Yesterday morning about 9am, I was on my way out to take care of some business, I passed over the EJ&E at Weber Rd, and noted a UP rack train in the siding there… To make a long story short, it was still there at 8:15 last night when I went over the tracks again.
Why would they hold a train in a siding that long? (I think, and I could be wrong, that this rack train goes to the Elwood Logistics Park) When I got home, I heard someone on the scanner saying something about “being unable to find a crew for the train”, they were talking about a UP freight, but I have no idea if it was the one in the siding, or something else entirely.
Was it being held that long because of no crew? No room at Elwood?, Congestion on the EJ&E? or mechanical difficulties? Whenever I see a train in that siding, it is usually there for a couple of hours or less. And, if it was lack of crew, couldn’t an EJ&E crew move it if necessary, or is it the UP’s responsibility, or could the EJ&E offer a crew to the UP, or does that kind of thing just not happen… I was just wondering if trains are really held out for that length of time.
the famous question of how long do they hold trains in sidings. well I have been called for a relief job. for a hogged out crew ( meaning they alread served their 12 hour ) got on the train never turned a wheel and was relieved in my 12 hrs and got hom after 16hrs on duty and my relief made it to the yard board and hogged. ive seen 3 reliefs called for 1 train. In other words if you make it thru 3 dispatchers its been a bad day.
…I suppose these kinds of examples are occuring someplace everyday. It sure makes one wonder how railroads overall, can become completely competitive with over the road truckers…
I suspect that the racks were actually bound for the CN at Griffith. I’m not sure who crews these trains from where to where, but it’s likely that they were between crews, and possibly between railroads.
It would make a difference is they were empties being returned to the auto plants or if they were loaded with new cars. I don’t ever remember seeing EB auto racks on the J being loaded.
I wondered from time to time, seeing a train stopped for long periods of time a far distance from their crew terminals, if perhaps the crew died on hours, and was told to tie down, check into a local motel, and comeback to finish the run after they are legal again.
The Locomotives belong to the railroad, not the crews. Truckers get to either own thier cabs or assigned power from company and must follow through dispatch orders.
Train crews they are off the clock, they get sent to rest. When they come off rest, back to work on whatever train they get called for.
The eastbound UP auto rack trains are empty trains headed for Gibson Yard in Hammond, IN. The auto rack trains that originate/terminate at Gibson include trains to/from City of Industry, CA, Miliplatis (sp), CA and Seattle, WA. The normal routing for these trains in the Chicago area is use the IHB between CP Hill (near Proviso Yard) on the UP Geneva Sub and Gibson Yard. Normally, the same train crew that ran over the UP Geneva Sub, if qualified on the IHB and has the hours to work, will continue on to Gibson. Crews changes are made on the IHB at Broadway (just south of Proviso) if needed. If the train in the siding was one of these trains then it was not using its normal routing. The UP does use the “J” to detour trains for any number of reasons. There is also an empty eastbound auto rack train that originates at W. Chicago for the CN that uses the “J” as a normal routing. Last I heard, this train runs as-needed two to three times a week.
The UP does have crew pool at W. Chicago. It’s not a big crew pool and is used mainly to cover the coal trains that use the “J”. to reach a number of power plants.
My only guess is that the UP detoured an EB auto rack train bound for Gibson, for whatever reason, believing that the crew could make it. Once the train was on the “J” the crew was alerted to some congestion/delays ahead (other detouring trains?) and realized that they weren’t going to make it with the time that they had left to work. The “J” didn’t want to have their crew sit on the train all day going nowhere and the UP couldn’t afford to be short one crew out of W.Chicago to protect the coal trains. I’m thinking a new crew was shuttled all the way from Proviso later Saturday night to get the train moving again.
I remember my dad saying that the Pennsy once held a train on a main track for more than a year. The line was from Indianapolis to Mooresville, Indiana, and he took me to see it one day and the train had an engine and caboose and about 40 coal hoppers and had obviously been there quite a while (a small tree was growing through the ballast in front of it).
One of the worst things that can happen to a railroad is to have a yard get constipated. Trains get backed up and can’t get into the yard and lack of motive power and tracks to put cars just clog things up even more. It can take months to get things fluid again.