Hi everyone. I recently got back from a trip to the west and saw a very interesting thing. Starting in South Fork Colorado and heading east are miles of TTX spine cars rusting in the weeds. I was hoping someone here could tell me why they’re there?
Most likey the cars are being stored out of the way. Many shortlines store cars to make money on track they can’t use.
Hi
Are you refering to highway #160 going into Durango? If so I saw the same cars. I judged there to be about 20 miles of cars with just breaks for road crossing. My thinking is that the reason they are there is because double stacks took over for long hauls. Anyone have a better idea?
Happy Railroading
[:D]
Lee
P.S. the cars I saw were for road trailers, and the farther west I drove the more rusty they became.
San Luis & Rio Grande is storing mostly idle TOFC spine cars and 89 Ft. flats for Trailer Train on the unused far west end of their railroad. Similar sight can be found in eastern CO on V&S (ex CK&P MoPac Line east of Pueblo) SLRG will hand the cars back to UP and BNSF at Walsenburg when the time comes.
(With the cost of Diesel, TOFC is becoming an option for some trucking companies who are starting to see what Hunt, Schneider, May and the others saw years ago - not everybody has sea-cans to haul on a chassis, so there is still a market for these cars.)
Stored hoppers on V&S started leaving within the last month as well.
Could you get some pics of the cars? I know after the original route to the Keystone Generating Station in PA went obsolete after the Keystone secondary was completed, NS brought a bunch of its spinecars and parked them on that track for storage, so it’s likely the same deal there.
Now that I think of something, in Lucernmines, PA, there are several flatcars sitting on Kovalchick’s track siding that have been there for apparently many years. Does anyone know if they were parked there and forgotten? Storage of bad cars maybe?
From what I have seen, TOFC is alive and well. If the cars are that rusty they might be damaged cars being stored.
There’s a mile or two of spine cars stored here as well. Since most of our traffic is COFC, there is little need for the extra TOFC spines. If they need to transport a regular trailer (with wheels) they just toss them in a well car.
I have seen that on regular COFC/TOFC trains. Kinda neat. I even have modeled it. But we still have plenty of TOFC trains and hopefully there will be more, it seems to work out best for long hauls. What I have noticed less of, at least over here on CSX, are trains made up of both types on one train. Used to see them a lot but now double stacks seem to be back to being solid trains.
about a mile of spine cars on the NS line at Cleona ,Pa (near Lebanon).
It only takes 61 86-foot cars to cover a mile (and thats if the cars are actually 86 feet long overall). Figure you’ve got about 200 spare cars, and thats about 3.3 miles of extra cars you have to put somewhere . . . .
How about 15 to 20 miles of cars, thats a lot of cars. they did not look damaged. Just like the cars had been placed there over the years and the newer ones to the east. This was east of Dorango Co. last fall (07).
[:)]
Lee
there are two shortlines here in north Georgia ( Chatooga&Chattanooga) and southeast Tennessee ( Sequatchie Valley r.r.)that are storing TTX flats and boxcars. they have them anywhere that the track is little used!
Thanks for the help you guys. Yes, they are a little rusted, but they look like they can be pulled out and ready to roll. Scince I was driving i don’t have any pictures though, sorry.
Its probably attributable to one of two things.
Did you note how long they were? TTX still has 48’ spines that are not really useable at that length. They have a program to cut them and insert 5 more feet to get them to 53’. These could be some waiting for the re-build program.
The other possibility, if these are 53s’, is that they are off-season surplus. The retail surge runs heavy from Sept-Dec and some cars come out of storage at the time. During the rest of the year I believe about 10% of the spine fleet is parked.
The other possibility is… given the rate hikes imposed by the Class 1’s for TOFC, which have been much higher than COFC, more freight is converting to domestic COFC, making spines even more surplus than the last stats that I saw.
Stack
I’ve read tales where a certain Illinois car builder and lessor uses self owned shortlines (Ferdinand RR, Louisville New Albany & Corydon RR, etc) as a conduit to get large quantities of cars out on the rails for one time shipments under the anticipation that the cars might “float” for awhile, earning them a tidy sum in per diem charges.
Eventually, this game runs down when the cars eventually make their way back “home” and something must be done to find a place to store them until the next go round. Wonder if something like that is in the works?