our sides ached for hours afterwards. I would have loved to have been in the Newhall tower when he had to explain to the trainmaster in San Francisco why the big hook from the Bayshore yard had to come down to right a car.
Used to see 4 truck flats on FEC with shuttle booster sections, from Morton Thiokol. Covered, with cooling units, marked do not hump…