I recently was watching the Pentrex video “The Ultimate Cajon Subdivision”. In the show there is a scene where a “bare table” train is going down Cajon Pass to San Bernardino and the narrator said that it was what “railroader’s call rolling storage”, in that it has no true destination and is kept moving instead of being placed onto a side track somewhere. I’ve never heard of this. Did I happen to misunderstand the statement? Has anyone else ever heard of “rolling storage” trains?
We call it Storage in Motion. Normally, we just do it with bare tables. Gather up 9,000 ft or so of empty cars someplace that has lots and set them off toward someplace that has not so much. Usually, at each stop everyone grabs a little bit.
I’ve heard of that being done with grain trains. The rr puts together a unit train of corn and then sends it down the track towards a general area of the country. While the train is going to “nowhere” they find someone who wants the corn. Then they direct the train to go to whoever bought it. I’ve also heard of this being done in the trucking industry, IIRC, they call this operation a “rolling wharehouse”.
This is an example of why one should not believe everything someone says. While bare table trains are certainly not the hottest train on the railroad they do have a mission and a purpose, which is to reposition equipment. It is not storage, and mobile storage of cars on the main track is not a sensable solution to any problem.
I also seriously doubt anyone is going to put up over $2,000,000 worth of corn, or the railroad will tie up millions of dollars worth of a unit grain train just to clog of the main track with a flying dutchman grain train.
There is still some sales in transit on lumber, and 50 years ago was standard practice with perishables from at least California, but it takes substantial infrastructrue to accomplish the diversions to support this style of marketing. To the best of my knowledge perishable “rollers” are a thing of the past.
I could sort of see that being done for empty grain cars when grain season ends. Send the train down the line, and start depositing the empties wherever you’ve got room for em. A couple cars here, a couple cars there. . . . .Then just do it all in reverse when grain season starts up again - if its idle and can carry grain, put it back into the train, and off it goes.
I don’t exactly see why you’d want to do this with baretables though. . . .
It’s not done. Grain moves year-round, the cars are too valuble, and the railroad is not going to spot cars in hopes someone will order them. Grain shippers bid for the right to empty cars in auctions, or negotiate contract rates.
Very little grain still moves from the country elevator with less than 25-car spots. Shuttle-qualified elevators that load 110-car shuttle trains in 15 hours or less are dominant in the market.