Western Railroad Discussion > What Happened to the Ethanol Business?

I remember reading on here a year ago about all of the new ethanol business that the BNSF/UP were <supposedly> going to start running from the Midwest to California, even including weekly unit trains, but haven't heard much lately on that business - did it all dry up? Is the BNSF still running unit ethanol trains or are they doing like the UP and running blocks of it in regular manifest trains? UP ran a couple of unit ethanol trains last fall (1 in Sept and 1 in October, via the Central Corridor), but they've been content to run it in 20-car blocks on North Platte/Roseville trains since then. Did the overall ethanol business die off or what?

Boomer,
Hey its there man just go along I80 out there in Nebraska you will see it parked out there with the rest of the UP trains.........
or its being shipped by one of the Rail America branch lines seems to be these short lines are moving freight better then the class 1s are!
Dave

BNSF's Ethanol business is going strong. Some, destined ExxonMobil in Vernon, comes in blocks on the regular Barstow Los Angeles manifest train for delivery in 10 car blocks, which is the maximum this facility can handle. The other facility, Lomita Rail Transfer, located adjacent Watson yard, in Wilmington, gets unit trains of either 96 [+ or - a few] cars, or, 62 [+ or - a few] two or three times a week on average. The current lineup shows three trains in route due to arrive sometime in the next 48 hours. So far, unit trains have origination symbols of Wilmer, MN, Rock Island, IL, Galesburg, IL, Omaha, NE, and, Lincoln, NE.
JB

Glad to hear at least the BNSF is still running some trains - was wondering what was going on with the business. Thanks for the updates.

Is this the plant that was supposed to be built near Rochelle?? If so , I don't think they have started building it yet.

No Fuel Like a 'Corny' Fuel!!

We decided that the gasoline blend with Ethanol only used about 10% of the total volume. What it sounds like is the traffic that's been spotted is all that there is, no more increase in traffic, is this correct?
If we have another increase in traffic will the major RR decide to embargo all enthanol shipments? Enquiring minds want to know, so we can sell our shares before anybody else.

trailerjet Wrote:
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> Boomer,
> Hey its there man just go along I80 out there in
> Nebraska you will see it parked out there with the
> rest of the UP trains.........
> or its being shipped by one of the Rail America
> branch lines seems to be these short lines are
> moving freight better then the class 1s are!
> Dave


What? Hey Dave, you apparently don't live in NE because nothings parked here. If anything, this is the most fluid part of the UP system, unlike much of CA and the Sunset route.

AaronJ

Things are fluid on the KP here as well as the Ethanol. upkpfan

Seen at Malabar (Vernon, CA) back in May.

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Also at Malabar, same day.

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upkpfan Wrote:
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> Things are fluid on the KP here as well as the
> Ethanol. upkpfan


Don't forget SoCal too but the Pacific Northwest is suffering.Thank you for the post. Detector out