i was reading about the locomotives that are stored what has happened to all the unused cars are they cloging the yards… left on unused branch lines or stored on short lines what cars would be the ones taken out of service the most… auto racks??? box cars ??? or intermodal ( less containers from china ) if anyone has photos of the stored cars or a story to tell please share with us…peter ( from australia )
Peter - The cars are stored in about every nook and cranny they can find. A shortline near me has had as many as 1300 cars stored for CSX at various times. What I’ve seen there has been centerbeam flats (housing starts are down), hoppers, bulkhead flats, and boxcars. Almost all of the cars have been CSX - I think most intermodal flats are TTX and relatives.
We’ve had a couple of threads about news stories about people complaining because the normally unused track through their neighborhood is now populated with stored cars.
As I understand it, the CSX hoppers may be stored against future replacement - they’re at the end of their life cycle and the next destination for them is the scrap yard, but the railroad is holding them so the metal goes back into new cars, not overseas.
I’m not sure when I’ll have an opportunity to get any pictures, but if I do, I’ll get them up here.
Some observations from my trip to Minnesota over the holiday weekend:
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There used to be quite a long line of smaller covered hoppers, such as those used for cement, on a branch spur going south underneath US18 southeast of Mason City, IA. They are now completely gone.
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There still are a large quantity of covered grain hoppers parked on the seldom-used branch line north of Owatonna, MN.
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There is a loooonng line of gondolas parked on the spur between Northfield and Cannon Falls, MN.
And, Cedar Rapids has been Bulkhead Flat Central the past few months, with long lines of them taking up every unused siding in town.
BNSF was storing several sets of coal trains on the Nebraska City Sub between Syracuse and Dunbar. On the Napier Sub along I-29 (south of Pacific Jct, IA) the sidings are filled with coil cars, some of which appear quite new). I haven’t been to York lately, but the last time I was the benedict Branch north of US 34 was loaded with doublestack well cars. They are storing engines in the old MoW yard in downtown Lincoln (good shots from the O Street bridge).
Interesting topic. On a recent trip to Grangeville, Idaho last month, I followed the Camas Prairie Line from Lewiston. I clocked off about 15 miles of stored lumber cars with a few log cars thrown in here and there. It would be interesting to follow the sheer logistics of storing that many cars since some of them appear to be fairly new. How would they ever retrieve some of the first ones stored since I believe the line has been removed closer to Grangeville. How long would they store them before they are only worth scrap value?
Another more recent observation- the CRANDIC line crossing the Coralville Reservoir north of North Liberty has a several-mile-long string of coal gons parked on it.
Lots of well cars along the Needles sub.
autoracks on the SP,LA&SL and the Overland routes in Nevada
Boxcars on the old WP Reno branch.
Tank cars and center beam flats on whats left of the Modoc line.
As mentioned, pretty much anywhere they can be stored out of the way.
There are tank cars,cement hoppers and leased coal cars stored on the maw here in defiance. RJ corman is storing cars for ns between Ft.Recovery ohio and portland indiana. We also have some old railbox boxcars stored in our siding at work in archbold. stay safe joe
I drove over Buckeye Yard here in Columbus, Ohio last week. Several tracks of long lines of boxcars, NS’s articulated autoracks, and locomotives. Really sad to see.
Kevin
Hundreds are stored in the Savannah Army Depot on the BNSF line in western Illinois at Savannah, Il. Most were new tank cars (obviously for ethanol) and auto racks (for Fiat now).
There is a large string of autoracks standing at a spur, off of the CN main, at the limestone quarries between Beachville and Ingersoll ON. As well, in same area, on another spur were a bunch of coil cars and hoppers.
This has been an ongoing thing up here—even the CP tracks between Beachville and Woodstock ON have had some autoracks jamming up the branchline there.
There is an old (I thought abandoned) coal branch off the NS Pocahontas mainline about 10 miles norhwest of Bluefield, WV. I recently was there to take some pics of bridges and tracks in the area. To my surprise, there are about 150-200 autoracks parked on this branch. You can see them strung out through the trees–looks very unusual and out of place in a West Virginia coal holler. Of course since I was there during the NS shutdown over the long Memorial Day weekend, it was the closest I came to seeing an actual train. Jamie
When I went from Chicago to DC in early May, CSX seemed to have a string of auto racks moving on every other train we passed. I began to wonder if they had no place to store them and just kept moving them on trains just to keep yards clear.
The UP has a bunch of gons and a single boxcar stored in the turning loop out at the Jim Bridger Power Plant. And they have stored a ton of coil cars out at the old Stansbury mine in Reliance off the South Pass Branch.