Western Railroad Discussion > Houston Port Terminal Railroad Assn

I understand that the PTRA has three member RRs: the BNSF, the UP, and the KCS (nee Tex-Mex). PTRA has its own locomotives. It also appeared that PTRA had at least one yard of its own in the refinery complex in Pasadena, as well as its own rail line.

Do the member RRs use ALL of the PTRA's lines, or is it the other way around? That is, does the PTRA merely used the lines of its member RRs using its own locomotives? What are the geographic limits of PTRA's operations?

Appreciate any info you can give!

--Steve Schmollinger

PTRA is a Joint Facility, like the Terminal Railroad of St. Louis or the Belt Rwy. of Chicago, in this case the owners are UP and BNSF. KCS is a member line, but not an owner, I believe. They run all their own trains, with their own crews, and there is an interchange recorded when the cars go between the member lines and the PTRA. They also (unlike some Joint Facilities) issue demurrage invoices and have their own tariff for demurrage and misc. charges.

I think they run about 50 train starts a day out of a half dozen yards or so. They do have a website which has, I think, a map.

It used to be called Houston Belt & Terminal (HB&T) jointly
owned by MOP, Santa Fe, mkt, sp, fw&d, etc. Not sure when the
name change occurred...

ArgyleEagle Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It used to be called Houston Belt & Terminal
> (HB&T) jointly
> owned by MOP, Santa Fe, mkt, sp, fw&d, etc. Not
> sure when the
> name change occurred...

Nope, the HB&T was separate from the PTRA, BNSF and UP divided up the HB&T, but all its locomotives were sold off.

They do have a website. If you click on the first listing, you'll find a good map of the area, their trackage, etc

http://www.ptra.com/

They also have a "Prisoner Exchange Program" which got my interest. Rather than releasing overworked employees to their families, this program allows workers at shippers, etc to understand the PTRA a little better, and vice versa. Sounds like a very constructive idea.

We invite you to participate in a "prisoner exchange program" whereby designated individuals from the PTRA spend a day with their counterparts at your site. Likewise, we invite specific employees from your company to spend a day with their counterparts at the PTRA. The host employee would show the guest employee around the property, explain his/her job function, introduce key players, and generally get to know each other. We would expect the guest employee to come away with increased problem avoidance/solving skills. Facility maps, phone lists, and a "face behind the name or number" should help improve communication.

ArgyleEagle Wrote:

> It used to be called Houston Belt & Terminal (HB&T) jointly
> owned by MOP, Santa Fe, mkt, sp, fw&d, etc. Not sure when the
> name change occurred...

I've never completely understood the relationship, but I was under the impression that HBT and PTRA were distinct entities, albeit with common owners. About HBT:

http://www.trainnet.org/Libraries/Lib001/STB-24.TXT

"Switching operations in the core of the Houston terminal area had historically been provided by HBT, created in 1905 and owned jointly by the numerous line-haul carriers then operating in Houston. Following the UP/SP merger, UP and BNSF, HBT's sole remaining owners, determined that they could provide switching services more efficiently and at reduced cost to the shippers by doing it themselves, and, through a series of trackage rights exemptions consummated on October 31, 1997, they assumed that role."

and

"Finally, on May 18, 1998, Tex Mex/KCS submitted a copy of a letter Port Terminal Railroad Association (PTRA) sent notifying all tenants in the Union Station building, where HBT is the lessee and PTRA is a subtenant, that on or about June 30, 1998, the [HBT] will cease operations and have no presence in the building. "

About PTRA:

http://home.austin.rr.com/aldossantos/port_terminal.htm

"PTRA is an association formed in 1924 by the 18 railroads that had access to Houston at that time. The BNSF and UP are now the voting members of the Board of Directors that actually control the PTRA. Three non-voting members are the PTRA and Port of Houston."

See also: http://www.trainweb.org/southwestshorts/ptra.html

A fleet of 32 MK-1200(or something like that). The PTRA's seem to keep to the North & South Shore(of the Houston Ship Channel) Lines whereas the HBT's do interchange work (Englewood, Settegast, New South Yard.

Equipment ID Event Location Local Time
PTRA9601 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9602 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9603 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9604 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9605 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines

PTRA9606 *
Estimated Time of Interchange Nyard, TX 2/20/2007 10:29


PTRA9607 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9608 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9609 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9610 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9611 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9612 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9613 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9614 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9615 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9616 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9617 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines

PTRA9618 Interchange Delivered Pasadena, TX 8/10/2007 16:26


PTRA9619 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9620 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9621 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9622 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9623 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
PTRA9624 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines
HBT9625 No Record Of Equipment On System Lines

HBT9626 Interchange Delivered Rosenberg, TX 12/19/2007 22:50


HBT9627 Estimated Departure Tnojct, TX 12/21/2007 22:35
Estimated Time of Interchange Tnojct, TX 12/22/2007 0:05


HBT9628 Arrived Newsyard, TX 12/19/2007 0:40
Estimated Time of Interchange Tnojct, TX 12/19/2007 1:40


HBT9629 Interchange Delivered Englewood, TX 12/7/2007 21:00


HBT9630 Interchange Delivered Tnojct, TX 11/22/2007 1:17


HBT9631 Departed Newsyard, TX 12/15/2007 7:15
Estimated Time of Interchange Newsyard, TX 12/15/2007 11:13


HBT9632 *
Estimated Time of Interchange Newsyard, TX 11/7/2007 19:56

RailNet802, out

I was under the impression that all of the 9600-class MK1500Ds were PTRA locos. They all seem to have exactly the same paint job.

The HBT units are, for all practical purposes, BNSF units.

TexBob Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The HBT units are, for all practical purposes,
> BNSF units.

Are they in BNSF paint?

No. Photos attached below...

They look just like the PTRA's engines, minus the PTRA 75th Anniversary
logo decals which were added to the PTRA's engines several years after
they were in service.

They operate mostly in and around New South Yard on switch / transfer jobs.

I suspect when the HB&T was split up, the UP didn't care for any of these
engines, so the lease transferred over to the BNSF.

---

---

schmo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I understand that the PTRA has three member RRs:
> the BNSF, the UP, and the KCS (nee Tex-Mex). PTRA
> has its own locomotives. It also appeared that
> PTRA had at least one yard of its own in the
> refinery complex in Pasadena, as well as its own
> rail line.
>
> Do the member RRs use ALL of the PTRA's lines, or
> is it the other way around? That is, does the
> PTRA merely used the lines of its member RRs using
> its own locomotives? What are the geographic
> limits of PTRA's operations?
>
> Appreciate any info you can give!
>
> --Steve Schmollinger

The PTRA also has North Yard which is the main yard that we and the BNSF run trains in and out of there and on occasion the KCS uses. The PTRA also switches a lot of the refineries south of HWY 225 between Pasadena and La Porte. Between Deer Park Jct. and Strang the double main track is labeled UP Main and PTRA Main but is controlled by TTD #3. The main between Manchester Yd. and Pasadena Yd. that runs right through Lyondell is a yard track with no signals controlled by the Pasadena yardmasater. The PTRA runs transfer runs from North Yard to their yards at Pasadena and Manchester over our tracks. They also run to and from Strang Yd. as well.

Doug Wooten
UP Engineer
Kingwood, TX MP 21.5 UP's Lufkin Sub.