Eastern Railroad Discussion > How is CSX routing the juice north?

For the past few weekends I have not seen Q740 thru Starke, FL. A month or so ago there was a thread about this train being discontinued; however, there was no mention as to which train is handling the juice boxcars from Tampa to Jacksonville. Also is FEC still interchanging juice cars from Ft Pierce at Jacksonville with FEC? Is Q140 handling the juice north of Jacksonville?
Thanks!
Andy

This is an excellent report from Andrew Stephenson:

"The Tropicana juice cars no longer run north as a separate unit train. To save on cost, crew starts, and locomotive utilization, the Juice cars are placed on intermodal trains throughout their journey. The Juice cars originate at Bradenton Sa-We and run to Tampa on local O823. So in a way, it's a unit train for the short trip between Bradenton and Tampa. In Tampa, the Juice cars are placed on the head end of intermodal train Q188 which terminates in Jacksonville. Meanwhile on the east coast, Tropicana's Ft. Pierce Plant sends loaded Juice cars north to Jacksonville on FEC trains. The Bradenton and Ft. Pierce Juice cars are all collected in Jacksonville and are then placed on trains heading north and west. The majority of the Juice cars are placed on intermodal train Q140 bound to Philadelphia (intermodal) and Greenville, NJ (Tropicana distribution). Some juice cars go on Q142 to North Baltimore, OH. The Juice on Q142 is set out en route at the Tropicana distribution in Cincinnati. The rest of the Juice is put on Q601 to New Orleans. At New Orleans, the Juice is then put on UP train ZATSA for points west. The ultimate destination for this Juice is City of Industry, CA.

The California empties return on UP train ZLAJX to New Orleans and then CSX Q602 to Jacksonville. The Cincinnati empties return on Q143 to Jacksonville and the Greenville empties return on Q141. At Jacksonville, the Ft. Pierce empties go back via the FEC while the Bradenton empties return to Tampa on intermodal train Q045.

Andrew Stephenson
Trinity, FL"

Posted from Android

I remember early CSX use to run the trailer jets with refridgerator cars on the head during the 80's and 90's. Sounds like going back to this practice a little.

During the early/mid 90's I believe it was eastbound R136 that would have the refrigerator cars on the front portion of the train.

Shawn

WLE2679 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I remember early CSX use to run the trailer jets
> with refridgerator cars on the head during the
> 80's and 90's. Sounds like going back to this
> practice a little.


I remember working on the NEC main in the 70s and E-44s would be hustling the orange Trop cars in 60 car trains ... the hottest north-south train the PC & CR ran ... SCL handed the the train off to the RF&P at Rixhmond and the RF&P handed off the train off to the PC/CR at Alexandria ... now that i write this i'm wondering if the RF&P interchsnged right on the main or in the yard ...

osp1729 Wrote:
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> During the early/mid 90's I believe it was
> eastbound R136 that would have the refrigerator
> cars on the front portion of the train.
>
> Shawn

This was still being done when I hired in June of 98. We'd leave Bedford Park in Chicago and stop at Barr yard and pick up the reefers then head for Willard.

Posted from Android

I always heard that was McDonald's french fries from Idaho bound for Mt Airy Cold Storage at Mt Airy,Md. Don't know if that was true or not.

Randy

It was french fries for Mc Donalds on Q136. They were forwarded to Brunswick and then sent east on the D787 local which went on duty at 2000hrs. By 930 or 10pm 136 would arrive in Brunswick and set his reefers off and head for Philly. Usually a 10 to 15 minutes process of transfer. When MACS closed in Mt Airy and moved to PA, the service stopped. Well should we say when he couldn't get his cars in timely fashion due to CSX moving them in mixed freight and locals, he stopped, jumped states and moved where all is trucked now.

CSXCOPHOTOGRAPHER

"CSXCOPHOTOGRAPHER"

TrainSim offering simulated RR titles now?

csxcophotographers Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It was french fries for Mc Donalds on Q136. They
> were forwarded to Brunswick and then sent east on
> the D787 local which went on duty at 2000hrs. By
> 930 or 10pm 136 would arrive in Brunswick and set
> his reefers off and head for Philly. Usually a 10
> to 15 minutes process of transfer. When MACS
> closed in Mt Airy and moved to PA, the service
> stopped. Well should we say when he couldn't get
> his cars in timely fashion due to CSX moving them
> in mixed freight and locals, he stopped, jumped
> states and moved where all is trucked now.
>
> CSXCOPHOTOGRAPHER



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/24/17 09:38 by ChessieSystem.

Reefers on q136 past Wilsmere DE lasted almost until those two trains were killed about 2005 or earlier when CSX decided to route Philly intermodal stuff via Selkirk a day or more longer but it could be stacked using a route over NS to Abrams Yard runaround, via NS's Trenton line to the Langhorne connection. This lasted about 10 years until CSX finally cleared their direct route much shorter within the last 3 years.

As far as the long standing Florida to Greenville Tropicana service, I had past involvement one way or another during most of my PC and CR career. Since the mid-1990's the schedule was to have the NB unit train arrive Greenville before 0500 T-W Th -F and Sun. The Sunday train would be worked early Monday, as the Trop folks in Greenville are union; so Fridays train out of FL passing here late Sat was not really hot, but larger because it could be staged for unloading early Monday by Tropicana forces for grocery store deliveries. This new northbound service eliminating the unit train northbound only and putting the cars on q140 is running Mon mid-day to Friday-mid day so there must have been some contract/price/schedule agreement with Tropicana. This combo is obviously a headhunter Harrison deal. But Philly to Greenville, NJ is still just a Tropicana car only train. NB Q140 goes down to Penrose, cuts off the Trops on the rear, engines run around, move the EOT or get a new one, change crews, and go north in late afternoon. So Tropicana must be acceptable to receiving trains Tue early AM to Sat early AM. Last Monday combined Q140 by Wilsmere was over 11500 feet with 50 Trop cars. Today's a bit smaller. Following trains during the week have fewer Tropicana and intermodal cars. The SB service on Q141 has not changed from the past five years or more. Domestic cons from Philly plus Trops from Greenville Tue-Sat. Tue and Sat are the big train days.