The past couple weeks the BNSF Haulage and UP west coast intermodal double stack trains on CSX here have several cars on the rear that are regular trailer haulers. Many if not most trailers are containers on chassis and not standard trailers. The trains appear overpowered and 3 - 5 4400 HP units all working.
Then this evening a BNSF 10,000 ft all bare table cars - train came by with 3 ES44s all working in at least run 7 judging by their exhaust smoke. About 10 - 12 trailer cars were on the end.
My question is this an indication of a tight supply of well cars? It appears that all intermodal trains lately have been long and overpowered as compared to a couple months ago. Also the number of trains may have increased but am not sure.
There is hardly a shortage of well cars , TTX has nearly 20% of their well cars stored , BNSF has several hundred stored . What you saw probly had more to do with the type of load and the available car at the time of the loading .
There is a move to run more and more 10,000 ft trains . The extra power has to do with the Horrible winter weather we have had lately . There has been a slight up tick in the number of trains , but I don’t know how much that has to do with the Chinese new year .
Seems to me that those big Gunderson well cars, with the high end bulkheads, are carrying a lot more tare than the skinny spine and well cars. That can’t be too profitable. We have a lot of cars stored in Montana, much to the chagrin of the NIMBYs and “Yuppies”, who want to tear up the rail lines to make ‘Labrador Landmine’, disposable diaper, and Designer Water bottle trash middens out of the roadbed for the archaeologists of the future. I am seeing a lot more bare tables going west. That’s a good sign.
Hays