News just in. Canadian Pacific isnow combining manifest freight onto unit trains, such as train 801 (a unit Coke Coal train to MN)
Is it good business practice to combine manifest loads onto unit trains, such as listed above (obviously not limited to just this train)?
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This may be a case of filling out to tonnage. Indiana Rail Road, in its early days, would tack on some extra cars on its IPALCO unit trains every now and again. It had the effect of getting the freight moved without having to call an extra crew.
I’d opine that Paul has it right. As long as the cars are treated as a block, not as individual deliveries, it shouldn’t represent an operational impediment. Just set them aside (or have a local switch engine pick them off) where they need to go and be on one’s way.
In fact, it might also mean that manifest freights can then thus be trimmed - which may allow them over the road faster.
Some unit train contracts and some service contracts do not allow it. Some unit train equipment is not compatible with other equipment. But there are probably some opportunities for the railroad to take advantage of an under tonnage train going in the right direction.
All UMLER registered equipment is compatible with each other for over the road rail movement. Some unit trains have special equipment for their unloading (such as air powered hopper doors). For that equipment to work it must be coupled together and next to the source of air. (ie. on the head end of the train, next to the engines). There are no natural operating conditions that would prevent combining merchandise and unit trains - most likely with the merchandise on the rear of the UT.
Before my time, on the railroad, some old heads said the CNW started adding some other freight to empty unit trains returning west. There was something in the contract (a fuel charge of some kind?) that the contract holders used to make them stop that practice.
Jeff
During the Great Recession in 2009 CN began adding general freight cars (box cars, covered hoppers, etc) to their WB intermodal train 149 (Montreal to Chicago Markham Yd). There would often be 20-30 general cars added to the train.
Not sure about now.
Ed]
First off, What is ULMER?
and second, i don’t know if these Coke Coal carriers have any special equipment, since the general freight cars are attached to the front of the train. though they do get taken off before the Coke cars are loaded
UMLER is the Universal Machine Language Equipment Register - a AAR data base that contains data on ALL rail cars from all owners that are permitted to be used in Interchange Service between carriers. UMLER records include passenger cars as well as freight and locomotives.
The biggest determinant in mixing manifest freight with unit trains is - where is the weight. If the tonnage of the manifest is similar to that if the UT, it can g
UMLER - Universal Machine Language Equipment Register - This is the ‘on-line’ replacement for the old ARR car codes like XM, LO, RBL, etc…
All ‘interchange’ cars should be compatible for operation in a train. Cars like the BNSF/NS coal cars with the special electronic controlled air brakes will default to the normal air brake schedule if there is a loss of the signal over the cable.
Adding cars to ‘fill to tonnage’ is not all that uncommon with empty unit trains. If you have all that power that was required to move the loaded WB train, then there is an opportunity to use that excess power to move WB traffic(as long as it does not impact the turn-around schedule of the unit trains. If the coal cars are ‘utility’ owned, there many times is a restriction about mixing them with general freight.
Jim
Valpo Ed (**MP173)**added:
"…During the Great Recession in 2009 CN began adding general freight cars (box cars, covered hoppers, etc) to their WB intermodal train 149 (Montreal to Chicago Markham Yd). There would often be 20-30 general cars added to the train.
Not sure about now…"
Ed]
To what Jeff and Ed said; I believe that BNSF is doing something similar currently; We had a recent discussion about the make-p of some of the empty crude oil trains.
Many of the moves through this area (both North and Southbound) seem to incorporate a dogs breakfast of car types. The loaded ones seem to use mostly covered hoppers intersperced with blocks of crude oil tankers, while the empty trains seem, at times to have many different typers from boxcars to empty flats to loaded flats, covered hopper, etc. You can tell they are mostly empty (or lightly loaded?) tanks because they are riding high on their truck springs.
We used to see solid trains of either TOFC or COFC cars. Now we can see both kinds mixed in solid (train sized bolks) blockc of one car type. Now they are running the those same mixes of blocks of trailers and containers and adding a few Auto Carriers on the rear. I’ve yet to see any of the longer trains with what would have been ‘normal’ boxcars (merchandise?). &n
This is not a new practice by any railroad. The problem arises when they become complacent with the practice and the premium customer gets ignored and then goes away because of it.
If I was the owner of shipper-owned cars, I would be concerned of the extra wear and tear caused by hauling the extra cars and slack run-in and -out.
No problem with the equipment. The problem is when the train has to make pick ups and set outs or otherwise loses time and delivery becomes later and later every day until it is the next day or week… The integrity of delivery service is gone, so is the customer and the contract. And since customers talk, others will abandon the railroad, too.
It’s no longer about customers and contracts…it’s about shareholders and stock prices
…at least for the Hunter it’s that…
Mr Railman,
It is a little more complicated than that. The management of the company has a financial responsibility to the shareholders who invested in the company. One of the measurements is the stock price. And the other measurement is profit. If the company is not making a profit, there is a good chance the stock price will go down as investors dump their stock.
To keep the profits up, you need to service your existing customer base, and invest in new revenue streams(looking for new business). The other side of the coin is cost containment. I can think of very few companies that have been spending lots of money on employee benefits in the past few recession years. Maybe Apple is one, and Google even has been cutting back on things like ‘work at home’.
Railroads have typically been rather ‘behind the times’ until the late 80’s. Deregulation and concentration on bulk commodity shipments have made railroad quite good investment targets for at least the past 15 years. CP’s problems right now are that they have very little capital improvement funds to invest in capacity improvements to the mainline and the oil business in North Dakota. They are running a poor 3rd to CN & BNSF in their service area. To get that capital funding, they need investors who see a future on a CP investment, and the financials of the company would make most investors put their money somewhere else. Painful cutbacks to improve that bottom line are here - they need to attract investors!
Jim