Eastern Railroad Discussion > CSX restoring some interdivsional runs

When EHH took over CSX, one of the first radical changes he made was to abolish long pool (interdivisional) crews so that the crews working 100-150 mile runs would have time to make the multiple pickup/setoffs associated with Precision Railroading.  On the Albany Division, most 270-mile Selkirk-Buffalo runs were abolished, with crews changing in DeWitt (Syracuse, NY).  Recently the Selkirk-Buffalo long pool was restored because DeWitt was becoming congested due to all the trains waiting in line to change crews (apparently the ranks of TCU-represented jeep drivers was not restored to handle the crews if the train was stopped beyond walking distance of the yard office).  I understand that there are also a few DeWitt-Collinwood (Cleveland, OH) long pool crews.
Are there any other IDR/long pool crew districts that have been recently restored?
Andy

I’ve heard the Waycross-Tampa pool is coming back also.

Thank you for the update.

EHH's favorite quote must have been Jean-Luc Picard's "Make it So!"
 

Naw, the favorite is "the customers don't know what they are talking about ".

Nothing like re-inventing the wheel!  Some big wig probably got a bonus when he suggested to operate long-pool interdivisional runs ("Wow!  What a concept!").

I had heard that they were going to begin North Jersey-Syracuse and Syracuse-Collinwood long pools.

That sums up PSR right there.   All road mixed freight trains are basically long haul locals.   Taking 4 times longer because of all the set outs and pick ups from point A to point B.  


twropr Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> When EHH took over CSX, one of the first radical
> changes he made was to abolish long pool
> (interdivisional) crews so that the crews working
> 100-150 mile runs would have time to make the
> multiple pickup/setoffs associated with Precision
> Railroading.  On the Albany Division, most
> 270-mile Selkirk-Buffalo runs were abolished, with
> crews changing in DeWitt (Syracuse, NY). 
> Recently the Selkirk-Buffalo long pool was
> restored because DeWitt was becoming congested due
> to all the trains waiting in line to change crews
> (apparently the ranks of TCU-represented jeep
> drivers was not restored to handle the crews if
> the train was stopped beyond walking distance of
> the yard office).  I understand that there are
> also a few DeWitt-Collinwood (Cleveland, OH) long
> pool crews.
> Are there any other IDR/long pool crew districts
> that have been recently restored?
> Andy

WLE2679 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> That sums up PSR right there.   All road mixed
> freight trains are basically long haul locals. 
>  Taking 4 times longer because of all the set
> outs and pick ups from point A to point B.  
>

Be careful as you can go too far the other way.  After I retired fifteen years ago (before PSR) I worked for a few months with a short line in upstate New York.  Our service was impeccable but cars would then sit for days at the CSX interchange because the one local was full, or on short time, or there was a van train right behind him so he couldn’t stop, etc.  Not all elements of PSR are necessarily bad, but it’s not a black and white world and the key is in care and planning in implementation.

Gordon



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/19 17:47 by gbmott.

This just shows that people hate change,whether for the better or worse. I am old enough to remember people extolling the benefits of short pools (100-150 miles) and how interdividional long pools were the devil incarnated and how they wouldn’t work and how they affected jobs and...and...  you get the picture. Now we are applauding their return as the way to run a railroad. I don’t have a horse in this race at all,just curious to the reactions I see posted. 

   Tom

I just think we like what works and hate what sucks. I am sure that long pools were indeed dreaded when they were new, but the SD40-2, better radios, roller bearings and other improvements made a lot of things possible that weren't just a few years beforehand. I am sure that when guys got used to the extra miles per start, they gradually were won over. I didn't hear many old heads complaining about how it used to be better.

You can believe actual rails when we question wth is going on out there. We have seen things in the last year and a half that border on the absurd. As you can see, even the greatest of Hunter's disciples are undoing some of the changes. We saw customers sometimes go over a week without service because of his hand grenades.

Our Interdivisional run was never abolished since we have no intermediate crew change place anymore...the few trains that do stop in the middle get deadheaded home as the nearest flophouse is 45 minutes away. Plus there were other things that made our ID's good....in fact we now have a new ID pool that goes all the way to the coast, and it was one of EHH's hires that wanted that job put on. So far we can't get everyone singing off the same page, but when we can get the whole 308 miles it's a good run. Slowly it getting easier to make it...principally you have to depart either end within 15 minutes of call time in order to have a sufiicient fudge time on line of run...say for meets and other delays...if you use to much delay time before you start...you have no delay time at all. We are browbeating everyone in management to realize that. Some think it is we T&E who make trains die on line of road...but in fact it is we that want to get over the road....it benefits us not one bit to ride a cab the last 50 miles. 

308 miles through mountains is remarkable. And I completely agree, it is not the T&E folks who stab such runs. It is the missing paperwork, the DS working a combined desk who takes too long to answer the radio, the call that was too early, the wagon that showed up laate, etc.

If the company took the other end of the trade seriously, and said "what can we do to get this train from A to B, 300 miles away, within the hours of service" things would be different.  A lot different.  Instead of "how can we save $15?"

I can remember the Conrail River Line dispatchers in NY 30 years ago had "lever men" assigned to Selkirk DS. These guys managed cab pickups, talked with the police dispatchers, kept track of when crews would go dead on HOS, etc. And, I can remember when they went away, and guys had to cut away from talking to a train to take a call from police, call a cab, etc.  Stupid, false economy.

engineerinvirginia, Where does the ID run to the coast start and terminate that you speak of?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/19 16:09 by cockaboose.