Eastern Railroad Discussion > NS Not Without Their Issues Too

In a post this past Friday I indicated what appears to be the early stages of a possible crew shortage problem for the CSX.A Crack In The CSX Armor?
https://www.trainorders.com/discussion/read.php?2,5061643 
Many thanks to those who replied to the original post and the replies by other TO members.

Today we take a look at what appears to be the early stages of operational issues on the NS resulting in a steady increase in car “Terminal Dwell Time”. Up until week ending 7/3/2020 NS had a string of 65 consecutive weeks of system average dwell under 20 hours. March 29, 2019 through June 26, 2020 with the only exception the annual holiday shutdown the last week in December. For the first six months of 2020 system average terminal dwell hung around the 18 hour mark and in early April 2020 a string 9 weeks saw averages in the 17 hour range. 

Now, before going any further it would be a good time to address the topic of “Cars On Line” because that number most certainly effects a railroads “Terminal Dwell Time” as well as how fluid they are. The chart below shows NS Terminal Dwell in an 8 week period in 2018 with an average “Cars On Line” at 199,315. At this time CSX was a good 16 months into their PSR operations and needless to say it had a major effect throughout the US rail network with NS bearing the brunt. Around this time NS announced that it would re-open a portion of their Chattanooga DeButts Yard hump that had been closed a year earlier. 

...more to follow...

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA

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In early May 2020 NS closed down the hump at Spence Yard in Linwood NC and spread out 16 daily inbound/outbound trains to 6 other yards in the region, 4 in North Carolina and 2 in South Carolina. By the end of May there was only a slight upward trend of system average Terminal Dwell Hours and the changes in the Piedmont did not appear to cause any major system wide issues. Then in early June 2020 NS announced the planned closing of the hump at Moorman Yard in Bellevue OH and would convert to “flat switching” of rail cars within the rail industries second largest yard in North America. 

The chart below is current and two years later from the chart above. Also some 43,300 less “Cars On Line”. Closing the hump at Bellevue in 2020 may not end up with the same results as what occurred after the same exercise in Chattanooga some three years ago given the fact there are a lot less freight cars on the system. However as you can see the Terminal Dwell Hours system wide are already starting to climb.  

...more to follow...

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA

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A final note: By no means do I have the expertise of say a Tony Hatch when it comes to analysis of the railroad operating metrics and the financial side. This is just one railfans view from the Mile Post 671.6 Detector Villa Rica Georgia on the Alabama East End District. 

Now it is time to plan my day as we have a rather interesting “off the UP” Z train..NS 226 Shreveport, LA (UP ZLCAI / KCS IZLCAI) - Atlanta, GA with the following: UP,NS,NS,NS,KCS,EMDX & EMDX. At least that was the way it was when it left Shreveport LA yesterday afternoon my sources tell me. 

Thanks for stopping by and always be safe when out track side!!!

Phil Maton
Villa Rica, GA

I have ship loading coal at CSX Curtis Bay (Baltimore). Ship docked 0001 7th
and still waiting on third and last train from mine in Penna. 
Always seem to be waiting for a crew or crew change and not even departed mine yet.
Is coal a non priority commodity?  Maybe the railroads not making much and prefer the
mixed freight, containers and trash?

 

TEEKAY Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have ship loading coal at CSX Curtis Bay
> (Baltimore). Ship docked 0001 7th
> and still waiting on third and last train from
> mine in Penna. 
> Always seem to be waiting for a crew or crew
> change and not even departed mine yet.
> Is coal a non priority commodity?  Maybe the
> railroads not making much and prefer the
> mixed freight, containers and trash?
>
>  

Coal, if it comes from West Virginia is slow getting out......too few people able to dig it up...account Corona and I don't mean beer. 

Phil:

When you have the NS stats for trains held for week ending 7/10, please add them to this topic.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/20 07:24 by Juniata.

I just love the NS: spending hundreds of millions to 'improve' Bellevue yard; then looking at the chart it is the slowest and most clogged yard;  then we are going to close the hump.  

Stupid - stupid - stupid

MEKoch Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I just love the NS: spending hundreds of millions
> to 'improve' Bellevue yard; then looking at the
> chart it is the slowest and most clogged yard; 
> then we are going to close the hump.  
>
> Stupid - stupid - stupid

Looked like it was about average until they decided to close it, then it really shot up, as well as the others.

No matter what good'ole Hunter Harrison, or his minions have said, I still don't think a hump yard is that much more expensive to operate than a flat yard (given that both types are classifying the same amount of cars and doing the same amount of work for a comparison).  I also think that hump yards have many benefits over flat yards, which are probably not even looked at in the cost equation (a big one for me is the controlled braking of cars with retarders over kicking the cars and then having them slam into others with hard joints - damaging customers' products).  It also baffles me why they say that hump yards must work at maximum capacity - that is a guaranteed recipe for congestion and delays (something they use as an excuse to close them - kind'a shooting your own foot, eh!).

I think this has more to do with new upper managements of Class One railroads that want to make the biggest mark for themselves as fast as they can - so eliminate one of the biggest, most visual signs of railroading; and these facilities have been beat down to death by these people and the idots on Wall Street have bought into it (who haven't a clue about railroading!)!  Hunter did it at CSX, Vena has done it at UP, now Squires at NS - all new management looking to make a big, highly visual change.

I can say the last couple of weeks where I work the dwell time has shot up to the point where they should be running
extra trains but there not stick to the plan we have no power except there are like 25 storage units in the yard.
From what I see from today's management is they are quick to cut jobs but when it comes to adding jobs and extra
trains they don't seem to adjust to the higher volumes. 
Most mangers where I work are out doing stop tests almost every day and some times multiple tests per day and 
no one is running the railroad we are to worried about finding a rules violation than moving the freight.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/12/20 13:44 by dpc37.