Illinois Central was the original owner of the line, and spun it off to CC&P.
From what I have read, due to the undulating profile and the climb out of the Mississippi and Missouri river valleys, it was a stronghold of the IC’s 2-10-2 locomotives, including the rebuilt 2-10-2 class in the 1950s.
Greyhounds could say more, but at least some of the time when the IC ran numerous meat packer reefers to Chicago (Morrell and others) it was dressed meat, as the Chicago Union Stock Yards were already in decline in the 1950s. So why not look into the service again?
I’ve got to ask; What processing in Chicago? Why won’t the east coast movements work? The premium service trains already exist between Chicago and the northeast. Why can’t containers of meat easily be added to these existing trains?
A few times I have seen coal trains with BNSF power on the CN line near Williams IA
The beef processing procedures have changed. Cattle enter one end of a kill facility; boxes consisting of one primal cut of beef plus boxes of some individual items such as hamburger emerge from the other end. Thereafter, the boxes may be sorted at some distribution center, but the contents of the box are unchanged. In most cases that box remain undisturbed until received by the retailer.
Should you want a trailer of loins, rounds or ribs that can be supplied. In the 1970’s (?) the IC had a train of TOFC to move that cargo. The truckers complained, and the feds shut it down. Those trailers still move, just not by rail. Hundreds of trailers leave a day, and that is just out of northwest Iowa.
He obviously didn’t realize the stock yards closed in the early 70s. Oscar Meyer closed up its old plant adjoining the Ravenswood L by the early 80s. If processed meat were shipped east in reefer trailers or containers, between Chicago and others heading east, would that not be a lot of business?
The IC was controlled in the Harriman era by the UP.
A few years ago at the monthly Ames Railfan get together, a retired IC dispatcher gave a slide presentation of a trip over the Iowa Division. He made a couple of familiarization trips and took his camera with him. He talked, and had a picture of, the IBP plant at Denison, Iowa where they loaded TOFC right at the plant. (The remnants of the ramp are still there. I never noticed them until I saw his pictures and I go right by there every day at work. Talk about hiding in plain sight.) He said that part of the reason IC (or ICG) discontinued some of the TOFC service was that IBP was rejecting many of the trailers offered for loading.
The Denison plant, I think it was IBP’s first beef plant, was closed by Tyson within the last year. They still do some rendering work for other plants, but no more cattle slaughter there. I see the CN local working the plant from time to time.
Jeff
OK, let me see if this table works. These are 2014 numbers. The 2015 data is not yet available.
Truckloads are calculated at 44,000 pounds payload per truck. Workdays are calculated at six days per week (overtime on Saturday) less six holidays per year.
Please note the very low production figures in New England and the Mid Atlantic. Also note the very low production in states such as Georgia and Florida. They have to bring in a lot of red meat. (since we’re dealing with the CN, I don’t mention California. But, it doesn’t produce enough red meat by a long shot.)
The table lists red meat production by state. It is sorted in descending order with the largest producing states at the top. Iowa is number #2 after Nebraska. But CN can serve the Nebraska facilitiies from intermodal terminals at Council Bluffs and Sioux City. CN could also serve Sioux Falls, SD over Sioux City. Most of the South Dakota production is from a very large Smithfield/Morrell hog plant in Sioux Falls.
Not all this production is available to the CN. Some is produced too far off line and some is going out west. But if you look at the numbers, CN would need about 6% of the meat production from Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota to make a viable six days per week 80 container train in to Chicago. East and southeast of Chicago the meat could readily move on existing intermodal trains to anywhere east and southeast.
And meat is not the only available traffic. Kelloggs makes cereal in Omaha. Sioux Falls has (or had) a major UPS sort facility, etc. There are a good number of other such opportunities. This is doable.
greyhounds- A couple of points: How would CN service Sioux Falls, if the nearest CN rail is at Siouc City, 80 miles away? If you load a truck to haul it 80 miles, you might as well haul it 500 miles, like they do now. Sioux Falls still has the majot UPS sort facility. It’s at the airport and built around those big ol’ UPS planes.
Thanks, Ken. That’s a lot of business. Certainly would seem to be capable of generating a decent positive cash flow. Increase that 6% to 10% or more and you have some real money.
[quote user=“greyhounds”]
OK, let me see if this table works. These are 2014 numbers. The 2015 data is not yet available.
Truckloads are calculated at 44,000 pounds payload per truck. Workdays are calculated at six days per week (overtime on Saturday) less six holidays per year.
Please note the very low production figures in New England and the Mid Atlantic. Also note the very low production in states such as Georgia and Florida. They have to bring in a lot of red meat. (since we’re dealing with the CN, I don’t mention California. But, it doesn’t produce enough red meat by a long shot.)
