I was setting at a BNSF crossing the other day and saw a few flat cars that had John Deere tractors and combines. I know that these trains originate from Moline, Illinois and go from every direction from there.
My question is what is loaded on these flat cars after the farm machinery have reached their respective destinations? I would think that it would be uneconimical to brings these cars back empty to Moline.
You didn’t mention what reporting marks were on the flat cars. Ownership of the cars has a lot to do with their usage.
If they are general purpose cars they can be loaded at or near their destination(s) with whatever flat car loads are awaiting transportation, which might be routed back toward Moline or in some other direction entirely.
If they are in captive service, they will be returned empty to Moline. Cars in this type of service usually have special fittings designed specifically for one kind of lading, or are owned by the shipper and thus aren’t available for general service.
Chuck
My fault Chuck. The flat cars that I noticed was a combination of TTX and BNSF. I was watching the tractors more than the cars. Something about that John Deere green and it brings back good times in high school when a friend of mine would drive his to school.
If John Deere still is as was tradition, tractors are made in Waterloo, IA and combines Moline, IL.
We get the tractors from Waterloo through here fairly regularly (haven’t seen too many lately).
We also get the empties coming back and being sent to Waterloo. I’d say, up here in UP country, that the cars are all TTX: usually the 60-foot OTTX cars, but sometimes 89-foot flats (ITTX, I think). I’m pretty sure these tractors go to the east coast, are unloaded, and the empties shipped back.
Think of it this way: these aren’t just flat cars–they’re fairly specialized pieces of equipment that include chains and other tiedowns for the tractors, tires, and sometimes crates of parts that are shipped. Neither the railroad nor John Deere would want to be responsible for any more of these cars than they needed to. So it would make more sense to them to get the empties right back to where they’re needed, rather than delay them by loading them with other stuff that might or might not bring them close to Moline or Waterloo.
They are routed back mty. They actually go to East Moline for Combine loading.Stored on the BNSF there. Deere itself still loads a few then an outsourceing complany loads the bulk.Back when Case was still here we would see flats for miles in that section of town.Some getting green others red.
Majority of the combine loads are fo export, however there is still some that roll loose car to a dealership ( very few have spurs anymore) The Waterloo plant is the same way too.
Also when Case was here they would ship their stuff SOO line/CP ,Deere by BN. So red for red and green for green.IMRL even was in on some of the Case shipments as their first calendar had their F45 pulling a solid train of Case combines past Water Works in Davenport
Farm machinery loading is vanishing. The dealers are vanishing, too. We no longer have an equipment dealer in Shelby, MT. The nearest are 15-, 25-, and 40-miles away. The farmers seem to be ‘making do’ and wearing out the old stuff. The advent of ‘Contract/Custom Combiners’ would send a lot of that equipment to Oklahoma, where they start the season and head north, all the way into Canada. The FIAT ownership of International Harvester/Case and New Holland (formerly Ford) may have taken its toll. John Deere is about the only domestic manufacturer. I think Caterpillar sold that arm of their business, too, and is now called “Challenger”. I don’t know who own AGCO (Allis Chalmers, Heston), but will look into it. They are out of the deep south, methinks. Interesting!
Back in 2002, I caught these two coming southbound on Norfolk Southern in Marion, Ohio.
The train was coming south from Bellevue and heading towards Columbus.
Kevin
Ns runs an occasional train(22 series??) of green combines to the east coast.I saw them sitting in the siding in Archbold waiting for Amtrak to clear.It is a wide load train so they have to plan meets along the line.The also run tractors of all colors too for export.A guy I work with prefers big reds. I haven’t seen many tractors on csx but there are a few cars here and there sometimes.
stay safe
joe
Iowa Northern Railroad sometimes runs unit John Deere tractor trains from Waterloo to Cedar Rapids for UP interchange during good economic times. I have not seen any lately.
Jeff
BNSF will be running a Combine train here soon. We have pulled out 8 loads two days ago and was going to pull 5 today but the switch was froze over. Had 4 domestic loads and 4 export ( todays was all exports).
I dont think farm machinery loads have declined. In this day and age for export machines its cheaper by rail.No permits for all the states you would have to run through and we can run at night. But to the dealer doors, that going to be mainly trucks unless there is a team track near by.
What is a team track?
It’s a track that is unassigned to any specific shipper and owned by the railroad where cars are spotted for loading or unloading directly to a truck. “Team” refers to a team of horses or mules that drew the wagon up to the freight car back in the olden days. The team track may have a simple side dock with ramp or end dock with ramp for vehicles to transfer on or off flatcars, or for a forklift to get into a boxcar. Or it may have no ramp at all. Often, covered hoppers with cement, animal feed, fertilizer, etc., are unloaded with portable augers. If a customer has high volume of cars for a long-term basis, he might be better off building his own facility, but there are team tracks where the same customer has been unloading or loading cars for years.
RWM
When Case IH merged with New Holland they also got Fiat-Allis and Kobelco. Cat sold to AGCO, which are a european company with Massy Ferguson, Challanger, White, Hesston, and Gleaner.
Methinks that Case/IH and (Ford)/New Holland both got bought out by FIAT, ala Chrysler. FIAT-Allis was already owned by FIAT. I remember seeing some pictures of true “unit trains” departing the Massey-Ferguson and Cockshutt plants in Ontario during the 1920s. I’ll have to search for them. We get, occasionally, a few cars of John Deere and Caterpillar equipment passing thru Shelby, MT. It comes up from Laurel, MT on the BNSF Great Falls Sub., crosses the Hi-Line, and goes north on the Sweetgrass Sub. to Canada. Not a lot, but some. Most of the Cat equipment is going to the oil-shale fields in northern Alberta, I suspect. Some BIG dozers headed north!
Hays
IIRC, those who loaded and unloaded the wagons and rail cars were called “teamsters,” and that is where the union got its name.
One of those is shown in the Pentrex video Through the Rathole back in the mid-1990s. I think it was the first meet shown on the cab ride video.
Kevin
Within the last month or so, we’ve picked up John Deere tractors at Beverly for Proviso. Not an entire train, just blocks mixed in with other freight.
It kind of goes in spurts. You see some for a few weeks or a month than don’t see any for a while. The same with the combines out of Grand Island.
Jeff
I used to see a unit train of New Holland Equipment come through Nashville Tennssee every so often. I have not seen one in a while. As I remeber, these were really long too.
George