Question:
I’m sure that all RR’s using CWR have heat related issues in the summer and I have heard of kinks on others, but what is it about CSX that they seem to have so many more problems and so many more issues with this. Note the complaints by VRE to CSX this week., and last summer was a disaster. It really hasn’t even gotton real hot here in the mid-atlantic states yet this summer.
You don’t hear as much about the problems on other railroads but be assured the hot weather problems are universal.
Randy
It’s pretty much standard practice for CSX to issue heat orders when daytime temps climb above 90. I don’t know what other roads do, but believe me it’s no fun rolling through a heavy sun kink at 50 mph! [I mean a kink that looks like someone pressed in on about six inches of Atlas Superflex and blew it up to full scale.]
Not really a satisfactory answer. See attached and please advise why NS in the same location does not have these problems. Thanks.
I read the article and It never said that NS didn’t have the same heat related problems. It mainly says that it doesn’t issue as many heat related slow orders. CSX is very cautious with heat related issues.
Well lets look at what a heat related slow order(HRSO) really means. When CSX issues a HRSO it does so when their is a possibilty that a heat related problem could happen. This usually happen at around 90 degrees. This HRSO does not mean that their is a heat related issue but rather it means that the conditions are right for those problems to occur. So the number of HRSO is no way tells you the state of the rail but rather tells more about the tempture outside. NS having less HRSO’s doesn’t mean it doesn’t have as many heat related problems but rather they just don’t issue as many warnings. To figure out if CSX has more heat related problems you would have to look through track repairers logs and find out how many heat kinks they fixed last year. This is my understading of what CSX’s heat relatted slow orders are for.
Hope this is somewhat satisfactory. I know it tstill doesn’t answer your question but many someone can point you to what you need. I don’t have the info but I’m sure someone does if you ask the right question.
Andrew
Earlier this week UP announced service delays west of Dallas (Eastland TX) due to “Thermal Mis-alignments” aka sun kinks.
I had the chance to see a bunch of BNSF right of way last week in Illinois while temps were in the low 90’s. There were some apparent small waves in the rail there too, but no slow orders were imposed.
Might as well be safe I guess.
Adrianspeeder
CSX will always have a public relations problem with HRSO’s simply because VRE operates over its tracks and commuters anywhere will complain about delays as little as 5 minutes or less. Metra has a similar p/r problem with its Southwest Service although for a different reason: delays due to “freight train interference”. At various points, the Southwest Service (ex-WAB) crosses NS (ex-CR), BRC, CSX and IHB at grade, leading to any number of possibilities for delays.
There have been Heat warnings on the Indianapolis line for about two weeks now. The rail is in good shape on the double main, but I can’t say as much about the Toledo Branch. That stetch of single main hasn’t been worked on in a few years and rail is snaking pretty bad, talk about having to hold onto my seat!
Welded Rail technology and Thermal Challenges (heat & cold) are one area that railroads have yet to MASTER. As long as the weather stays within the range of 25 - 75 degrees the railroads have very little trouble with Thermal Challenges. Once the temperature goes outside those boundrys Thermal Problems (Sun Kinks when it is hot, and pull-a-parts or broken rails when it is cold) become increasingly prevalent problems. Todays High-Technology railroads have become Fair Weather Carriers as the extremes of routine weather bring the railroads to their operational knees.
The All-Weather carriers of the past have rationalized their plant to the point that there is not enough MANPOWER still employed to have enough manpower to battle weather. Weather, and its results, is one area where only MANPOWER can overcome the challenges.
Didn’t CSX have a derailment or some other problems in recent years that had bad public relations problems having to do with sun kinks? It seems that it had some adverse effect on commutor traffic. Maybe they’re a little gun-shy, and are trying to head off some potential problems?
Just last Sunday at Alliance, Ohio heard the dispatcher telling a westbound that he had a heat patrol ahead of him.
NS has the issue as well and clearly were taking no chances that day.
Murphy siding- What brought this to the public’s attention was when an Amtrak train derailed in Florida I believe because of a sun kink. I think this is another reason that csx is more vocal about heat related problems. They want to prove to everyone that they are doing something to fix the problem.
Andrew