A couple weeks ago, I was visiting some relatives in the St. Louis area. They took me on a tour of the Budweiser brewery. It was a great thing to see. I noticed several tracks within the complex and saw several covered hoppers in one area. Those cars had to have brought the grain in. I looked it up on Google Earth and noticed several other tracks that I didn’t see on the tour.
Anyway, who maintains the tracks at an industrial facility? The company or the railroad? I know the tracks wouldn’t get as much wear as a busy mainline would, but I imagine they would have to maintained somewhat.
The serving railroad owns the track from the switch to the derail.The track beyond the derail belongs to the industry…It is the industry responsibility to maintain this track.
The industry will hire a railroad contractor to do the needed repairs.
Also if the siding isn’t maintain a railroad can embargo that industry’s track…
It may vary from one railroad to another, but on the B&O the railroad usually maintained out to the first joints past the derail. It was up to the industry to maintain everything else. A large industry might have its own track people, but most places hired a contractor to keep up their track.
Looking in the Yellow Pages under “Railroad Contractors” may show some results.
Don’t know about nowadays, but years ago it was sometimes possible to get the railroad to do the work for a fee, but even then it was usually cheaper to hire an outside contractor.
I think in this case it is Budweiser. Manufacturers Railroad (MRS) based out of St. Louis is owned by Budweiser. I once watched an industrial siding being built for an ethanol plant and it was built from what looked like rented equipment or a private contractor from the end-loaders to the track alignment machines that were hauled in on a semi with a recovery flatbed. They used what appears to be lime stone as a roadbed. I did not see any IC or CN equipment being used to build the siding. It was built over a period of a few weeks and i watched the progress on it day and night on my way to work and school and home. I went passed there 6 to 7 days a week.
Responsibility for maintenance is spelled out in an agreement called, on most railways, an “Industrial Track Agreement.” In most cases the industrial spur is maintained by the industy, port, or agency that the track serves, but not always. In most cases the industry, port, or agency employs a contractor to maintain the track, but often that contractor is affiliated with or actually a local short-line railway. The ITA specifies where the division between railroad maintenance and industry maintenance occurs. Some union agreements that Class 1s have with their locals specifiy that all track within the right-of-way “belongs” to the brotherhoods to maintain, but some local agreements specific the 13’ clearance point. Some local agreements allow the Class 1 to lease a track on its right-of-way to an industry, and then the industry can maintain it. If there’s signaling involved, then often the ITA specifies that the industry maintains the track but the Class 1 maintans the signaling system even if it is off railway property.
I’ve written a few hundred of these things. There’s no absolute rule on who does what or where the division in maintenance lies. But most of the time, the industry maintains the track beyond the clearance point, edge of right-of-way, or some other convenient location.
Sometimes. Not often. Everyone who deals with it already knows where the division lies, and if you don’t know, you go read the Industrial Track Agreement because it says where it is. There might be a survey monument somewhere near, or a survey tag on the top of a tie, but you also have to know where to look for that, too. And they might be buried or missing.
I’ve spent so much fun time practicing jungle warfare to locate equipment, access steps and even whole sheds… but I thought all your tracks were kept neat and tidy.
I had an interesting time in Wales on one occaasion when I forgot there was a new housing estate jst out of sight of a grade crossing I needed to work at… after half an hour of attacking young trees with a machete the local police popped up… at a safe distance! [(-D]
A general manager was touring a rail yard. There was a nondescript shed on the edge of the yard. The GM asked who had a key to it and what it was for. Knowbody with him knew or had a key. He said if you don’t know what it was or couldn’t get into it it didn’t need to be there and ordered it demolished. It was bulldozed pronto.
Shortly there after the GM’s railroad built a brand new shed for the other railroad that had RofW next to the yard and actually owned the former shed.
Sounds like one of the GMs we had around here (no, I’m not in railroading, but GMs are the same everywhere). He used to take clean-up inspections around the place. If he didn’t know what something was (which as often), he’d order it thrown out so it wouldn’t clutter up the place. Ok, sometimes a useful thing to do, but often good, serviceable material, spare parts, and even newly purchased equipment awaiting installation went in the dumpster.