I have been seeing a significant number of CSX (Plus some NS) boxcars being loaded in Springfield, Oregon on UP. These cars are brought into town empty from some distance away (I believe at least some from California) and loaded at a local paper mill and a sawmill.
I presume this is backhaul loading; but what are the rules for the railroad and customer? Would the customer have restrictions on where they could send these boxcars?
corwinda
we have cars from all rrs where I work.(even got to unload a few)some are full some are empty.Just depends what the rr has available.
stay safe
joe
In school I was taught that when one railroad is using cars from another railroad they have to pay “car hire” to the owning railroad. So, if there are CSX cars being loaded and used on the UP, then UP would be paying CSX a per diem. The railroads probably have some deal within themselves on how they work that out. I know in Danville IL we had 9,000 ft of flat cars that CSX owed NS and we had to deliver them to the NS, or they were going to charge CSX $50,000 a day until it was done.
Cowinda-Short answer. The railroad has to observe the rules as set by the Association of American Railroads. If the car is spotted for loading the shipper can load and ship.
More information. The rules generally say that the car should load in the direction of the owning road, but empties can be hauled around to get a load heading back. Compliance with the rules on cars not assigned to a shipper for specific movements can be kind of loose. Back when, the Interstate Commerce Comission could order cars to be immediately sent back to the owning road if that carrier had a car shortage. The Surface Transportation Board could have picked up that authority, I’m not sure.
The car hire per diem is charged to the carrier where the car is located as of Midnight.
So it is 11:30 pm and the trainmaster is telling the transfer crew to get the lead out (or words to that effect if not on the radio).
In prehistoric days, interline transfer records were kept on paper, and the accounts were settled with clerks running adding machines. I suspect that at one point, the number of railroad clerks may have out numbered today’s total RR employment.
Jay
Jay, midnight isn’t as magical as it used to be…these “per diem” rates are now computed by the hour.
I do remember the olden days, though. I myself once “offered” a trainload to the IHB (from CNW) at about 11:45 p.m. Even though we didn’t enter IHB rails until after midnight, we were on the record as having made the cutoff.
But you’re right…those CSXT cars will almost certainly be bearing their loads to some destination on CSX, and the NS cars to an NS destination.
A bit of additional info -------- Carl is correct in that “per-diem” is no longer “diem”, it is by the hour. There were a whole lot of snide jokes about that move, most centering around “no-tell motel” subjects. (They charge by the hour, if you don’t know, instead of by the day.)
Depending on what authority the UP is using, it depends on what and how the cars are being used. CSR (Car Service Rule) 1 has been mentioned above, and that is, if a car makes empty at your station, or is passing through, and you have a return load to or via the home road, you can load the car.
Certain restrictions apply and the most common are CSD 145 and 150, and they have already been mentioned. CSD 145 is railroad or shipper owned cars assigned to a specific shipper. These must be returned to that shipper ASAP via return service route. The only exception here is if the pool owner (that specific shipper) orders, in writing by way of tendering (or ordering to be tendered) a shipping order specifying what is to be done, by whom, how, when and at what price. CSD 150 is a generic version of 145 and pertains to a group of cars assigned to a certain commodity or commidity group (such as paper) where the pool owner is the car distributer for a certain geographic service area ( such as paper cars for paper shippers on the SP in Oregon). Otherwise, CSD145 and CSD 150 are basicly the same.
Then there is CSR 7. It was not mentioned in any of the other replies and I haven’t seen it used much since the advent of CSD 150 pools. When a car goes Rule 7, the owning road or pool owner moves the car on a ppd-free waybill (Weight and Charges to follow Prepaid would be typed on the waybill in the contents column and FREE typed in the charges column). A specific shipper must be shown as the consignee, it must be loaded on his private track or assigned team track, with the commodity specified on the inbound empty car movement bill, to the consignee specified on the inbound empty car movement bill and via th
Not specifically; but when I’m watching trains in Springfield it’s pretty obvious what goes there. (I’ve seen both CSX and NS boxcars at Rosboro in the last week.)[;)]
Are you from the Eugene-Springfield area?[8)]
What’s the slogan on those “railbox” boxcars?
“Next road, any road?”
I always find it cool when I see those generic ones on the road, it would be cool to follow and see where those things end up in the course of their lives. Follow their journey’s.
If a car is a member of the North American BoxCar pool, does it still have to be sent in the general direction of the home railroad, or can those things go everywhere like the “railbox” and “ttx” ones?