Is there such a thing as a scheduled frieght train or does it depend on availiability of trains crews? Or are there other factores involved?
Today’s Class I carriers all operate Scheduled freight trains. The trains operated have specific business purposes in the carriers operating plan and it is their desire to operate the scheduled network On Time or better.
Then reality hits to varying degrees. The customer that creates the business for Train A doesn’t have their business ready for ON Time, so Train A is late. Train B doesn’t have power because Train A didn’t get to it’s destination in time for Train A’s power to be used for Train B as planned. Train C doesn’t have a rested crew because Train A arrived too late for the crew to get rest. Throw in a derailment or trespasser fatality or storm damage and multiply the number of trains operated by factors of 10 or 20 and what you find is the the carrier is continually replaning their network, for trains, power and crews to work toward getting the network on time - it is a never ending process of planning and changing the plan as necessary to deal with the day to day and minute to minute twists and turns that reality presents.
In addition to BaltACD’s list, don’t forget the occasional broken rail, malfunctioning signal, or seasonal MOW work that needs 6 to 10 hour ‘windows’ (or more) for optimum production efficiency.
Some trains used to be - and may still be - “held for tonnage*”, i.e*., they don’t run at a scheduled time, but instead whenever X tons or Y carloads have accumulated for a particular destination, so as to maximize the productivity of each “crew start” and locomotive set on a given run. That can be a period of just a few hours - or a matter of days, depending on the traffic fluctuations.
- Paul North.
Here in NW Indiana today a storm blew thru the area around 8am, knocking down a number of trees which caused delays on the CN, CSX, and NS. There are always variables.
I listen almost daily to the scanner and closely monitor the above three railroads. I can tell you those carriers have very tight operations on their intermodal trains. These typically pass this area within an hour on a daily basis…for example BaltACD’s carrier has a very hot UPS intermodal train that is thru our area almost daily at 8am, give or take 30 minutes.
The general freights are run pretty tightly too, but with more variance. These trains often have stops at intermediate yards to drop or pickup blocks of cars.
If you spend anytime at all around one of the large railroads, monitoring their operations, you will find these carriers are pretty efficient with their SCHEDULED trains. Grain, coal, and other commodity trains are not necessarily scheduled.
Ed