Western Railroad Discussion > UP Global 1 - Closed then reopened? Never Closed?

A few weeks back I saw a facebook post saying that UP had closed Global I, which they did announce they'd do way back. I've taken some aerial shots because of that, and as of today, it doesn't look like it has closed. I'm wondering if it did in January, and then Global II became a clusterf in due to PSR, snow, and temps, and then had to backtrack and reopen it. This January 7th post indicated several lanes were moving to G2, but I don't know if that was all of them:

https://www.up.com/customers/announcements/intermodal/allintermodal/IM2020-215.html

Anyway, here are photos showing the status at a few points.

1. April, 2020, lots of chassis being stored.
2. View includes BNSF's Western Ave. Yard

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3. December, 2020; I took these shots because it seemed like closure was coming.
4. On this date things still looked like I'm used to seeing on Western Ave., with a bunch of power sets.
5. A closer look at all of the yard

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6. In Mid-January I caught the yard power bringing a cut of wells from Canal St., which I also thought was closed.
7. Rounding the wye towards Global 1.

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8. This shot was taken February 5th, after seeing the word that it had closed. All that was left was the yard power. There didn't seem to be many containers or equipment left, but you can't see much from the street. But it did seem plausible that it closed.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/21 06:14 by inCHI.

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That brings us to today.

9. The same yard power, but now there is a 7300, an AC4460CW
10. And while the yard is devoid of railcars except for these snow covered baretables in the foreground, there certainly seem to be containers.
11. More

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12. And trucks were pulling in... and dump trucks where trucking snow being cleared out.
13. A look at the west end of Global I.
14. Totally backlit, but when I took it I thought - odd, stacks in Western Ave. yard. Turns out these are the ones that hit the BRC bridge.

 

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The winter weather has certainly hurt, but UP has had an ongoing problem throughout its network of having to restrict ingating of trucks at various terminals for years. In Portland OR they shut down the Albina ramp after the Brooklyn ramp renovation was completed, only to find that Brooklyn did not have the capacity. The solution? Ingate and stage at Albina, but don't ramp there: just do an "internal" dray from Albina to Brooklyn. To the best of my knowledge, UP has no recourse to recoup the added costs of this other than to raise rates overall and likely drive away some traffic. 

We will see what happens after the storms, but I would guess UP will find it has cut off needed capacity if they try to keep Global I permanently closed. It is interesting in your photos that, even with no well or spine cars staged, the chassis are as if they are awating the railcars. 

Are you able to get drone photos of Global II? It would be interesting to see what was done there and just how much capacity was really added. And how many cranes are there now vs. before the closing of the hump and the intermodal expansion. 

Bruce 

Great series!  Like the night shots especially.   UP put this announcement out a few weeks ago, which lines up with St Stephen... In an effort to maintain fluid operations at Global 2 in Chicago, Union Pacific is implementing the following temporary changes: 

• Global 2's gate will close effective 23:59 PM Sunday, February 7 for shipments destined to Union Pacific's City of Industry, California intermodal terminal, and beginning 06:00 AM Monday, February 8 shipments will temporarily ingate at Global 1, located at 1425 South Western Avenue, Chicago, IL 60608. 
• Ramp cutoff for City of Industry at Global 1 will be 15:30 PM, with day 5 availability at 11:15 AM.
• Shipments from Global 4 to City of Industry remain unchanged.

This is a temporary change, but will remain in place until further notice.

What an absolute nightmare for the truckers as well as the staff to have to work at that ramp! 

In looking at how the containers are parked, never mind that any semblance of 'parallel' containers is non-existant.  Yes, it's a gravel lot.  But that's still no excuse for piss-poor parking by all involved.  But worse, it's not possible for a driver, whether trucker or yard jockey, to simply go up one aisle and down the other looking for a spot to park or to find a particular container in serpentine-like fashion.  And even going serpentine-like in that mess, going up one side, looking out the right side of the tractor, and down the next having to look out the left side is absolutely NUTS!  Having the containers at perhaps 20 degree angles make it easy for the driver to back into a load or find an empty spot.  But the 'line' of containers on the other side of the same aisle are 'in his face', necessitating a U-turn somewhere/somehow to either get under one of those containers or to park one.

Obviously, whoever laid out that yard had/has no concept of what the drivers have to deal with to do their job.  But at the same time, it looks like they are severly cramped for space, so it's put anything wherever one can find a place it won't get hit.  

The arrangement of the 3 working tracks is a nightmare as well.  Throw in having to provide a cross-over in the middle of two of the tracks makes it an extra 5-10 minutes to switch each track either cutting or coupling cars, setting/releasing hand brakes, etc.  NO THANKS!  I'd be all for levelling it and if UP is really desparate for a ramp, start from scratch with all tracks parallel and straight.  Maybe it won't have the storage capacity of the current dump, but careful 'lane' design of what destinations go from/to that ramp can keep it from becoming overloaded.

Oh...and I spent 7 years as a CSX Intermodal Representative.  Making life easier for the truckers and faster to get in and out makes all the difference in the world to all involved. 

 At one time this yard was much more organized for container parking, strip tracks and storage tracks. When they relocated the truck entrance gates and added the X-ray shed, they removed one additional track (known as Spud 3). Prior to this the three "spud tracks" could accomodate 18-20 wells per track. Additionally, there was trailer parking in the far SW corner of the yard (between the spuds and the BNSF) as well as parking in the NE section of the yard which was originally B&OCT Robey Street/Lincoln Ave Coach Yard.

