A simple question, [:I] , but what is a transload center used for[?]
LCL transfer.
Loading/unloading boxcars and other less-than-carload commodities.
CP built a transload center at Campbell Creek, east of Kamloops so that sawmills in southern BC could load lumber on trucks and transfer them to centerbeam railcars at the mainline when they abandoned their line into the area. It is just a couple of sidings that are fenced in.
CP has a variety of transload sites that all seem to be operated by third parties.
http://www8.cpr.ca/cms/English/Customers/Existing+Customers/Facilities/CPLS/default.htm?View=Listings&Country=CA
Team track facility in the new age plus some of the old freighthouse duties. Almost always rail to truck transfer managed by a third party under contract to the railroad.
It isn’t just for dry freight either. Indiana Rail Road has (had) a transload facility in Indianapolis for fertilizer from tank cars using older tank cars no longer in interchange service for storage tanks. Lumber seems to be the most common commodity, though.
The town of Cora, Illinois along the Mississippi River has a coal trans-loading facility.
Union Pacific coal trains unload at the facility. The coal is then sent on a conveyor up over the access road and out to the river where barges are loaded for their trip down river.
Nick
Could someone who knows answer a couple of questions:
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Does a transloading facility usually provide storage or have it available (say, for lumber that isn’t needed immediately at the final destination)?
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Is there a separate charge for the use of the transload facility, or does the railroad absorb that as part of the freight rate? Or, as in the case of the coal facility above, does the barge company build/operate/bear the cost of the facility to get the business?
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Is a railroad usually the driving force behind creating a facility, or does it depend on the circumstances?
Any other information concerning transload facilities would be appreciated.
Transload facilities come in all shapes and sizes and for pretty much any bulk commodity you can imagine. There are numerous transload (also known as reload facilities) all over the place. I am familiar with transloads for coal, plastics, liquid bulk (corn syrup, acid, environmental waste), rock salt, grain (corn, soybeans, wheat, flour, etc), aggregates, mined metal ores, municipal solid waste, construction and demolition debris and others. Typically customer transloads are for a single commodity while railroads operate multi-commodity sites. Examples of RR owned/related sites are Conrail (now CSX) Transflow sites and KCS sites in various places.
A support industry has even developed to provide transloading equipment. Take a look at this site of RBT (Rail Barge Truck) for example http://www.rbtsi.com/
LC
Not at all. Many transloads are strictly for full carload business and very few boxcars are involved. Transloads are used to help railroads reach non-rail served customers. They are not usually effective in competing with sites served by other railroads except where a class 1 is transloading to reach a customer on a short line or regional railroad.
LC
There is a very unique transload facility at Corinne UT where the space shuttle boosters are transloaded from trucks to rail.
dd
This will give you some insights into some brand new transload facilities being built by BNSF.
See Page 6 and 7 of 12
http://www.bnsf.com/employees/communications/railway/pdf/200501.pdf
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- Stack
Wonder what FM and Michael Sol would have to say about the observations on the American economy.
Here is ours in Superior. BN owns the landand the structures are now owned by Detroit Edison.
Kurt