This morning I noticed that a door on an auto carrier on an empty auto train (ABENGR) had come loose and was resting on the car behind it. I called it in to UP.
The train was sitting on a mainline next to a train yard. They slowly pulled the train up so that the car was at about where the yard lead connects to the mainline. Then they cut the train behind the car. When they did, the door fell off of the car.
The conductor, yard crew, and a mechanical department guy flipped the door (a few times) away from the mainline. They then reconnected the train, with the autocarrier that is now missing door still in the train, and left.
This brings up some questions. The door is now sitting in that train yard. I imagine a door will have to be put on that car before it is loaded. Why did they keep the car on the train? Won’t they just have to break up the train again somewhere else and bad order the car? Why not bad order the car in that yard and reattach the door? After falling off of the car, is it damaged beyond economical repair?
In the whole scheme of things, the cost of the door is pocket change compared to the cost to delay the train. And if the train is delayed, it’s probably using up a main line slot or a yard track slot that is needed for following trains, its cars are missing connections to other trains and rolling into the next day where they will overtonnage the next day’s train, and so forth.
The door isn’t necessary for movement of the car; it’s there for protection of the lading from theft, vandalism, and flying debris. Chances are good the car will still make it intact to destination without damage to the lading, or alternatively, the railroad will bad-order the car at the first terminal where the car is normally broken out of the train for classification, and fix it there. The yard where the door was thrown out may not have had enough mechanical forces or the parts to fix the car. Even if it did, it may not have been convenient to set out the car at the yard where you saw this; setting out cars again ties up main line time and delays other trains.
For the same reason wrecked trains are pushed out of the way as quickly as possible; the loss in revenue and expense of delay for every day a major main line is out of service is huge whereas the cars and lading are minor in comparison.
Csx had a door fall off an auto carrier and set off a defect detector.The closest siding was omnisource here in defiance. The car was recycled the following week.
Thanks for the replies. I suspect that they did not set it out due to the mechanical department reasons you mentioned.
It was a unit train of all empty, tri-level autocarriers for interchange with FXE at Nogales, AZ, so I suspect the cars are heading to the auto plant at Hermosillo, SO, Mexico. Therefore, I would not think the train would otherwise be broken up or the car taken off of the train before its destination.
They did break the train in two to get the door to fall off. I followed the train for a while south. I then headed back north. I finally left the tracks about an hour after the train got moving again. I saw no more eastward (southward trains) and one westward. This occured on double track. It would seem like that would be a good time to set the car out since traffic was light and the train was broken apart anyway.
Wouldn’t the auto plant reject the car if it is missing a door?
Don’t discount the presence of that Mechanical Department guy where the door was dropped off. He may very well have determined that that particular door couldn’t be re-installed. I suspect that it won’t lie around the yard for long before being cut up and removed (not necessarily in that order).
Not every RIP track can handle auto rack doors. There may be a point somewhere en route (or at the loading point) where such repairs are more routine, and a replacement door can be installed. Had the door been able to be reused, it’s possible that Mechanical Department forces would have placed it inside the rack to go where it could be reinstalled.
Thanks, Eric, for averting something that could have been painfully spectacular.
There is another thing I forgot to ask about. I gave the reporting marks and car number to the woman on the phone. Afterward, she ask about how far back in the train the car was. Do you think she assumed I did not give her the correct car number?
Yes and No – she wanted to tell the crew where to start looking for it. The train list in the computer may or may not have been accurate, and many people don’t know what they are looking for when they give a car number.
Knowing now that it was an empty en route to an auto loading center, there were few reasons to set it out right there. You mentioned that the next train wasn’t along for some time, but a set-out can easily take an hour. The crew might have been too short on time; the power might have been needed elsewhere; a set-out might have blocked an important grade-crossing; the train might have had air problems already; etc.; etc. There are many good reasons to not set the car out where you saw the door removed.
I haven’t seen any auto carriers here but I have seen a number of box cars with missing doors. Normally if they are set out in Brigham City the cars are on a one way trip and will return as rebar.
I got a call from UP. They want to send a letter or appreciation and a gift because the information I provided was accurate and it help them “save any possible problems down the line.” That is pretty good of UP to show appreciation when someone calls in a problem.