There's no doubt there's probably no one there anymore to assign and monitor specific parking------hence the cartage companies just drop their trailers wherever....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/21 20:02 by ghemr.

 CORA map plus another which was probably made by a CNW employee.......

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Since G 3 closed and now G1...my guess 2 and 4 are overloaded with business.

Posted from Android

Close yards. Embargo traffic. Make doing business with the Carrier unpleasant/PIA. Tell “walk up” business to go away or charge whorehouse rates to encourage them to go away. Sounds like a Class One PSR business plan to me.

Posted from iPhone

StStephen Wrote:
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> Are you able to get drone photos of Global II? It
> would be interesting to see what was done there
> and just how much capacity was really added. And
> how many cranes are there now vs. before the
> closing of the hump and the intermodal
> expansion. 

Unfortunately Global II is within O'Hare's airspace so I can't do it there. But since I have to take someone to O'Hare today I'm going to try and get shots from the bridge to post.

Global 1 is a very old ramp. Designed and build when in an era of 40' TOFC.  It is not big enough to be a major ramp and land is to expensive to expand it.  Even with expansion, Global 2 can not handle the capacity.  Global 4 is at capacity with 40' containers.  UP will have to chosse between really bad service or reopen Global 1 to take some pressure off Global 2.  My 30 years of selling intermodal says the UP no longer has any clue what they are doing except pissing off customers.  Sure glad I retired 2 weeks......

As for the parking every which way, from my experience in/around Hobart intermodel yard (20 years ago), it is like this:

• Poorly faded or non-existent parking markings
• Contracted yard jockeys who are under time limit to clear a track and spotting trailers as quick and easy as possible
• Lazy a$$ truckers who do not know how to backup a trailer.
• Lot coordinators who just don't care.
• Having to move a trailer or 2 to get the one you need out.

And don't forget that NO ONE will move anything unless they are forced to.

BTW, that is basically how society today as a whole is.

If only they had a place outside of Chicago (Global III) where they had room to expand (Global III) to use for lower priority international container traffic (Global III). Well shucks looks like UP is flat out of options.

DLM Wrote:
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> Global 1 is a very old ramp. Designed and build
> when in an era of 40' TOFC.  It is not big enough
> to be a major ramp and land is to expensive to
> expand it.  Even with expansion, Global 2 can not
> handle the capacity.  Global 4 is at capacity
> with 40' containers.  UP will have to chosse
> between really bad service or reopen Global 1 to
> take some pressure off Global 2.  My 30 years of
> selling intermodal says the UP no longer has any
> clue what they are doing except pissing off
> customers.  Sure glad I retired 2 weeks......

 Let's not forget (I think we all have??) they still have Yard Center in Dolton.......

Fascinating post.....

jst3751 Wrote:
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> As for the parking every which way, from my
> experience in/around Hobart intermodel yard (20
> years ago), it is like this:
>
>

• Poorly faded or non-existent parking markings
  >
• Contracted yard jockeys who are under time
  > limit to clear a track and spotting trailers as
  > quick and easy as possible
  >
• Lazy a$$ truckers who do not know how to backup
  > a trailer.
  >
• Lot coordinators who just don't care.
  >
• Having to move a trailer or 2 to get the one
  > you need out.
  >
  > And don't forget that NO ONE will move anything
  > unless they are forced to.
  >
  > BTW, that is basically how society today as a
  > whole is.

That pretty well sums it up.  From what I saw at CSX Intermodal, from the yard jockeys to the truckers, whatever is fastest and easiest is the way something gets done.  After our ramp got 'redone' from 3 individually accessible tracks to 2 pairs of 2 tracks accessible from one side only per pair and asphalt throughout, it was originally designed that ingated loads would be put in one area, loads from the train in another, empties in yet another.  That plan quickly became 'find any available spot' as there'd be 50 too many loads from the train that didn't have space in the designated area, etc.  We had long told drivers coming in with loads to spot them alongside an empty hitch alongside whatever track they were told to go to.  About 4 years later, one of them left their load adjacent to a vacant track but at an angle and the tail corner was 2" over the line showing the clearance area of a train.  It wasn't much more than some scraped paint when an inbound train clipped it while backing in (the conductor was riding the other side of the last car and couldn't see if it was over the line or not), but the order came down from the boss the next day, no more having drivers park their loads next to the track.  That instantly tied up a bunch more parking spaces AND added 3-5 minutes for every outbound load for the yard jockeys to 'find them' somewhere in our yard, hook on, and take them to an open spot along the train.

And the comment that no one will move anything unless absolutely forced to do so is so true.  Try calling a yard jockey on the radio to pull a 'double parked' (tail to front) trailer or get under a parked load that's too low for a trucker to back under it.  The yard trucks are intentionally low and the 5th wheel (hitch) is on a hydrolic hoist that can move up maybe 18" or so.  So all they had to do was back under it, raise it up, the trucker would crank down the landing gear further, then the yard jockey could drop it down, disconnect and pull away.  There was always howling on the radio after the trucker had come to the office begging us to radio the yard jockeys to do 2 minutes 'work'.  How did the chassis get so low to begin with?  We had a couple of drivers that when dropping an empty or a load in the yard, unplug the air lines to the trailer thereby locking the brakes, pull the release handle, and pull out from under it without cranking down the landing gear first!   When a yard jockey hooks on to take it trackside, they do essentially the same thing, except they lower the chassis/trailer down first.  So, when a new load is put on that chassis, it's still low and gets parked that way.  Yard jockeys don't have time to screw around cranking down the landing gear.

I'm glad I retired 6 years ago...

Good thread, great maps