Eastern Railroad Discussion > A BNSF Q-LACAUG Into Whitaker Yard

Back in early August of 2016 BNSF began a Los Angeles,CA to Austell,GA IM service with interchange to NS in Memphis TN. Routing out of Memphis on the NS would be Memphis,TN/Sheffield,AL/ Chattanooga,TN/ Austell,GA.The train would also include container loads to Charlotte, NC and these would be placed on regular scheduled NS trains out of Atlanta's Inman Yard for points to the east. The vast majority of containers are from JB Hunt with an occasional Swift and/or a steamship container or two. No sooner did this service start that the routing had to be changed due to a CSX curfew on the shared track between Stevenson AL and west Chattanooga. Alternate routing: Memphis,TN/Sheffield,AL/ Birmingham,AL/ Austell,GA 

The routing has stabilized now via the preferred Chattanooga route which allows these trains to enter the north end of NS Whitaker Yard in Austell GA. The NS symbol out of / into Memphis are 264/265. Occasionally they will run an east bound 264 on the Alabama East End and the last two Monday's an I65 (eye65) (Extra 265) has run west toward Birmingham.

1. NS 264 (MEMPHIS, TN (BNSF Q-LACAUG) - ATLANTA, GA) inching through Whitaker Yard on IMF#2.
2. NS 264 clears the south end of the yard. The track to the far right is IMF#5 which was just added this summer.
3. NS 264 after leaving a cut of cars at Whitaker Yard south bound on the “run-around” track just past the north Austell signal MP133.7H with loads for Charlotte and points east. The power will terminate at Inman Yard and be assigned to the west bound counterpart NS 265 (ATLANTA,GA -Q-AUGLAC BNSF MEMPHIS, TN) 

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/16 11:22 by NSSpike.

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A couple of west bound NS I65 (eye65) on the NS Alabama Division East End District the past two Mondays.

1. NS I65 (ATLANTA, GA - MEMPHIS, TN (BNSF Q-AUGLAC) on the mainline at CP Taylor MP675.3
2. NS I65 (ATLANTA, GA - MEMPHIS, TN (BNSF Q-AUGLAC) on the Alabama East End district at MP669.3 East Villa Rica Georgia. 5 BNSF & 1 CitiRail unit on this west bound JB Hunt stack train out of Atlanta.

Just glad to see BNSF stacks back on the NS in West Georgia!!!

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Nice shots!  I thing the symbol would be Q-LACATG, though.  AUG is Augusta, KS.

You finally got the inbound 264 train at ramp. Looks like a lot of loads going on thru Atlanta to the east or south.
Yes, this is like the old days when they ran the KCS.

gmojim

sums007 Wrote:
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> Nice shots!  I thing the symbol would be
> Q-LACATG, though.  AUG is Augusta, KS.

​Using AUG for trains in and out of NS Austell GA ramp, BNSF uses ATG for the trains in and out of CSX Fairburn GA ramp.

gmojim

This is a fascinating development in the Southeast <> Transcon market.  NS has invested heavily in the "Crescent Corridor <> Meridian Speedway" route via Shreveport/Dallas-UP, yet now seems to have sought an (additional) alternative Transcon route with BNSF over the Memphis gateway.  NS, consistent with decades of restrictive routing practices, would not agree to a Birmingham<>Atlanta routing with Santa Fe (BN) back in the early 1990's when BN granted SF haulage rights over the Avard, OK, route into the Southeast.  CSX, shut out of its southern Transcon routing by the NS/KCS/UP combine, ultimately granted BNSF haulage rights from Birmingham to Atlanta (via a quite circuitous route), and BNSF (with JBHI) seems to have come to dominate the market.

Perhaps, NS finally has concluded that BNSF is the superior Transcon connection, and perhaps BNSF has concluded that the CSX route (BHM-ATL) is too costly and congested.  The new (but old) Memphis routing is the strong result, 20+ years later. The "Speedway" remains the direct and quite viable route between DFW and the Southeast, and so far (apparently) remains the "service" Transcon route (UPS is still on those trains).  I wonder, though, how long?

gmojim Wrote:
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> sums007 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Nice shots!  I thing the symbol would be
> > Q-LACATG, though.  AUG is Augusta, KS.
>
> ​Using AUG for trains in and out of NS Austell
> GA ramp, BNSF uses ATG for the trains in and out
> of CSX Fairburn GA ramp.
>
> gmojim

Thanks.  Ya learn something new every day on here!

sums007 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> gmojim Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > sums007 Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Nice shots!  I think the symbol would be
> > > Q-LACATG, though.  AUG is Augusta, KS.
> >
> > ​Using AUG for trains in and out of NS
> Austell
> > GA ramp, BNSF uses ATG for the trains in and
> out
> > of CSX Fairburn GA ramp.
> >
> > gmojim
>
> Thanks.  Ya learn something new every day on
> here!

How often does this train run?

sums007 Wrote:
> How often does this train run?

NS 264 (BNSF QLACAUG) Sa-We
NS 265 (BNSF QAUGLAC) Tu, Th, Sa

Andrew

florida581 Wrote:
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> sums007 Wrote:
> > How often does this train run?
>
> NS 264 (BNSF QLACAUG) Sa-We
> NS 265 (BNSF QAUGLAC) Tu, Th, Sa
>
> Andrew

​They have run an extra I65 westbound several weeks recently

gmojim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/16 16:41 by gmojim.

florida581 Wrote:
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> sums007 Wrote:
> > How often does this train run?
>
> NS 264 (BNSF QLACAUG) Sa-We
> NS 265 (BNSF QAUGLAC) Tu, Th, Sa
>
> Andrew

Thanks, Andrew.  

ns used to run various intermodal trains for bnsf to atlanta via dallas and the kcs meridian speedway. on ns these were 22e,23e,24e and 21k as i recall. these were in addition to the kcs dallas-atlanta trains 219-220. the only things that ran via memphis then,early 2000s to maybe 2006 or 2007???? not really sure when the changes were made, was up run-through trains 225-226 and at one point a 202 and 213 also ran. these ran from atlanta via birmingham and sheffield to get to memphis and the up. also back then,csx ran a pair of memphis atlanta trains via bnsf from memphis to birmingham,then to atlanta via lagrange,ga. those were q179,180 and q183 and 184 as i recall....

Interesting to note that these new trains on NS are BNSF Q trains, not Z trains.  The BNSF Z trains continue to run CSX Birmingham to Atlanta, the Z-SBDATG and Z-LACATG and Z-ATGSBD. The San Bernardino Z trains handle good volume of FedEx Freight loads.The new BNSF-NS trains are not top priority trains.
​I believe BNSF wanted to spread the JBHunt volume in Atlanta to 2 ramps as CSX Fairburn Atlanta ramp needed some relief.

gmojim



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/25/16 16:56 by gmojim.

Also, these new NS trains are new trains., not trains diverted from CSX to NS route. JBHunt has increased the volume in the LA to Atlanta lane.

gmojim