Thursday there was a IM led by a CSX - very old CP - and a loco that appeared to be a 4 axel M&B RR. The front part of the train was all Schneider 53 ft containers with rear various containers. Friday afternoon same locos except CSX again with all Schneider 53 ft on front and the all local setouts manifest cars that runs to Montgomery. Approximately 40 - 50 schneider containers.
Anyone know how much interchange traffic is going thru Myrtlewood on CPKC and CSX now?
If that were Meridian & Bigbee, wouldn’t you have noted the natty orange-and-black G&W paint scheme?
They interchange with CSX at Myrtlewood and with both NS and KPKC at Meridian.
What you saw on Thursday was the newly reinstated M526 Myrtlewood to Atlanta train that carries traffic from the CPKC and also hauls Schneider intermodal containers too. This train is notable now because it has usually been running with CP run through power. M526/527 just started running last Sunday the 4th.
Schneider intermodal traffic has been running across the A&WP and M&B daily since December 2024.
Would this train running stacks be a reason for the reported superelevation installation on part of the A&WP?
Possibly or maybe that super elevation needed some maintenance attention. CSX has been improving the A&WP for a while. Since 2015 they’ve been upgrading the rail from the worn out 115lb to 136lb. In 2018 they even extended CTC from LaGrange south Montgomery.
That was the main clue as the orange and black made id the on the second southbound very evident. My surprise was a M&B loco on the train along with the CP unit. The all schneider containers on the Montgomery local was a big clue. first time ever any IM on that train as it mainly interchanges with NS at Opelika and carries empty sand cars to the mine just north of Montgomery. As well the first time ever of a M&B loco. The local also carries empty auto racks to West Point KIA that are quickly dropped on one of the thru sidings with an auto transport to loco for conductor. Not sure how EOT is handled?
Anyone know what are usual times for the Myrtlewood trains?
My suspicion is that part of the reason for the automobile transit is that the conductor brings the EOT from the point of the shove, and is spared having to walk while carrying it.
How many stack trains run on the A&WP these days? I did a little research and was shocked to see that CSX is running a Bedford Park-Fairburn train pair via the A&WP, La Grange, and Birmingham. Then there are the BNSF LA-Atlanta haulage rights trains. Now the Schneider traffic off the CPKC.
Currently the A&WP/WofA Subdivision has the following intermodal trains:
I197/I198
I128/I129
I141/I142
I181/I182 BNSF trains
M526/M527
Most run between Fairburn and LaGrange and then turn either south to Manchester or north to Birmingham. M526/M527 are the only intermodal that traverses the entire route from Montgomery to Atlanta.
Is Hulsey still an operating ramp or has everything migrated to Fairburn?
Good question, I don’t think it is based on the latest street view photos from google.
CSX is running more than the listed IM trains as many manifests are now carrying IM wells with containers. Yesterday there were at least 3 going southbound. The KIA car carriers are really handled very quickly. Have not been able to access the south end of the multiple sidings but the north end has an auto road leading alongside the sidings. That is why the auto carriers always on the end as the trains pulling them can run on a siding and quickly drop the carriers and then proceed on south to Montgomery, It also works the other way. Now KIA sends all new cars at the last known time to a Montgomery sorting center. The KIA switcher ( unknown heritage) places the carriers on a siding and a train to Montgomery or further south to Mobile / New Orleans backs onto the carriers and after brake test proceeds south. Do not know if there is someone to run the initial test on the cars but suspect so.
Your Kia description is not accurate. Currently Kia is worked by only 1 train, the M210 (Baldwin, FL to Walbridge, OH) and it is usually worked in 2-3 hours. M210 also works the Hyundai plant in Montgomery, AL on its way north to West Point, GA. Sometimes M601/605 will work Kia picking up racks destined for Mexico, but I’m sure M527 will likely handle that job now so as to give the Mexico bound racks over to the CPKC at Myrtlewood instead of handing them off at New Orleans. There isn’t any sorting center for Kia in Montgomery. All loads, except the rare Mexico ones, head north to LaGrange, GA. There they get wyed in LaGrange for a run over the Lineville Sub up to Birmingham and then onto Louisville and finally Walbridge, OH.
I live in Newnan, GA, but I’ve been sort of hibernating for a while. Got out a few times last week (it’s been raining daily for what seems like a month) and heard the M526 and M527 symbols on the radio, but I was out along the Lineville Sub, between Pyne and Lineville, and of course they don’t run out that way.
I’ll have to hang around the A&WP and try and catch these two jobs. (Not today though. It’s dumping buckets of rain right now.)
Maybe I’ll get lucky and catch it with CP/KCS units and, dare I dream, EMDs. Anything to break up the monotonous parade of CSX GEs.
Thanks for the 411.
Can you help me with the routing of M210. Am I correct that it runs from Baldwin, through Callahan and Folkston to Waycross, then across the Bow line through Thomaston, then through Dothan to Montgomery and on to LaGrange? I know how it goes from there. I was surprised the first time I heard it doing the wye move at LaGrange. I’m going to have to document it on video one day. You can get to Purvis and Lafayette Connection but not Dobbs, the third switch on the wye.
That’s the correct routing you listed.
The locals that run from Montgomery <> ATL are both running with the Schneider IMs. They pass each way around 1700h thru LaGrange Ga on the local mixed freight but always just behind the locos, On weekends the locals sometimes run but other times do not. This past weekend they were on a IM from NOL on Sunday,
The Schneider containers are taking anywhere from 12 - 20 wells almost always double stacked. Northbound today it was 14 full wells.
M527 and M526 are no longer Montgomery - Atlanta locals, the former L844 and L845. They are run-through trains from Jackson, MS, received from the CPKC at Myrtlewood, AL on the former Meridian and Bigsbee, now reacquired and split between the two big railroads.
The intent is to bring the line up to 45 MPH standards from its present 25 and operate services between Atlanta and other southeastern terminals and Shreveport, Dallas and Mexico, via the Meridian Speedway.
Schneider is the first intermodal carrier to sign up for service on that routing. The stacks go on and off at Fairburn and the train works College Park and terminates at Howell’s Yard in Atlanta. There usually is a healthy sized cut of black TILX 2402 cu ft hoppers in sand service. Loads north, empty south,
I believe M210 also works Talladega, but I could be wrong about that.
Well, well, well, exactly the route of that prospective Amtrak train…
… and 45mph intermodal would not require extensive superelevation all by itself…