Western Railroad Discussion > Crews needed to haul a Z train

A video was recently posted showing a number of ordinary doublestack trains holding on BNSF for hotshot Z trains carrying mostly UPS traffic.

http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3604408

This prompts me to ask how many crews are needed, per standard schedules, to move a hot Z train from Willow Springs to LA versus a standard doublestack from Corwith to LA. Or vice-versa eastbound--take your pick.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/14 21:16 by Bandito.

I'd venture to guess that the number of crews may very well be the same. It may just take the Q longer to travel across each crew district compared to the Z. The Z may be able to move from crew change to crew change every 4-7 hours, where the Q would take 8-11 hours. The Q would likely spend more time waiting in a siding or at a terminal for a Z to pass (run around) or depart. Also the Z(5-9) would probably be authorized for higher speed limits on many sections of track compared to the Q.

I don't know off hand exactly how many BNSF crew districts there are between Los Angeles and Chicago, but i'd imagine it is between 8 and 12. It's relatively easy out west, there is only one route. It splits up east of the Rockies though...

I'm guessing below the further east I go, I'm also unfamiliar with the number of crew districts in northern CA, for Q and Z trains coming out of the San Francisco/Sacramento area that travel down to Bakersfield and over the Tehachapi Mtns to Barstow. (other experts hopefully could chime in for these regions)


BNSF Railway "Southern Trans-Con" Crew Districts (West to East) - Incomplete
1A) Los Angeles/San Bernardino - Barstow
1B) San Bernardino - Needles (long-pool option)
2) Barstow - Needles
3) Needles - Winslow
4) Winslow- Belen
5) Belen - Clovis
6) Clovis - (where?)
7) ? - ?
8) ? - ?
9) ? - ?
10) ? - ?
11) ? - ?



Mr. MRL


V V (looking below) - well there ya go!



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 12/19/14 17:40 by MrMRL.

Crew district maps for BNSF with mileage:

http://trn.trains.com/~/media/Files/PDF/Map%20of%20the%20Month/TM0504%20BNSF%20crew%20districts.pdf

Mike

Chicago to Fort Madison
Fort Madison to KCK
KCK to Wellington
Wellington to Amarillo
Certain Z trains run Amarillo to Belen
Other trains run Amarillo to Clovis and Clovis to Belen
Belen to Winslow
Winslow to Needles
Needles to Barstow
Barstow to LA

Foamer!

Eric

gp60m143 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Chicago to Fort Madison
> Fort Madison to KCK
> KCK to Wellington
> Wellington to Amarillo
> Certain Z trains run Amarillo to Belen
> Other trains run Amarillo to Clovis and Clovis to
> Belen
> Belen to Winslow
> Winslow to Needles
> Needles to Barstow
> Barstow to LA

Here's some examples of how it goes for BNSF Zs vs. Qs. A Z7 starts out in Belen while a Q6 is going thru Grants, an 80-mile head start. By Barstow (BAR), 733 miles and Winslow and Needles crew changes later, the Z is 2 hours and 10 minutes ahead of the Q. That's about a 5-hour slower time for the Q, but usually it would have been more if a Z9 was chasing a Q1. The Z is headed for North Bay, so it has a long pool crew who will pass nonstop thru BAR, to Bakersfield for the first crew change since Needles. NorCal Zs and San Bernardino Zs and Qs will pass nonstop unless they are in need of supplies or attention. The Q above is bound for L.A. (LAC), so it will stop for a crew change at BAR, as do all LAC Zs and Qs and NorCal Qs. A Z to/from LAC usually changes crews in 5-20 minutes.

By watching on ATCS, I can often see how much time is spent for a crew change. A Q arrived BAR at 0620, the power came off at 0700, and power was back on the train at 0730, but it didn't leave until 1010. It is not typical to change power during main line crew changes because of the congestion. That's three hours at BAR (not uncommon for Qs, but 15 minutes to an hour is typical). Another Q spent an hour at Coolwater, just east of Daggett, while setting out a unit, moved up to East Barstow to wait for an hour, waited 15 minutes at Barstow Interlocking, then moved up for a Main 1 1-hour crew change. So besides getting run around on the main line, Qs can spend a lot of extra time in the terminals. Quite often trains will be held at Needles for a following Z to come in and change crews and leave town ahead of it. There's not enough tracks to hold a lot of trains at Needles, so when there are too many trains to hold for some hot Z9s, you get the video in http://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?1,3604408 With careful crew time management, no extra crews are used.

mapboy

Up on the northern lines of the BNSF, the Q-trains are, maybe, mildly warm, if that...

cpn456 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Up on the northern lines of the BNSF, the Q-trains
> are, maybe, mildly warm, if that...

I've heard complaints that a Q train could have a good HP/ton ratio but it will still be sent out behind a dog to follow it all the way to the next terminal, when it could have run ahead of the dog.

mapboy