The table lists red meat production by state. It is sorted in descending order with the largest producing states at the top. Iowa is number #2 after Nebraska. But CN can serve the Nebraska facilitiies from intermodal terminals at Council Bluffs and Sioux City. CN could also serve Sioux Falls, SD over Sioux City. Most of the South Dakota production is from a very large Smithfield/Morrell hog plant in Sioux Falls.
Not all this production is available to the CN. Some is produced too far off line and some is going out west. But if you look at the numbers, CN would need about 6% of the meat production from Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota to make a viable six days per week 80 container train in to Chicago. East and southeast of Chicago the meat could readily move on existing intermodal trains to anywhere east and southeast.
And meat is not the only available traffic. Kelloggs makes cereal in Omaha. Sioux Falls has (or had) a major UPS sort facility, etc. There are a good number of other such opportunities. This is doable.
Yet another CN/IC untapped potential revenue stream. And their are more of these all over the US. All rail CEOs should be examining this and determine why their organizations fail to study these potential souces and why they are often rejected with a facile, knee jerk rejection “Costs too much.”
Although this discussion has centered on the CN, othe railroads also have a feasible opportunity. From Sioux City, UP is only 60 miles away from their Overland Route. BNSF is slightly further to their Chicago-Denver mainline. Of course, to go southwest meat from Iowa is at a distance disadvantage to the Texas and Kansas plants. However, to the east/southeast, you get a decent distance run before turning the load over to the eastern railroads.
Well Murphy, you’re into an area where I have personal experience and knowledge.
When I was in intermodal marketing with the ICG we did serve Sioux Falls over the Sioux City intermodal terminal. A good chunk of the business was UPS ground. We moved their trailers 500 miles to Sioux City from Chicago. They’d then truck the trailers up to their sort at Sioux Falls. It worked.
UPS would put some of their westbound loads in their Martax reefer trailers and we’d get meat loads back to the east.
Generally, 80 miles of trucking is within economical drayage distance on an intermodal movement. For example, CR England, which has significant intermodal reefer opeations, sets 125 miles as a guideline for trucking operations beyond an IM terminal.
We did 80 miles trucking on many moves. I.E., beer from Memphis to Milwaukee. Which is 85 miles north of our IM terminal in Chicago. We’d pick up the beer with a truck in Memphis and move it to our local terminal. Then move it by train to Chicago. Then truck it to the beer distributor in Milwaukee.
Don’t ever assume “Can’t”.
Ken:
I love these discussions with you. It would be great to see that meat moving on the CN line, but as we discussed last year, it would be a tough hurdle.
Meat out of Iowa has been a huge passion of yours for years. You have intel on where it produced and where it goes. Let’s revisit the Iowa to East Coast moves updated based on $30/barrel oil. Lets see if this can work.
My mind is usually open to change.
BTW, I am in the Stockyards district frequently. It is still there and host a number of meat purveyors. Slaughtering? No. Processing and distribution? Yes.
In fact, one of the iconic Chicago brands, Vienna Beef will soon be in the Stockyards District with manufacturing and distribution.
Ed
I’m beginning to think for some it isn’t that some business doesn’t make money, but rather it doesn’t make enough money. It’s like they will bend over once to pick up a Quarter, but not three times to pick up two Dimes and a Nickel.
UP has an IM terminal in the Omaha/Council Bluffs area. (Over at the IAIS yard. The IAIS runs transfers between their yard and the UP. A few times, I’ve cut away from an IM set out and they were waiting to grab it and take it across town.) All the IM business is to/from western points. No IM moving directly between the Chicago area and Omaha/Co Bluffs over the UP.
A rare couple of times, I’ve heard of an eastbound IM picking up a cut of COFC after making their set out. I’ve always guessed it was either to reposition the equipment or picking up cars that had been mistakenly set out with the Co Bluffs block. What’s happened a couple of times is that the conductor didn’t read his train list correctly. He had X number of cars to set out, but didn’t realize they were behind Y number that he had to hold onto and take with him. That also leads to not setting out ALL the CB cars, so they also have to be moved back to CB.
Jeff
With this discussion about Iowa, I thought I’d add this as an aside.
The US Navy’s USS Sioux City was just launched. It passed the first test. It floats.
I thought each major yard had a RFID reader at every exit from a yard so that the computers, among other tasks, could alert operating personnel to any additional/missing cars cars from a train. Is that not the case, or when receiving such an alert is the decision made to just continue with the move?
Taking beer to Milwaukee- isn’t that a