Eastern Railroad Discussion > What Is The Latest On NS Allentown Yard? NS Report Card

In early July is was mentioned on this forum that NS would be changing over to flat switching at the Allentown Yard?

https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,4827424,4838189#msg-4838189 

Can anyone confirm it this the case or are they still using the hump at Allentown?
Some have suggested that the Allentown yard should be closed and that classification from there be shifted to the NS Enola Yard. From a Terminal Dwell standpoint
Allentown continues to be in the lower tier of the the 10 NS yards Terminal Dwell reported to the STB.

On subject of Terminal Dwell NS has made a significant reduction on this metric during the past year. The two charts below are for the same 8 week period 2018 Vs 2019. Since one year ago NS has trimmed over 26,000 on line cars from their system. And although the AAR recently reported the total combined U.S. traffic for the first 31 weeks of 2019 was 16,054,912 carloads and intermodal units, a decrease of 3.5% compared to the same period 2018, I subscribe to the fact that NS is in a much better position (TOP 21) to efficiently service their customers needs in a timely manner basically using less equipment. Forget what the numbers say...I see this everyday in local NS operations Vs last year here in west Georgia!!
NSSpike

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/19 04:59 by NSSpike.

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The hump at Allentown has indeed been idled and now we flat shift. The woes at Enola seem to be building with the increase in traffic there however. Interesting that Enola doesn't appear on these dwell reports.

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/19 06:34 by OHRY.

OHRY Wrote:
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Interesting that Enola doesn't appear on
> these dwell reports.

Agree. In the 2018 chart 14 yards dwell time was listed in the RPM (Railroad Performance Measures) posting each week by the AAR. 
CSX was the first to stop reporting to the RPM. Then KCS stopped reporting their numbers earlier this year. In late June 2019 RPM
notified that they would no longer make their weekly report available at the end of June. That all railroads would publish their metrics
on their company web sites.  For as long as I can remember all of the NS reeports to the STB, only included the 10 yards that are listed 2019.

 

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA

Keeping reports on company websites allows the use of utterly fictitious information. As long there are pencils, pencil whipping shall be done!

OHRY Wrote:
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> The hump at Allentown has indeed been idled and
> now we flat shift. The woes at Enola seem to be
> building with the increase in traffic there
> however. Interesting that Enola doesn't appear on
> these dwell reports.
>
> Posted from Android

Is there any truth to some of the 12Rs being sent to Allentown due to issues at Enola??

ns1000 Wrote:
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> Is there any truth to some of the 12Rs being sent
> to Allentown due to issues at Enola??

At least one has run to Allentown recently.

Andrew

Make it 4 12R's and a W7A AND a 18N that didn't set off at Enola but bypassed and set off at Allentown. Those were just the past weekend!

Posted from Android



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/19 08:53 by OHRY.

engineerinvirginia Wrote:
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> Keeping reports on company websites allows the use
> of utterly fictitious information. As long there
> are pencils, pencil whipping shall be done!

Certainly makes it difficult for outside observers to monitor performance, that's for sure.

When management says "we expect coal shipments to be up 5% in the second quarter", it's nice to be able to look at actual coal loadings and see how that prediction is playing out.

OHRY Wrote:
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> Make it 4 12R's and a W7A AND a 18N that didn't
> set off at Enola but bypassed and set off at
> Allentown. Those were just the past weekend!

Any of those listed above run with mid-train DPU? Friend of mine drove by there recently with no scanner..
Pic he sent had NS #4149 & #9569 in mid train DPU.
Thanks

 

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA

Yes the 12R's had DP power.

Posted from Android

NS has a rich history in covering up failures in Enola Yard (injuries, car counts, derailments, dwell time, etc.). They don’t want Enola to be exposed for the huge money pit that it truly is. Conrail closed Enola for good reasons.

