Western Railroad Discussion > UP Operations Question

Does UP run fewer trains on the Nampa Sub on weekends and holidays?
Is the scheduling adjusted to give crews/employees those days off?
Phil

The train schedules (ie the main line trains, not referring to locals or switch engines here) are absolutely NOT adjusted for the train crews to get weekends off. For mainline trains (ie, "the road" or "chain gangs"), weekends are just another day; though, train crews often tend to "lay off" more on weekends, which can cause brief crew availability shortages. The class one railroads try to punish crews for laying off on weekends for the most part (ie only giving them a small allocation as part of their "availability policy" to do so).

As for holidays, for the most part, the UP and BNSF would like to also operate just like another day. However, like weekends, road crews tend to lay off on those days as well. This is especially the case on major holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Superbowl Sunday (LOL), etc. On the major holidays, the railroads will usually try to curtail operations for a time period, but that's mostly because of the fact that there are usually no road crews available on Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc as most all lay off. So on these major holidays, yes, train frequency is definitely reduced, often by a lot, because of the lack of crews. The railroad will try to plan for this by parking trains and only run the hottest trains with the few crews that might be available.

"On the road", ie, the "chain gangs", there is no holiday pay, etc; so there is no additional incentive to work.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/17 10:39 by spwolfmtn.

Interesting info ~ thanks.
Reason I ask is that it seems like there's less activity around the Nampa Sub on weekends.
I think someone on TO also previously said something about few EB trains originating from Portland before weekends? (unclear about that).
Can you explain "lay off"?
I'm assuming sick days being used?
Phil

Railroad terms "lay off / mark off" mean talking unscheduled time off without pay.
After they are thru the "mark back up".
All this was terminology from the days of crew dispatchers with crew sheets and boards.

Bob Krieger
Cheyenne, WY

The other thing you consier is ramp times affecting train departures, in the Midwest often grain load days will
do the same.

Out

Especially at certain times of the year, you may see MORE trains go through on weekends, because of less MOW work. Departure schedules to consider also (as Callum said) -- for example, if there are days when a certain intermodal train doesn't depart, it is often Sunday or Monday. Which means that, for instance, in Nampa you might see less WB intermodals on Weds and Thursday than other days of the week, since those trains would have left Chicago (or wherever) Sunday or Monday.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/22/17 13:48 by FiestaFoamer.

FiestaFoamer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Especially at certain times of the year, you may
> see MORE trains go through on weekends, because of
> less MOW work. Departure schedules to consider
> also (as Callum said) -- for example, if there are
> days when a certain intermodal train doesn't
> depart, it is often Sunday or Monday. Which means
> that, for instance, in Nampa you might see less WB
> intermodals on Weds and Thursday than other days
> of the week, since those trains would have left
> Chicago (or wherever) Sunday or Monday.

To add more to this, on the domestic side of intermodal, there are much lower loadings of intermodal containers and trailers at intermodal facilities on weekends as many businesses have weekends off. However, this tends not to be the case for international intermodal as the ports usually work because of arriving/departing vessels. So, depending on what part of the country you are in, let's say the Boise area, you are not likely to see any eastbound Z-trains through there on Mondays and Tuesdays as those trains probably do not load at Portland over the weekend (UPS and most LTL carriers don't work or have limited operations on weekends). As for "K" type trains, most of those would probably not run either, but there are likely a few that may be out there.

As for carload traffic (ie boxcar, tank cars, etc), many locals don't operate on weekends either. But since the cycle time through yards are slow, this traffic tends to get spread out more so you don't see quite as much of a slow time from weekends from the originating points.

It could be as simple as me not being in the right place at the right time.
More than once, I have arrived at a favorite location to see the tail end of a train disappearing down the track.
That said, I have learned the holidays aren't a good match for chasing trains, at least around here.
Phil