Western Railroad Discussion > What the heck is UP running? Just grab it and go!

Schulenburg TX 3-13-19 on UP Glidden Sub (ex SP San Antonio- Houston line). UP 8133 East

I don't know the symbol, but UP is operating some super crazy consists with their PSR. This train consisted of blocks of autoracks that were interupted by small groups of covered hoppers, boxcars, tank cars and even a lone empty centerbeam flatcar. I think UP easily could have ran a unit train of loaded autos (I think they either came from Laredo or Eagle Pass TX). It just seems to be strange as nothing appears to be organized.

Sorry, I was shooting into the sun for the eastbound so these are downright horrible photos.

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Seeing similar train make-ups in the PNW. Looks disorganized.

bluesman Wrote:
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> Seeing similar train make-ups in the PNW. Looks
> disorganized.

Same on the Gila Sub!  My understanding after talking to a RC guy in the yard is that Freight Cars are not allowed to sit more than 8 hours in the yard.

SouthWest RailCams
CA, NM, CO, TX, AZ
https://SouthWestRailCams.com



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/14/19 19:12 by RailFanAZ.

Through central Oklahoma on the old OKT between Wichita and Fort Worth, I've seen mixed freights with 30 cars, mixed freights of 100+ cars with long cuts of auto racks,, sand cars, interspersed with boxcars, tanks cars, flats etc. But the best and oddest I've seen are where it appears they just tacked two trains together to run a monster freight with 2-3 units on the front, 2 DPU in the middle and sometimes one on the rear and sometimes not.  Never mind the line is relatively flat and they don't have too many sidings to handle such long trains, but…

The train was AEGGN-12 (Eagle Pass, TX FXE - CSX Gentilly Yard New Orleans, LA).  En route, the train picks up a Livonia, LA block at San Antonio’s East Yard.  At Livonia Yard, it sets out the San Antonio cars and picks up more CSX-bound cars.

Andrew

Thise are not "horrible" shots - they are shots of the shady side of a train.
We see them every afternoon from the east side of the tracks in Mojave and in the morning from the west side.

Bill Deaver
Tehachapi, CA

I've noticed in Spokane, WA on occasion a BNSF westbound with a long block of domestic COFC,
followed by a good size block of auto racks,
followed by about 10 mixed freight cars. I think it takes the line to Seattle.
Was pretty surprised the first time I seen it.

Last I read about PSR...its actually just SR, with the P thrown in to make it look sex to stockholders.   Its just tryiong to run freight trains on a schedule, and staying on schedule.   The idea being that there will be less crews hanging around waiting around for their train to be ready...the railroad operations will be more predictable, and more efficient.  So if a train is supposed to lease at 9am, it goes at 9am with whatever cars are ready nd going in that direction.   Of course, this only really applies to road freights,  Most of the haulers and locals around here (central calif) pretty much run on sked  And so far, it seems our repo empty auto trains here on the CA coast are still running on a random, whenever, schedule.

Of course, this does not account at all for the seasonal and allover irregular nature of freight car movements.  It kind of assumes that future freight car movements are predictable, just as the airlines predict peoples' travel habits, and change their schedules every month based on where they predict people will want to travel the next month. It works to a degree.

 

So the San Antonio cars from Eagle Pass are hauled past SA to Livonia and set out?

I didn't see anything about cars going to San Antonio, only cars picked up there for Livonia.

zaltwsp7 Wrote:
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> I've noticed in Spokane, WA on occasion a BNSF
> westbound with a long block of domestic COFC,
> followed by a good size block of auto racks,
> followed by about 10 mixed freight cars. I think
> it takes the line to Seattle.
> Was pretty surprised the first time I seen it.

Sounds like the Q-ALTSSE (Alliance, TX to South Seattle, WA) with a Portland block dropped at Spokane. BNSF first tried to run the train as a hot Z-ALTSSE, but traffic growth was slow, so they downgraded the train and added manifest and autoracks. I often see the counterpart Q-SSEALT picking up cars in Spokane around 6~8pm. Where it used to be a short little train, traffic has been steadily growing and it's not so little any more, and often has healthy blocks of manifest and intermodal. But you don't see the autoracks on the eastbound train.
 

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

bluesman Wrote:
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> Seeing similar train make-ups in the PNW. Looks
> disorganized.

It's hard to tell if it's disorganized without seeing the train consist. Could be brilliantly blocked. 

All UP trains on the Brownsville Sub are "grab and go".  

In the last few days, I've seen two MRVWCs (Roseville-West Colton) with a 5-pack of international containers buried mid-train, surrounded in a train of manifest cars.  Seems like a lot of work to dig them out at West Colton to forward them to the harbor area.

mapboy

That sounds like a fun train to run...

Posted from iPhone

The ALTSSE and its counterpart the SSEALT is a challenge to deal with at Alliance. The intermodal side is switched by contract crews and the merch side is switched by BNSF. The outbound has to have the merch side blocked and built first, then the intermodal portion is doubled over on top of it. Any Boeing cars have to go to the front of the train. They are often placed first out on the merch portion of the train which is stored just in the clear on the north end of the yard track designated for the outbound. To put the Boeings on the head end you have to go fetch that car or cars and stash it somewhere or shove the intermodal cut somewhere high to grab the Boeings and put them on the head end. You can't ride hiwides, so forget taking that car over to IMF with you to grab the intermodal cut. The autos have to be blocked too, so depending on the number of blocks the build could be half a dozen switch moves or more. That's a lot of moving around for a trim job compared to the other builds and originating trains at Alliance.

The inbound SSEALT typically comes down the IMF lead then stops with the rear of the train at a point where the contract switch crew can couple up to the rear or get on the DP motor if it's DP'ed. The cut between the merch cars on the head end and the intermodals on the rear is made and the rest of the train pulls through crossovers into Alliance Yard. Hostlers fetch the DP motor later.

There's a lot more labor involved in dealing with the SSEALT/ALTSSE, but it's a good problem to have. I've been glad to see this train grow over time the same way the Z-ALTROB/Z-ROBALT has grown during the same period. The continued expansion at Alliance IMF bodes well for more traffic in the future, too.

The EG symbolled trains used to be run thrus from FXE. You don't generally get a whole lot of blocking from interchange connections, so you take your best shot.

It appears everything is blocks, hot, empty,drag freight whatever as if they cleaned out a yard of blocked cars. It makes sense if its set out like that, but if your cleaning out a yard of 8 hour old cars and forwarding them down the road to the next yard and then doing it again when they reach 8 hours old, then it makes no sense. Then again, does anything make sense on the UP?