Q vs M Manifest

Trains Magazine General Discussion
1

What is the difference between a M- Manifest and a Q - Quality Manifest? I was watching one of the rail buff videos and they listed the trains showing the train symbols and it got me wondering.

Thanks

ratled

2

It depends on what company is using the letter in the train symbol. On BNSF a “Q” train is a guaranteed schedule Intermodal train. On CSX most of their Manifest and Intermodal trains use the “Q” symbol. I don’t think that NS or UP is currently using a “Q” in their train symbols.

3

The “Q” symbol usually means Guranteed Service. That is the train is on a guranteed time schedule. UPS, J.B Hunt and others use these trains. If the railroad misses the schedule they pay a hefty premium (penatly} to the company. They are the hottest trains on the railroad and all other trains have to get out of their way because they have the right of way over all other trains.

4

Thanks for the fast replies… That makes sense too

ratled

5

UP has some “Q” manifests. They are supposed to be “priority” manifests, but once they got to our area they were just another freight. A lot of these “Q” manifests also have a “P” on the other end of the symbol, to indicate that they haul perishables on a regular basis. The best example through here is QNPSKP, a run-through between North Platte and the CSX at Selkirk, New York.

6

To build on what Carl has written here, in single track CTC territory some railroads are now using Computer Assisted Dispatching (CAD) systems in which a computer program plans and executes train meets or train passing events. One of the factors that goes into the computer program’s decision making process is the priority given to each train symbol.### So, for example, if a train symbol identified as an ordinary manifest freight has to meet a “quality” manifest freight at a pass siding someplace, the CAD program likely will route the ordinary manifest into a siding and let the quality train shoot right on through.### To be sure, other variables figure into the decision-making process. CAD might give priority to the ordinary manifest if that train’s crew has less time to reach it’s final terminal than the Q-train.### Amtrak and passenger specials (“S”-class) capable of 79mph speeds have the highest priority followed by “Z”-class intermodals, “I”-class doublestacks, “Q”-class manifest and “M”-class manifests. Bulk commodity trains like coal buckets, grain trains, oil cans, coiled steel, molten sulphur, and so on fit in there somewhere.