Enola is unique,and will be around for a long time. Expensive to operate, maybe, but in addition to being the largest yard in the area that can classify through "loose car" merchandise trains, it also handles significant amounts of business to/from satellite yards at Shiremanstown, Lancaster, and York, AND  it handles regular coal and merchandise trains to/from Baltimore that can only be released down the "Port Road" during nighttime hours when the Amtrak "window" opens. 

Yesterday a 12R was diverted to Allentown.

Enola seems to be better located for a classification yard, all other logistical problems aside.  Allentown will always have locals based there , and transfer runs to the LV terminal RR (whatever its called) that uses the old PBNE tracks for intermodal and freight transfer.,

mp109 Wrote:
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> Yesterday a 12R was diverted to Allentown.


Also one last Sunday evening the 11th.

Posted from Android

Doug Wetherhold
Macungie, PA

A few 16T's have made the journey too. There will be some changes this coming week to help ease some of the strain on Enola.

Posted from Android

OHRY Wrote:
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> A few 16T's have made the journey too. There will
> be some changes this coming week to help ease some
> of the strain on Enola.
>
> Posted from Android

Can’t wait to see what they are!

Allentown Yard has always been a favorite spot of mine since my dad started taking me there in the late 70’s. You have trains coming down From Buffalo and Binghamton, training coming in from the west, and locals working in all directions to service eastern PA and a good chunk of northern NJ.

Dan

Posted from iPhone

Here is the issue with enola it's always had issues during the conrail era and up ns should have just switched things up for example 18n should be an Allentown train automatically bc it goes to Jersey doesn't need to be in enola, 16t and 15t should be Allentown trains also bc there is alot of congestion in enola and with the high demands in traffic its just gonna be a nightmare ns should have thought about this b4 changing Allentown yard

Posted from Android

ns7500 Wrote:
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> Here is the issue with enola it's always had
> issues during the conrail era and up ns should
> have just switched things up for example 18n
> should be an Allentown train automatically bc it
> goes to Jersey doesn't need to be in enola, 16t
> and 15t should be Allentown trains also bc there
> is alot of congestion in enola and with the high
> demands in traffic its just gonna be a nightmare
> ns should have thought about this b4 changing
> Allentown yard

18N is a classic case of constantly changing operating plans, as management people get shuffled around.  18N used to split its train at Enola, until someone realized that the moves there either a) required reversing the entire train (if you bring the entire train in the yard for the set out) or b) clogging up a track on a busy east/west main for several hours (at BANKS) while the crew brought the set out in to Enola.  The second option often resulted in having to perform a new Class 1 air test on the NJ portion, as those cars were often "off air" for 4+ hours.  So, it was decided that 18N would split at Conway, with the NJ portion recrewing and relaying as-is, and the cars headed east of Enola placed on an Enola bound train (that had to work Enola anyway).  That worked great ... until all the big bosses get shuffled around, and someone who wasn't part of the decision making process THEN, gets involved in the NOW.  They come in, and decide that they don't like 18N working at Conway, even though there was sound logic behind the original decision.  Sooooo ... they go and restore the original service plan of 18N working Enola.  Now you're back to clogging a busy terminal, which could have been prevented had they bothered to ask any of the actual operating people why things were set up the way they were.

Over the years, one learns that railroad management is often a continuous cycle of "back to the future," fixing and recreating the same mistakes over and over again, because the "fast movers" in the managment chain don't understand the reasons why things were done a certain way ... and their fix to the "NOW," recreates the problems that were solved "THEN."  That's what happens when you look at "efficiency" on a yard-by-yard basis, and don't take into consideration the effect your decisions have on other terminals down the line.  Sure, 18N working at Conway may have not been the most efficient for Conway. BUT, doing it that way, made things FAR more efficient in an already-clogged and busy Harrisburg Terminal.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 08/21/19 09:12 by bioyans.

Don't forget that 18N now carries Allentown freight from Bellevue to.....Enola. Which is then put on 30A. Now 18N is taking 6-7 hours to get out of Enola to drop off freight for a yard that in passes on the way.

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