Western Railroad Discussion > TRGX Trinity (Richardson) 5161 cubic Feet Hopper

A recently released order of these hoppers seems to be flooding into California as evidenced by the roughly 100 car train that went down to Modesto a week or so ago. I noticed more in the yard in Roseville today. All of these seem to be in the TRGX 854NNN number range.

I noticed www.rrpicturearchives.net has one photo of TRGX 854427 supposedly on its maiden voyage North...leaving Saginaw, Texas.

Are these cars made in several different places to include somewhere in Mexico?? Where are they manufactured or assembled?

How many hoppers are in this manufacturing run??

Thanks for any kind response.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/31/12 15:55 by sd60m.

I caught a train of mostly new Richardson grain cars headed north on the Brooklyn Sub in Oregon yesterday. Nice and shiny

Of course, I don't know...unless you might have a car number or two...but, my guess is that is the same train that went to Modesto on its way back to Canada through Eastport, ID. TRGRX 454408 traces to somewhere called (I think) Shiloh, ID due in at Eastport later tonight.

By the way, Eastport, ID does not even look like a town on Google Maps...if I am doing that correctly. Where does the UP drop these cars for pick up by...CN...or whichever Canadian road picks them up?

Eastport Idaho is the interchange between UP and Canadian Pacific (CP). CP will handle these cars back to one of Richardson's Canola Crushing plants in Western Canada. They are most likely destined to move Canola Meal out of Richardson's massive crushing facility in Yorkton Saskatchewan, but possibly their smaller crushing facility in Lethbridge Alberta as well.

These cars have been roaming around on CP (and likely CN too) since at least the end of October.

Jeff Simpson
De Winton Alberta

Jeff...thanks for the reply. Sorry for my basic ignorance.

Is there a siding in Eastport...or something that can be seen on Google Maps or Earth that denotes exactly where the cars are left for interchange??

Sorry...I like this type of tedious detail.

A bunch of those, or what looked like them went through Dunsmuir 12/29/2012 11:21am PST.

sd60m Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Jeff...thanks for the reply. Sorry for my basic
> ignorance.
>
> Is there a siding in Eastport...or something that
> can be seen on Google Maps or Earth that denotes
> exactly where the cars are left for interchange??
>
> Sorry...I like this type of tedious detail.


Theres a small yard with three tracks each on both sides of the border along with both a main and a siding that run straight through Eastport. Theres not much there. Eastport sits in a narrow mountain valley barely wide enough for the highway, the Moyie River and the railroad to pass through and is tough for photography as its mostly in shadow most of the day.

Photo 1: A southbound Canpotex potash train sits on CP1 at UP's Eastport Yard just a few feet on the US side of the border. The UP depot is the building with the brick bottom in the background while US Customs inspection shack in white can be seen along with the Vacus machine. A small white sign is just visible off the right side of the CEFX unit, this is the International Border stating CP Trackage beyond this point.

Photo2: A northbound arrives pulling up the UP's siding which turns into CP's main on their side of the border just in front of the train.

---

---

Arberesh Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A bunch of those, or what looked like them went
> through Dunsmuir 12/29/2012 11:21am PST.

That is the one that came thru Oregon on the Brooklyn Sub yesterday (Sunday). The car number I got was TRGX854627 bound for Yorkton, Saskatchewan. Since these cars are in a pool, look for them and possibly the same power to come back south later this week or next week.

Thanks for all the replies...I enjoyed learning something about this operation.

Since "Eastport" appears to be in the middle of nowhere...what happens to the crews? Are they stuck there waiting for an infrequent grain train...or...is the traffic very frequent.

Do the railroads provide the accommodations or do the crews shuttle back to somewhere more "lush?"

sd60m Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for all the replies...I enjoyed learning
> something about this operation.
>
> Since "Eastport" appears to be in the middle of
> nowhere...what happens to the crews? Are they
> stuck there waiting for an infrequent grain
> train...or...is the traffic very frequent.
>
> Do the railroads provide the accommodations or do
> the crews shuttle back to somewhere more "lush?"

Its an away from home terminal for UP crews based out of Spokane, WA. They stay at the Fiest Creek Bar and Inn off Moyie River road at MP134 (about 6 miles back south) on the mainline. The UP's Eastport clerk takes crews too and from the hotel, talks to inbound trains from both RR's on yarding instructions and deals with both railroads corridor managers and take part in the conference calls between the corridor managers three times a day. They are in charge of dealing with both sets of customs and making sure Laredo, TX (UP's international interchange office) has all the correct waybills and info on each inbound freight car, and in turn will talk to Winnipeg. The CPR crews home is just roughly 60 miles away in Cranbrook, BC and the crews bring a train to Eastport and cab home or cab down and take a train back to Cranbrook. They have no away from home lodging agreement at Eastport. The SI and CP's Moyie Sub are getting busier each year. Roughly 6-8 trains each day, up from just one each way in the early 90's, with more and more coming. UP is planning on installing CTC islands on the Spokane Sub some time in 2013 or 2014 currently and adding more capacity to the line. This will be a pretty busy railroad in several years.

A few more tidbits of info:

There are generally 4 manifest trains per day through this gateway plus bulk trains. This can be anywhere from 1-4 grain trains, 1-2 potash trains, and the odd extra manifest. 6-10 trains per day is normal.

All power runs through, typically between Hinkle OR and Lethbridge AB. Could be CP or UP power. As stated before, crews change at the border between CP/UP but it is not a home terminal for either railroad.

Posted from iPhone

Ok since we're going to get down right detailed I'll add more also. GMD1 mentioned the run through power agreement. Up until the late nineties power was swapped at the border. UP was in bind at the time because of all the online business adding so much tonnage to southbounds and still recovering from the big meltdown and being really busy on top of that. It wasn't uncommon to have a train in every siding from Eastport to Hinkle and never make it and die enroute every trip. This corridor started out with the CEFX SD90/43's as the first co-leased Can-AM power. Now today UP has equipped SD90/43's 8258-8307 for this Can-Am pool by equipping these units for Canadian lead. Normally the agreement states that all bulk train will have UP power and all manifest trains will have CP power. Its never this way but thats the agreement. Normally CP power is allowed to run south as far as Hinkle, OR but CP units have gone to Portland and Roseville recently. CP has a similar arrangement for UP units.

Thanks for all the detail. I actually learned a little on TO with this thread. I more than appreciate your time and effort!!

This train is indeed destined for Yorkton, Saskatchewan. This was their first full trip on CP from plant to destination and return. They came off the UP to the CP at Eastport December 9th. The trip took them to Wynyard, SK and to Yorkton, a route I guess they may retrace. Hopefully we will see it back through Lethbridge westbound for the UP again soon. I haven't seen these cars in the Lethbridge crushing plant yet. The only thing bearing the Richardson logo are the tanks. The cars are in the 854xxx series.

Cheers, A.J.

Sir,

Thanks for that additional information. There's something very interesting about watching a unit trains movements...especially originating in Canada and ending up down here where I live in CA.

I hope you or someone will have time to report when the train finally makes it back to the crushing plant and turns back toward Modesto...assuming this is an established destination for it.

Thanks and Happy New Year!!

I was in New Orleans right after Christmas and spotted two CP GE'S at Avondale. Probably off a St.James,La.oil train.