Over the years I have noticed that about a year or so before the enconomy starts slowing down, empties start showing up on sidings. Has anyone else seen this? What I have seen here in western Montana is empty 50’ box cars and lumber cars. The box cars are only one sidings worth but the lumber cars are filling up sidings and small town switch yards. What’s up with this? I have seen this between Anaconda and Missoula,Mt.
Simple, keeping 'em out of the way until the railroad needs them again.
its called storage… when there isnt room in the yards to store cars that arent needed for loading at that moment due to what ever reason… they park them on what ever empty track they can find to get them out of they way… railroads also charge the car owner storage fees for parking equipment that isnt being used… alot of short lines that might have a few miles of extra track not being used will store cars for car owners and railroads during slow downs in the economoy or when a sesonal commody its out of season (grain) and the need for a specific type of car (covered gain hoppers) are not needed…
csx engineer
There is a shortline about 30 miles from where I live that has probably 8-10 miles of TOFC cars stored for NS.
Yea Even class 1 railroads like the CP use side tracks for storage cause just west of the 35th street viaduct there are a string of covered hoppers and flat cars just sitting there and it looks like they have sitting there for a couple months now.
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It makes sense, at least in an indirect way. This country uses a lot of lumber; along with paper and paper products it’s an ingredient in most new homes. If the rise in the number of empties on sidings waiting for better times co-relates with a drop in “Housing Starts,” you might have lucked onto a new economic indicator! [angel]
(And, as a penny-ante individual investor, I’ve heard far worse causalities based on practically every kind of statistic this side of tea leaves.) [banghead]
Keep your eyes peeled!
al-in-chgo