Read your “day in the life of” very carefully - found a question -
“And if we have any work to do such as making a double before we leave the yard”. I am thinking this is what we are seeing here, when they pull the front end and a good share of the train out into the throat and then they go back and forth - like they are picking up the rest of the train. Then they leave town, eventually. If this isn’t the case, can you explain what you meant?
Mookie
Hi 'ook,
If the train is larger than any one track will hold, it has to be “doubled up.” Even if the train is on more than two tracks, it still is “doubled up.”[at least that’s what we call it on the old-timey B&O.]
I hope you behaved your self this weekend, young lady! [I was “zzzzz” at midnight]
Hi Skeets - I am glad to hear that. I think I told the driver that was a distinct possibility. I am so proud of myself!
Gotcha beat - I was asleep by 10:30 - sorta heard the fireworks, but figured if they weren’t right in the room with me - …
And what’s going on at that hour that would need my attention anyway.
Mook
With the length of trains these days, and the fact that most yards haven’t expanded to meet those lengths, doubling over is done almost all the time.
As skeets said, it’s just when your train can’t fit all in one track, so you have to pick up one track, then head over to another track and pick up the rest.
Here in coquitlam, it isn’t unusual for a train to be stored in 3 or sometimes on 4 tracks, if they (for whatever reason) marshalled the train into short yard tracks.
saw a prime example of that last friday in fostoria. the local csx out of the C&O yard and the ns both had to use the wye and transfer track to switch the cars in their respective yards.
stay safe
Joe
For the most part…yards that are being used today were designed and built during the hey day of steam, as such a steam engine could handle a nominal 50 car train that would be 2500 to 4000 tons, so a large number of yard are built with tracks in the 2500 foot to 3500 foot track length.
Todays Class I’s look upon a 5000 foot train as being a small train with most intending to operate their trains in the 7500 to 9000 foot length and even longer. So when you have 2500 foot to 3500 foot yard tracks you have to ‘double’ them together to get the necessary train length. While a train is doubling up, all other work on the leads the train uses or fouls, ends and the process of doubling and then getting a brake test on the assembled train can take one to several hours, which in turn decreases the fluidity of the particular terminal.
Rail capacity can take many forms…not just single vs. double track.
sorry for the delay
i was out of town over the new years weekend to the inlaws house…
but it seems that eveyone else has gotten to this one befor me…lol…and what they all say is correct… so…i have nothing to add…lol
csx engineer
It is rare when the train from the closest major (or semi-major) switch yard to me to Roseville does not do that. Ironically, today was one of those rare times. It only had a couple of dozen cars on it today as opposed to the normal of about 90 to 110.
So my inclinations were right! And to further add to the confusion - we are seeing more and more of this “doubling”, which can block one and sometimes two crossings. And sometimes for quite awhile (no one calls, cuz they are used to detouring)
And you know - I am seeing longer freight trains, too. They do some doubling occasionally, but mostly it is still coal trains. Anyone know what the average length of freight trains runs these days?
Mook,
I would venture to guess that each railroad territory (and operating conditions) would have it’s own ‘average’ train length. Having said that, I would think that about 150 cars (or 8000’, or 8000 tons) would be about the average today. Of course, during cold weather (below about 20 degrees F) the averages will start to go down.
Zardoz - gonna be some really short trains through here the next few days, then!
Mookie
your bnsf engines are coming home in a hurry. 4 engines 20 cars heading west on csx
stay safe
Joe
Re; Doubling…At Altoona Yard, or moreso, at Enola Yard in Pa, listening in on the scanner will often hear the crewmember on the ground tell the Engineer ‘Okay, back 15 cars for a double’ meaning, he has 15 carlengths of space to back against the cut. Then the ground will call the cab, asking for a stretch, to make sure it was a good coupling…then will ask for 3 step protection, before going in for the air attachment. Most yards, as said above, will set longer trains on separate tracks due to length, but also, if a new trainis being put together out of incoming trains, the new crew will find sections of their new train on different tracks, and will have to double, or triple, to put the train together. Dave Williams http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nsaltoonajohnstown
The other night, ran 13000 tons. Not uncomon! On the CP, 100 to 130 cars are pretty common. geoff
unit coal drags on average are about 130 or so cars toping out at around 17000 tons… trailer trains can be very long…sometimes around getting to 9000 and 10000 feet in length…but thier overall tonnage is very light…around 4000 or 6000 tons…but what also comes into play with train length is cars from inbound trains that have been switched are ready to go at the time when a train is scheduled to depart… meaning that an inbound train might not have made its arival window to be reclassifed so the cars that would have gone out on the outbound train have to sit and wait…this makes for a short train one day and a longer one another day…
csx engineer
The Indiana Rail Road was tying up traffic so bad in Indianapolis, they built a siding south of the yard to help ease the congestion. When I worked there it was not uncommon for the road crews to take power and shorts down to the IPL plant and pick up the empties there, tie the shorts on do the air test and get out of town. This was usually only done when the empties were not available for the yard crew to pick up.