Just wondering what the railroads are planning on doing with the Christmas Holiday coming up. What time are they shutting down (if at all)? Are they shortening up the crew runs so the crews can be at home with their families? A lot of dead-heading on trains and/or Cabs?
I heard (talking to a RR employee) that the CN is shutting down on the 24th around 6-8pm with 22 hours of undisturbed rest with a return to work in 24 hours. So they are shutting down for about 24 hours. The cabs/shuttles will be busy dead-heading crews to their home terminals. Most crews will be swapping trains en route so they wont travel too far and die. Once they get back, they will tie up for the day (just like in the WC days).
Nothing will be set in stone on what jobs will be held in until the Division General Notice on this is posted which should be on the 18th or 19th. With business levels really down, more assigned jobs will most likely not work as was the case over TGiving.
Cutting operating costs for the holidays, the yd is the place to start, since those jobs do not have paid holidays. At Kan City, a total of 39 switch jobs are being held in on the 24th, 25th, 31st & 1st. Newton, Wellington, Wichita & Dodge City will all be totally shutdown those four days. In yrs past, these yds would atleast work a 1st shift two out of the four days but not this yr. In addition, all locals/rd swtchrs are also off. This shows just how much carload traffic levels have dropped off this yr.
It is not unusual for train starts and yard jobs to be cut way back during the Christmas/New Years Holidays. The drop off in business this year is certainly a factor, but with the holidays falling on Thursday, I am sure many shippers have planned on Friday closings simply because employees will save a vacation day for the 26th and some will also take the 2nd of January, thus putting together a four day weekend. Needless to say, premium holiday pay is something to avoid, if possible.
If companies aren’t open to load or unload cars, there isn’t much point for railroads to move cars around just for the heck of it. Even running “scheduled” trains to final destinations doesn’t make much sense. The railroad winds up with trains stacked up a final terminals, leaving the yards with a big backlog to clean up, while road crews a long the line waiting for things to get going again. Better for the railroad to essentially shut down, then have everybody in position to pick up and start running right where things were left off on the eve of the holidays.
There may be some exceptions. Since power plants continue operations, coal unit trains may run and perhaps some stack trains may operate to keep ports clear.
I know the Amtrak depot in Wisconsin Dells looks absolutely beautiful for Christmas. The caretaker maintains a lovely Christmas tree with decorations all around (inside and out). It makes waiting for the train a lot nicer.
The old Ralston Purina feed mill at Wichita that was located alongside the SF mainline every Christmas would have a lighted tree that sat on top of the building and could be seen from a good distance at night. I remember that from my younger days and just looked nice.
I would suspect most railroads will park local trains/yard crews over the Holidays. Business commitments to shippers(UPS for one) will still have to be met. Busy routes like the BNSF ‘Transcon’ or the UP ‘Overland Route’ will still be in operation(maybe with reduced traffic). Locals will be dependent upon if the industries they serve are shutting down for the holiday season. No sense to call a crew and run 20 miles up the main to find the fence/gate to a plant or mill locked.
I am sure Amtrak has a rather full train this time of year. I remember a few years ago seeing Christmas wreath hung on the last car of the train. Before Amtrak, a lot of railroads hung wreaths on the last car or the pilot of the engine through the Christmas Season. When I worked for the CB&Q in the late 60’s, free coffee and hot chocolate was available in the Bagg-Buffet car on the Twin Zephyr on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. I was deadheading from La Crosse to St Paul to go home for Christmas and the lounge in the Bagg-Buffet car was full of armed service folks riding on their 1/2 price tickets - there was no revenue seating left on the train. Even the non-revenue dome seats had been filled. I got a few cups of coffee/hot chocolate and retired to the jump seat in the engine for that snowy trip up the river.
The Overland Route will see a reduced number of trains. Just looking at the engineer’s boards at home. Of 114 in town on the various boards, only 33 marked up. I’m 47 times out on the West Pool, but the 10th available. Still, that mark I currently line up with isn’t until tomorrow.
Earlier I had a small gathering of family/friends over. I logged on to show them the train tracking and even to my amazement its quite slow on the transcon west of KC on the Emp Sub w/only 1 wb & a small number of eastbounds @ about 1630 CT. There is a eastbound fleet coming off the Panhandle Sub within the next few hrs but thats about it. Never thought I’d see the day it would be this slow.
We were the last train north on the Davenport , Marquette Subs over the night from the 23rd to the 24th. We went by cab back and was in Davenport by 8 am.
Now I am 3 out and wont be going till Saturday from the looks of it.Hope you all had a great Christmas!