Western Railroad Discussion > UP Nampa Sub Yesterday (with questions)

I caught this EB coming out of the UP Nampa, Idaho yard yesterday afternoon.
Long train with 3X2 power and about 25 loaded autoracks behind the leading power and ahead of the containers.
The two rear DPUs were new(er) Tier IV motors.
Questions:
What symbol was this train?
Train length?
Why position the autoracks ahead of the container cars?
Was this a high-priority train, and if so, why combine the containers with the autoracks?
This train crawled out of the Nampa Yard, then accelerated rapidly after clearing the yard limits.
I later realized (duh!) that was probably done in order to comply with a yard speed restriction.
What is the speed restriction within the Nampa Yard?
Photos were taken @ Happy Valley Road, just east of the Nampa yard.
Phil

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Phil:

Train KSEMN (Seattle-Marion, AR) - symbol may have been changed since I last saw one - commonly carried a block of loaded multilevels ahead of the stacks so that may have been the train you got.  Loaded autos are high priority traffic, and multilevels normally are allowed the same speeds as intermodal cars so no problem mixing the two car types in most cases.

Bob
Thayne, WY   

CORRECTION:  I just read a recent TO post stating that the KSEMN symbol is still used, so that could very well be the train you got.

Bob

As for the train details (length, footage, etc) I'm not sure for this train as it is long gone, probably to Kansas City by now. I did, however catch the KSEMN 24 last night and tavelled eastbound across the subdivision to Pocatello in the middle of the night. We were 2x1 6506 tons 7614ft 111 cars 346 axles and we had auto racks on the front (Toyota) with stack cars behind them. The train showed setting out parts of its train at various terminal along the route with all setout cars blocked together with all of the Auto Racks being setout at one location. This makes the work reletively short and painless.  The train had setouts in Kansas City, Dupo, Il, and Marion, AK, which is basically Memphis, but on the opposite side of the Mississippi River.  The train is usually dispatched well, but it is often underpowered, so unable to maintain 70 mph in many places.

Yard speeds IN the yard, meaning off of the main line is always 10 mph, other than main track.  GCOR rrule 6.8.  It sounds like your train happened to be inside the yard and had to go 10 mph until it fully occupied the main.  The main line speed around Nampa is 50 through the east end then reducing to 35 mph at MP456 (where the Boise cutoff comes in), passed the depot and toward west Nampa, then the speed goes back to 70mph.

Thanks to everyone for the info.
Mike ~ what's the speed limit inside the Nampa Yard if on one of the mainlines.
I recently saw an EB Z train come barreling into the yard from the west and he sure wasn't going 10 mph.
I think he came in on Main 1, but not sure.
Phil

I told you.  The speed limit is 50 until you get near the depot, then the speed limit drops to 35

I see a train like this (autos up front, stacks behind) go by the Grand Island web cam all the time.  Is this a section of this same train for Chicago, or a different symbol altogether?

Phil,

The train you photographed was the ZPDG2-24   104-0-6985-8726'

HogheadMike Wrote:
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>
> Yard speeds IN the yard, meaning off of the main
> line is always 10 mph, other than main track. 
> GCOR rrule 6.8.  It sounds like your train
> happened to be inside the yard and had to go 10
> mph until it fully occupied the main.  The main
> line speed around Nampa is 50 through the east end
> then reducing to 35 mph at MP456 (where the Boise
> cutoff comes in), passed the depot and toward west
> Nampa, then the speed goes back to 70mph.

Going from 10 mph yard track in Portland to 20 and 30 mph yard track in Roseville was quite a change. Though with all of the "temporary" 10 MPH frog speeds around the yard, often we can't throttle up until the rear car clears the track we're pulling out of.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/16 15:01 by portlander.

Train in the photos is a ZPDG2, which surprised me as well. Don't think I've ever seen one of those trains with autos on it before. 

UP must be looking to combine as many trains as they can these days...BIGGER IS BETTER is the new UP buzzword. 

Another one on the way east today, led by low numberboard C44AC UP 6606. Seen west of Sandy River around 2:30 pm (near Portland, OR).

Interesting consist on this train, which has no DPU. Armour Yellow/CSX/Armor Yellow/CSX. I was on a bus, so I couldn't give chase, but I made sure to get a good look at the lead unit (and the number).

Need to understand this train symbol
Z is obviously a Z train.
PD = Portland?
G2 = Global2?
What does the 24 mean?
Thanks in advance.
Phil

philhoov Wrote:
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> Need to understand this train symbol
> Z is obviously a Z train.
> PD = Portland?
> G2 = Global2?
> What does the 24 mean?

​PD is Portland.
G2 is Global 2.
24 is the day the train originated.

Reason I asked about the "24" is that some symbols indicate that the train is a second "section", don't they?
Obviously, that train wouldn't have been the 24th section of anything.
Phil

philhoov Wrote:
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> Reason I asked about the "24" is that some symbols
> indicate that the train is a second "section",
> don't they?
> Obviously, that train wouldn't have been the 24th
> section of anything.
> Phil


On the UP, the second section would be the 2ZPDG2-24.

-24 is the date it left Portland,

830-east Wrote:
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> -24 is the date it left Portland,

Most of the time. It's more accurately the date that the train is scheduled to depart Portland