What does Q mean I live by The coffeyville sub and I was wondering what that meant. What does Z and Q and all of them letters.
It’s a priority thing; it gives the dispatchers a sense of what needs to go into the hole and what stays on the main so-to-speak. 
It also is there for the customers to give them a sense that paying that extra dollar for ‘Q Service’ will get their products over the road that much faster than the typical ‘M’ manifest. A Z Symbol is the hottest symbol of them all; everything goes into the hole for the Z’s. The following is a standard notation on all Corridor Manager & Dispatcher Turnovers: “Z’s are not to be delayed.” Hope this helps you out!
The Q train desingnation was someones idea of marketing. My customers thought it was kind of silly and so did I. We agreed to the same rate if the tank car was on a Q train or an M train.
“A Z Symbol is the hottest symbol of them all; everything goes into the hole for the Z’s.”
Passenger trains have priority over the Z’s
The only true “Q” trains on the UP are the perishable trains (QNPSKP - N. Platte, NE-Selkirk, NY perishable).
Perhaps I should have been a bit more specific to thwart the rivet counters…
This is territory specific; I was speaking from my own personal experience/territory at Pocatello and Hinkle…where there are no passenger trains (minus the occasional AOE and Inspection Special). Hence, the Z’s are the hottest thing going. The rule of thumb on territories with Amtrak and such is to give them a wide berth…but it is by no means failsafe. I can think of several occasions while participating in transportation dept. conference calls the call was made to put Amtrak in the hole for a ZLCSE or another Z variant. [:D]
In sense, yes. The extra “P” will put a slower moving QHKNP (50mph bulkhead flats) into the hole for a faster (70mph reefers) QHKNPP…but when you drag out a QHKNP (as opposed to a redball MHKNP) out to Barnhart or Cobb for a lack of power…the phones start ringing off of the hook with different voices asking the same question: “When are you going to have the power? Huh-huh-huh?”. [:D]