Eastern Railroad Discussion > Clinchfield and direct intermodal services

BNSF and CXS have announced direct internodal service from Southern California to Charlotte.  Could access to Charlotte via Kansas City and Cincinnati have been one of the reasons for rapidly rebuilding the Clinchfield?

Probably not; the old Clinchfield does not have clearance for double-stack service, nor do most of the feeder lines that serve it (such as the former C&O in Ohio and Kentucky). 

CSX did run a pair of intermodal trains to/from the Northwest Ohio Terminal to Norfolk, VA via Fostoria, Ohio, Charleston, WV and Richmond, VA, on the old C&O, during the Virginia Avenue Tunnel project in Washington, DC.  But, it was a single level train and ended as soon as the tunnel was done.

One time, the train was mistakenly double stacked and left the terminal; it got as far as Chillicothe, Ohio without incident before someone noticed and stopped the train.  

There are other ways into Charlotte that do have the clearance.

I believe the routing is via the old Seaboard route out of Atlanta via Monroe NC.

BNSF has direct intermodal service to Altanta already; they can tack any Charlotte IM traffic on that train and run to Charlotte in manifest service until volume builds big enough to run complete trains.

Which existing manifest schedule would you suggest handle that block?

Posted from Android

I don't know.  But, if I recall, EHH's CSX used to add intermodal cuts of cars to manifest trains, like any other railcar.  I don't know if that was before or after CSX abandoned numerous "hub and spoke" intermodal lanes at his order.  I only remember the brand new Northwest Ohio intermodal terminal being reduced to little more than a block-swap yard early in EHH's PSR.

One of the local chairman told me CSX was putting on a new intermodal schedule Atlanta - Charlotte.

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From a recent thread, I would say CSX is trying to use solid intermodal trains betwee Charlotte and Atlanta:

CSX/BNSF Intermodals are off and running

Zars, there is no manifest between those points. The traffic would have to go to Hamlet and then back to Charlotte. Or get set off in Monroe. Between the local moves of getting the block from Fairburn to Howell (yet another local move) and those previously mentioned these boxes would find the highway quickly.

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BNSF/CSX has been running dedicated intermodal trains between Birmingham and Charlotte that work Fairburn. Some have been pretty small, only 20 loads some days north of Fairburn, but they're straight intermodal trains, not tacked on to manifest.

Tough for CSX to build a direct connector at Monroe to avoid the power run-around. Routing it near NC 200 would mean expensive land to pay for, and doing it just east of the Goulston site would be an extremely tight curve. Maybe if NCDOT came to the table with dollars like they did for the Pembroke east-side connector which is 2 miles long. Cheap land around Pembroke, though. No cheap land near Charlotte. 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/30/25 16:17 by ctillnc.

          Sounds like we will know the answer in a year or two.

An outward-facing DP unit on the rear works very nicely in such situations. It takes some thought and operational effort (which we know is not a strong suit at the present-day Class 1s) but is a much more economical solution, especially while traffic grows in the early days of service.




ctillnc Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Tough for CSX to build a direct connector at
> Monroe to avoid the power run-around. Routing it
> near NC 200 would mean expensive land to pay for,
> and doing it just east of the Goulston site would
> be an extremely tight curve. Maybe if NCDOT came
> to the table with dollars like they did for the
> Pembroke east-side connector which is 2 miles
> long. Cheap land around Pembroke, though. No cheap
> land near Charlotte. 

Posted from Android

As others have said, this is a dedicated honest to goodness intermodal train operating between Birmingham and Charlotte on a 5 day a week basis for several weeks now.  I187 departs Birmingham usually late afternoon or evening and typically arrives in Charlotte around 24 hours later, after spending a couple hours working Fairburn GA and an hour or so reversing direction at Monroe.  I188 usually departs Charlotte early afternoon and arrives Birmingham roughly 24 hours later, again, spending time reversing direction in Monroe and working Fairburn.

CSXT now serve Charlotte with THREE pairs of "intermodal" trains
I137/138 - to/from Jacksonville
I187/188 - to/from Birmingham
L702/703 - to/from Wilmington NC.  Wilmington is a growing port putting a much greater emphasis on container - fresh fruit/vegetable from Caribbean, NC poultry and pork to Caribbean are big traffic lanes.  702/703 is the Wilmington/Hamlet/Charlotte worker, is usually quite long, and can be over half double stack. After port expansion is complete, very possible the containers will become a stand along I series train between Wilmington and Charlotte.  

Where are those containers to/from Wilmington ultimately going to/ coming from? Is Charlotte basically an inland port to Wilmington like Crandall is to Savannah?

Off-topic, but interesting that you should mention the port of Wilmington.  In 1995, the late David Brinkley, NBC- and ABC-TV journalist, published his memoirs.  He was a native of Wilmington, and his book included many memories of growing up in that city in the years just before and during the Great Depression.  In particular, he made mention of the ocean-going ships that would navigate the treacherous waters of the Cape Fear River until they reached the port and how the men of Wilmington's "Dry Pond" neighborhood would sign on as laborers to earn a few dollars unloading the ships' cargoes, particularly produce, including bananas.  (Brinkley's father worked in the office for the Atlantic Coast Line, which had its headquarters in Wilmington in those days.) 

Jeff Gast
Greenwood, Indiana      



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/01/25 09:28 by inrdjlg.

Wilmington NC port statistics. Record Intermodal volume for the year ending July 2025

https://ncports.com/about-the-ports/news/north-carolina-ports-provides-fiscal-year-2025-recap/

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MattW Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Where are those containers to/from Wilmington
> ultimately going to/ coming from? Is Charlotte
> basically an inland port to Wilmington like
> Crandall is to Savannah?

Charlotte is an inland port for NC Ports.  They offer "Queen City Express" service - available for pickup in Charlotte 24 hours after discharge from vessel.  Bulk of the cans are for this but I believe a few might now go to Atlanta and Birmingham as well.   CSXT does similar service at their Carolina Connector terminal in Rocky Mount NC for I-95 corridor (rubber) service into Northern NC and Virginia, an area booing with distribution centers.