I heard that right now CSX only runs a handful of trains a day on the Old Main Line Subdivision, compared to the nearby Metropolitan and Capitol Subdivisions, which have 25+ trains. With this new National Gateway project in Baltimore, why won’t they shift more trains to the Old Main Line? I would think that a line directly to Baltimore without having to go next to Washington would be more efficient.
CSX should shift at least a quarter of their trains to the Old Main Line so that the other lines would have more capacity for freight and passenger service.
Why should they do it that way? Why do you think they do it the way they do? Do you know their operating philosophy, plans, traffic patterns, customer needs, crew restrictions, track restrictions, locomotive abilities and restrictions? Why does your plan make more sense than the way they run their railroad?
From a logical standpoint, it sounds like they have that extra capacity already- it’s on the Old Main Line Subdivision. The fact that they are putting much more of the traffic on other lines suggests that there are logical, economic reasons that make other routes a better fit for the traffic.
Your statement just shows the gulf that exists between railfans and railroaders.
The OML is a single track piece of railroad with 5 passing sidings and a lot of curvature as it follows the banks of the Patapsco River. Running time for trains running the OML are 30-40 minutes longer than for the same train operating on the Capital and Metropolitan Subs. Grades on the OML are gentler than on the Capital and Metropolitan Subs.
OML is used for all trains operating from Brunswick to Baltimore that do not have work on the Capital & Metropolitan Subs; this includes, coal, empties, ethanol, autos as well as several merchandise trains in each direction. Any train that contains HAZMAT’s that are restricted through the District of Columbia operate on the OML
Trains out of Brunswick that are destined Richmond and other Southern points cannot operate on the OML:. I-95 corridor trains cannot operate on the OML.
Tactical decisions to operate trains on the OML are made as the operational status of all three subdivisions (OML,
I know that trains from south of Baltimore and Washington won’t use the OML but what about trains coming from the west from places like Pittsburgh? The OML is shorter and with some improvements it should be able to attract some more intermodal traffic from the west to the new Baltimore intermodal terminal.
I asked this question here as I can’t find a good explanations about the OML operations and traffic online, other than a few sentences here and there about coal trains, mixed trains and autoracks. I could never find an explanation anywhere that addresses why intermodal does not travel through the OML. I found a lot of sources about how unfeasible lowering/rebuilding the Howard Street Tunnel would be to handle double-stacks and that’s understandable, but nothing on the OML.
As someone who lives fairly close to the Old Main, I would say that traffic has picked up greatly in the past year, particularly during the overnight and on the weekends, so I think that “handful” is an understatement in terms of the amount of traffic. It is not uncommon now to see one or two westbounds waiting on the Reels Mill siding and one at Planes waiting for eastbound traffic to pass.
I will agree that daytime action between 6AM and 8AM and 4PM and 6PM during the week can be light but that may have more to do with the timing of the commuter trains coming from and to Frederick because mid morning to early afternoon can be busy.
One aspect not mentioned yet that has and will continue to limit the traffic is the height of the tunnels on the line which precludes double stacks. I don’t think that the eastbound grade up to Parr’s Ridge is much of a limiting factor.
The best source I know of about the OML is “Impossible Challenge The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in Maryland” by Herbert H. Harwood, Jr. which covers the time period 1828-1979.
The OML was substantially rebuilt between 1900 and 1910. “Virtually the entire railroad between Relay and Point of Rocks had to be redesigned in one way or another. Ultimately the project took eight years and cost over three million uninflated dollars; when it was completed, over 25 miles of entirely new railroad had been built, eight new tunnels drilled and one existing tunnel completely rebuilt… The sharpest curve was now 11 degrees and most were 8 degrees or less (the old line still had several in the 13-15 degree range), the Parr"s Ridge grade had been cut down from 1.6% to .8%, and the total route shortened by 1.6 miles.” p 136-137.
Note the NINE tunnels. I know that double stack containers had not been invented at the time and suspect that they will not clear double stacks today. That is a very convincing reason to operate intermodal trains via Washington DC.
The originator of this thread has fallen into the same trap that most of us did when we first got really involved in this hobby. We look at lines on a map and make certain presumptions without knowing the reality of those lines. Armchair strategists made the same mistake in WWII when considering the Aleutians as a springboard to attacking Japan.
It’s a trap I think a lot people fall into. From personal experience I would opine that the CSX line through my area is all but abandoned - when I was commuting across it twice daily I very rarely saw any trains. I cross it even less frequently now, so I’m less likely to see a train.
But I know from other sources that traffic is actually picking up, so much so that CSX has invested heavily in the line over the past few years to return speeds to their former levels.
And a fair amount of the traffic occurs during hours of darkness (or at least at times when many folks wouldn’t be near the tracks to see it).
Paul, my post is non-germane to the thread–but the Japanese invaded the Aleutians before our army arrived. According to Wikipedia, their invasion was a feint to divert attention from their move on Midway, but since we had broken their code, we were not fooled. We did kick the Japanese back to Japan from the Aleutians. Until I read the article this morning, I thought that the Japanese were really wanting to use that route to the United States.