New CPKC intermodal Trains 180/181 (SB/NB) began service on May 11 as planned.
Train 181 departed Monterrey, MX just after midnight on May 11th.
Train 180 left Bensenville during the evening of May 11, passing Muscatine, Iowa at 0325 on May 12 and Washington, IA at 0455.
The second Train 180 passed Muscatine, IA at 0526, Washington, IA at 0633, and Ottumwa, IA at 0802 on Saturday May 13. It was led by CP 8702/CP 9817 and 27 well cars with about 51 orange containers, all Schneider.
I haven’t seen a Train 181 at Muscatine yet, as of 7 AM on May 13.
So everyone is focused on Mexico because of the press releases from the merger obviously. Have you looked at or considered CP’s new access to Texas? Texas is growing very rapidly and should fly by California in the next 5-10 years in terms of Economy and Population growth. Seems to me that has a corresponding impact to railroad revenue and traffic. It’s not just Mexico.
In contrast, California is shrinking in population and not growing as fast with it’s economy which is closing the gap faster.
It arrived in Shreveport, LA about 40 hours from Monterrey taking about 13 hours from passing the webcam at Rosenberg, TX until videoed north of Shreveport crossing into Arkansas. Not a big train, but surprising to me including JB Hunt containers.
Not sure if this was Train 181, but a northbound with a single well car and one Swift container, followed by 11 autoracks, passed Ottumwa, Iowa at 2103 (2003 time mark) on May 13, 2023. A KCS unit led, follwed by a CP unit.
The next southbound Train 180 (-13) passed Ottumwa at 0550 (0450 time mark) on May 14 with 28 doublestack cars carrying red and green and blue and white containers, some possibly labeled “Spark”.
May 13, a Saturday, saw at least eight trains at Ottumwa - the 180/possible 181, the usual 260/261 drags, three grain trains (looked like grain cars anyway), and a solid southbound autorack train. There may also have been a ninth, a southbound coal train that I didn’t see.
Do you live in Muscatine or that area or is there a webcam you access.
I always enjoyed my travels to Muscatine…busy small town with lots of industry. The drive on Iowa 22 along the Mississippi (and the CP line, ex Rock Island) was scenic.
I’ve been reviewing the Steel Highway cams. They have cams at Muscatine, Washington, and Ottumwa, Iowa on the CPKC Ottumwa Subdivision. They also have cams showing CPKC at Dubuque and a couple other places. It is interesting to see a train pass a series of cams. It is equally interesting to see one pass a cam and then sort of disappear. A manifest passed Washington the other day, for example, and did not reach Muscatine - only 38 or so miles away - until 18 hours had passed!
Yes, CPKC was stuffing sidings to wait for crews. Most of the cams have scanners attached. I heard the Trainmaster tell a crew that they were going to take 1-260 and put it in a siding from Ottumwa and then take a second train. This was on Saturday.
The second 181 passed Ottumwa around 0108 this morning (May 15, 2023) with about 10 locomotives but only two well cars with four containers! This train appeared to pick up a manifest and a string of empty well cars before it passed Muscatine at 0402. Only runt trains heading into Bensenville so far. Is the bulk of these trains making it to Kansas City?
Can’t tell the players without a updated scorecard. The players in many cases want all the confusion they can generate to stay ahead of their reputations.
Today’s (Tuesday May 16, 2023) intermodals must have met near Muscatine. 180 passed the Muscatine, Iowa waterfront southbound at 0458, 2x0 with 30 well or spine cars and 48 containers (ish). 181 passed northbound at 0620, 2x0 with 8 autoracks and 5 well cars with 8 containers. Adding to the fun was a northbound sand train at 0436. Train 181 has been slowly growing since it began, but is still tiny.
Going to take awhile for the loads to show up on those intermodals.
Consistant service will allow growth.
I think a good marketing tool would have been to offer either free service or dramatically reduced rates for the first few trips to allow potential customers to review service.
That makes sense for trolleys, and perhaps even new regional-rail passenger service. But not, in my opinion, for freight.
Any shipper that ‘needs convincing’ will watch while competitors try out the system, discover the bugs and failures and lies, and run up the ‘learning curve’ of the new operation. Once it is provable established, at a minimum of risk and cost together, they may divert some of their traffic.
Evidently CPKC guaranteed enough QoS to Schneider that they contracted. Right there you have a need to ‘run the franchise’ if only with midget consists or power-balancing moves.
Meanwhile, whether or not you throw away prospective revenue, the costs associated with damage or other concerns will still be applicable, but now without any financial upside at all. In my opinion the only reason to run a ‘longer’ consist for very small load is if you need the additional axles in some way, for signaling integrity or adequate braking.