I was just curious about one thing. Are frieght trains scheduled or they sent out when enough freight is collected and it is worth the railroads time to sent the train out?
Even though you won’t find a published time table, most Class I’s run trains according to a schedule. Each train has a scheduled time to depart, and runs whether it’s one car or one hundred. At least that’s how it’s suppose to work.
Any number of things can “derail” the scheduled departure. Lack of power, lack of crews, conjestion on the main, weather issues, being told to hold the train for some “hot” cars, and so on.
Nick
Yard congestion can also play a big role in delayed departure times. Local freights have no priority and in many cases are on the bottom of the yd crew list to switch. Many times I have showed up at the on duty time only to depart 3,4,5 hrs later because we were waiting for the train to be built. Thats when you go back home or run around town doing errands and have the switch forenman call you when the train is close to being finished.
I was listening to my scanner one day, while fanning, and I can’t remember the frequency, but someone’s railroad had a computer generated voice announcing the “timetable” for the evening’s operations. It broadcast the train’s symbol, and approximate departure time. I found it kind of strange because I had never heard that before (and I haven’t heard it since, this was about a year ago) I believe I was running around down here (Joilet Area) when I heard it. I have no idea who it was…
Any thoughts anyone?
That would be a most helpful thing to hear! I wish that were still going on/more prevalent.
nothing runs on a set schedule in my area. it commonly comes at around the same time a lot, but everything is variable
In my experience, many trains have a “call” time - but that’s for the crew. What time they actually depart depends on the factors already discussed. I can usually count on certain through trains passing within an hour or so of the same time on a regular basis - but I wouldn’t set my watch by them.
This is just an educated guess, but I believe that some of the class 1’s, if not all have scheduled departures and arrivals for their freights. There has been considerable talk on this forum about “scheduled railroads”. It is a pretty interesting topic.
Earlier this summer I was looking thru NS’s website and stumbled onto an investor relations persentation they made. In that power point display they showed an example of freight operations for certain lanes and or trains (cant remember which). The point I am attempting to make is that each train had a schedule and their pp display indicated the deviations for certain trains off of that schedule for a period of time, such as a month. Interesting stuff.
Observing the NS locally here in NW Indiana, their trains on the NKP line between Chicago adn Ft Wayne seem very much scheduled and closely adhered to.
The intermodal/Triple Crowns are very tightly ran and seldom vary by more than an hour or so.
ed
I know freight trains on the CSX line through Michigan (GR sub, Plymouth sub) are “scheduled” with a typical call time for the crew on a daily basis. MOST days we see the same trains, with the same symbols, with generally the same type of freight that each one is known for. Of course, the time they come through is never really consistent due to many variables long the route. We may see the same eastbound train come in at 9am three days in a row, and then the next it arrives at noon. The crews generally have the same call time, but as mentioned, many variables along the way have an affect on how/when that train arrives.