Western Railroad Discussion > Q: are there any BNSF detours given the Topock derailment?

I didn't see this topic discussed here but as consequence of the Topock derailment causing the Southern Transcon to be out of service for 24-48 hours (?), where have all the BNSF trains gone? Are they just parked waiting for track to open up? There's been no movement on the Kingman live cam in the past 12 hours. Thanks.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/23 05:06 by JPB.

I know at least 1 EB Z ran on the UP yesterday afternoon via Beaumont, will get on the transcon at Vaughn, NM. There may have been a 2nd but not 100%.

There is a BNSF train sitting on the Tucson railcam right now waiting for a crew.  Looking back at its arrival, several containers and trailers were opened and robbed.  
 

memphisfreight Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There is a BNSF train sitting on the Tucson
> railcam right now waiting for a crew.  Looking
> back at its arrival, several containers and
> trailers were opened and robbed.  
>  
That part being theft is hard to contain due to train length and where it might be parked anyone caught will be back out before the train has a new crew on it.

UP is playing hardball with BNSF over detours, only a very select handful being accepted. Everybody else is just piling up on either side of Topock waiting for a clear track.

~ Mr. MRL

Probably because they don't have enough crews to run their own trains....

MrMRL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> UP is playing hardball with BNSF over detours,
> only a very select handful being accepted.
> Everybody else is just piling up on either side of
> Topock waiting for a clear track.
>
> ~ Mr. MRL

James Nelson
Thornton, CO
www.flickr.com/mojaveflyer

if the trains start moving again through topock, could somebody please give a "heads-up"?

the flood of trains will be a sight.............

66

MrMRL Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> UP is playing hardball with BNSF over detours,
> only a very select handful being accepted.
> Everybody else is just piling up on either side of
> Topock waiting for a clear track.
>
> ~ Mr. MRL

The crew base at Tucson is thin. UP has also been dog catching wb manifest trains between Tucson and Willcox due to MoW activities. I think there is a tie gang working around Benson, resulting in single tracking.

Allen

Posted from Android

memphisfreight Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There is a BNSF train sitting on the Tucson
> railcam right now waiting for a crew.  Looking
> back at its arrival, several containers and
> trailers were opened and robbed.  

The crew change at Yuma is the main problem area for break in's.

It's been better as of late but the break in's still occur.

Allen

Posted from Android

goneon66 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> if the trains start moving again through topock,
> could somebody please give a "heads-up"?
>
> the flood of trains will be a sight.............
>
> 66

keep an eye on the Kingman AZ live cam....

bradleymckay Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> memphisfreight Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > There is a BNSF train sitting on the Tucson
> > railcam right now waiting for a crew.  Looking
> > back at its arrival, several containers and
> > trailers were opened and robbed.  
>
> The crew change at Yuma is the main problem area
> for break in's.
>
> It's been better as of late but the break in's
> still occur.
>
> Allen
>
> Posted from Android

Was wondering, since they flipped all the Z train origination terminals around last year, seems they were trying to get the hottest ones away from LATC and that world famous east lead.    I know another spot they hit the trains is around "south yard" in Tucson a few miles west of the depot.  Sometimes the dispatchers will try to hold trains off at Stockham instead of there.    

bradleymckay Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> memphisfreight Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > There is a BNSF train sitting on the Tucson
> > railcam right now waiting for a crew.  Looking
> > back at its arrival, several containers and
> > trailers were opened and robbed.  
>
> The crew change at Yuma is the main problem area
> for break in's.
>
> It's been better as of late but the break in's
> still occur.
>
> Allen
>
> Posted from Android

And being close to the border that's not surprising, I wonder how bad it was when SP ran over there!

This is just a what if? what if UP had double tracked the Sunset from LA to El Paso? Would BNSF have detoured all the 90-100+ trains a day including the chief from the transcon to the Sunset? bet it would be very impressive and a sight to see one can imagine. Sunset limited used to detour on the atsf transcon back in the 80s.

JPB Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> goneon66 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > if the trains start moving again through
> topock,
> > could somebody please give a "heads-up"?
> >
> > the flood of trains will be a
> sight.............
> >
> > 66
>
> keep an eye on the Kingman AZ live cam....
Heard there were lots ofor trains waiting east of Kingman, but things are moving again

things are moving  now.

i even saw a very long w/b 2x2x0 baretables ........

66

BNSF WB Z Train Reroute at Willcox, 22:58 03/18/2023.

Christi

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

I have no idea if these are the first eastbound trains through Kingman following the Topock wreck but the roughly 12,000 ft long IM train on the left passed through Kingman at about 20 mph at 1438 Friday 3/17/23 with 5 units up front and 5 mid train as DPU - perhaps this was two combined trains? At 1443, this train was overtaken by a 2500 ft eb IM. Both trains had FedEx/UPS/Prime containers/trailers and there were a number of open doors on trailers/containers on the 12,000 foot train.

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Westbound Parade at Kingman: 
At 1830, a manifest on main 1 stopped short of the crossing circuit at the Kingman live cam and sat for 1 hour and 45 minutes for no obvious reason (to me) resuming its westbound journey at 2015, And then the westbound intermodal flood began as 13 minutes later the 1st wb IM train passed followed 13 minutes later by another IM which was followed by another 16 minutes later. In summary, for the 2 hours and 15 minutes following the departure of wb manifest at 2015, 9 IM trains followed running on ~13-15 minute headways. Very impressive streetcar operation! 

Noticed both a WB and EB detour train past Tucson depot last several hours, Z or Q appearance.