Eastern Railroad Discussion > Is Avon or Willard jammed up?

I was reading comments on another site where CSX workers air their thoughts and several comments say that Willard and Avon are in meltdown mode, with way too many cars and trains being held back. One person said New Castle has 700 cars for Willard that Willard can't take, and Willard is actually sending cars to New Castle to get them out of the way.

Quite a few people on here are in Ohio, so I'm wondering if anyone see hints of this in the operations.

inCHI Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I was reading comments on another site where CSX
> workers air their thoughts and several comments
> say that Willard and Avon are in meltdown mode,
> with way too many cars and trains being held back.
> One person said New Castle has 700 cars for
> Willard that Willard can't take, and Willard is
> actually sending cars to New Castle to get them
> out of the way.
>
> Quite a few people on here are in Ohio, so I'm
> wondering if anyone see hints of this in the
> operations.


I don't have info on the operations at Avon or Willard, but this is a very good example of where people on the ground often have a better and earlier appreciation of what's going on than people on Wall Street have.

Willard is a mess. Trains being held out all the time trying to find a place for them. Hearing Willard has till the end of the month to get its act together or the eastbound hump will be gone.

Posted from iPhone

farmer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Willard is a mess. Trains being held out all the
> time trying to find a place for them. Hearing
> Willard has till the end of the month to get its
> act together or the eastbound hump will be gone.

Wait, huh? So, close the westbound hump, reorganize trains, chaos ensues at Willard, and then threaten that the "solution" is to close the other hump!? How in the world could they flat switch their way out of the jam?

An Avon comment I saw: "Avon is packed with cars, it is bursting at the seams right now. It
doesnt have enogh engines to move trains out of departure yard and they
got another 1200 in route. 700 in recieving, 1000 in bowl, and 1150 in
departure." (disclaimer, not the one who can verify any of this.)

Apparently the bowl of spaghetti actually needs some of those closed down humpyards. Chaos everywhere.
Possible merger???

Posted from iPhone

Hi Guys
The only way to fix this problem is to get rid of the dummy CEO and get back to real railroading
Westbound hump is closed at Willard and trying to receive trains from both directions in the Eastbound
along with taking away the number 2 main to use for yarding and switching and take the trains back out
Eastbound to Peru Center and cross back over and push the humped cars into the Westbound for trains to be worked
by the carman and air tested and then depart causing trains to sit outside of Willard in both directions
Willard use to get 90 to 120 trains a day thru and now your lucky if you see 2 to 10
Very very poor CEO management

Really 90-120 trains a day? Wow didn't realize that!

Posted from iPhone

Avon was clogged in Conrail days so it's nothing new

Posted from Android

JOHNY5ALIVE Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Really 90-120 trains a day? Wow didn't realize
> that!
>
> Posted from iPhone


Willard has traffic from two mains, the ex B&O and ex NYC from east and all traffic from Chicago.

inCHI Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> farmer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Willard is a mess. Trains being held out all
> the
> > time trying to find a place for them. Hearing
> > Willard has till the end of the month to get
> its
> > act together or the eastbound hump will be gone.
>
>
> Wait, huh? So, close the westbound hump,
> reorganize trains, chaos ensues at Willard, and
> then threaten that the "solution" is to close the
> other hump!? How in the world could they flat
> switch their way out of the jam?

No kidding. This yard and mainline location seemed to be the most efficient on the system after the upgrade. No hump on your most traffic density line on your system would be a crazy idea.

Yes, Avon was clogged sometimes in the Conrail days, even mid-late 1990s. That was 18 or more years ago, and a lot of the automotive related traffic,(long cars) has dried up due to changes in that industry, even in Indianapolis. But Avon is supposed to be closed soon under the Chairman's master plan. How can you close a yard that is clogged? For a few weeks, in early June, things were running well on the Philly Sub, trains on time, etc. But now only the remaining intermodal train is on time, most of the time. Everything else is erratic. Q375 comes out of Philly with about seven blocks, has to hold onto some cars and set off the middle, blocking a major road for 45 min or more, and has most folks confused.

Willard Yard was running about mid to high 20's in dwell hours up until three weeks ago. As of July 7th, dwell was at 36.2 hours.

Avon Yard was running about the same as Willard Yard until about four weeks ago. As of July 7th, dwell was at 34.2 hours.

Of Concern
Larger dwell hours exist at the following yards as of July 7, 2017.

Montgomery Ala. @ 52.6 hours
Louisville KY. @ 45.7 hours
Nashville TN @ 44 hours
Russell KY. @ 43.3 hours
Toledo OH @ 50.1 hours

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA

The emperor has no clothes.

Heard a dispatcher talking about no room at the Inn, Garrett, too many cars and trains, that soon he would have to start parking trains where he could find room.

It's all part of the plan. Make the customer unhappy and run off as much of the carload traffic as you can. Charge more for what stays around and cut cut cut as you go. Eventually when most of the pesky customers will be gone and so will the congestion. Things will flow easily and what's left will be charged a higher rates and make a lot of money.

Posted from iPhone

That clown has to go

I haven't seen Avon jammed up too awfully bad, but I can attest that Avon is running flat out every day.

Posted from Android

Add Connellsville to the list.

2100 cars waiting to get into Willard this morning.

Posted from iPhone