Working rail roads and their tracks.

[MossRoad]

I believe that much of the lack of business for rail is due to the rail roads themselves. I know a couple of small business's 2 in particular that have sidings at their locations but still get much of the bulk shipping done by truck rather then rail. Even when buying bulk products that would fill 2 -4 cars trucks are often prefered because the rail road will not provide a schedule or even a reasonable estimate of shipping time. When fertilizer sits for 3 months in some frieght yard instead of being delivered is it any wonder that trucks are used and cost more. That has been an issue for many years. Many of the old sidings sit unused because the RR doesn't care to provide decent service.

2-4 cars is not a lot of bulk. But generally speaking, you are spot on about some of the problems with RR shipping.

 

[the old grind]

I see 'poor service' as a logical result of RRs depending on economy of scale and not seeing short runs & short consists as efficient enough. Esp in this age of 'just-in-time' delivery that gives a huge advantage to OTR trucking and costs lines share they won't get back in the forseeable if ever.

 

[MossRoad]

Remember, when freight trains were hitting their stride, there was no interstate highway system. Heck, a lot of states didn't have intrastate highways. I recall going from here to Cincinnati and it took all day back in the 60's. Now it's 4:10. Half the time. How long would it take to send a railcar from here to Cincinnati? DAYS? Weeks?

 

[5030]

Good question, probably weeks with all the interchanges.

 

[LouNY]

One independent fertilizer and chemical dealer in my area ordered 4 bulk hopper car loads of 30-30-30 fertilizer from a plant in the midwest for what to him was a decent price at the time including shipping (this was 4-5 years ago). He placed his order and paid a month later and he hadn't received it he started looking for it as spring was coming. It was located in the south central part of the country and he could not get an estimate when he would see it.
Two months later he had to reorder pay more and have it truck shipped in as his customers were starting spring work and calling on the fertilizer they had preordered. It was mid summer when he finally got his fertilizer. Now Cargill and Ciba Giegy don't seem to have that problem for some odd reason. The railroad cost him a lot of money that year. He does still use his siding for some but he is much more carefull that he doesn't get hung out to dry again.

 

[5030]

Lou... are you implying that the rail is on par with USPS fpr 'timely delivery'????

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Lou... are you implying that the rail is on par with USPS fpr 'timely delivery'????

Well, rail never lost any of my packages.

 

[LouNY]

Lou... are you implying that the rail is on par with USPS fpr 'timely delivery'????

Actually I would have to say worse for timely.

 

[bcp]

Pay extra for timely, but get extra time instead.

Bruce

 

[Hay Dude]

I was wondering how that was progressing. I remember following that storyline by you a couple years ago.

And legit questions and concerns about how the new workplace may affect rail travel. My wife continues to work from home. It will be 2 years in April! She only goes into the office about 1 workday out of 7 or 8 for things that need to be physically handled (mail, mostly). They removed all of the individual cubicles (several dozen) and installed a 'pod' of 4 workstation desks. You bring your laptop with you, sit down at a workstation desk, take care of business, and go home.

It’s moving along pretty well. My son maybe able to utilize it for grad school commuting into Philly.
If you look at the Northbound view, of course you see the bridge across the highway. Notice new catenary constructed on the west side? We were told this would not happen, but it appears to me the line is going to be extended further. Next substantial sized town is West Chester. Service to West Chester was discontinued in 1990. All that operates on the tracks now is a rich guy running a tourist train.
I guess they have decided to keep going with more track!

 

[MossRoad]

It’s moving along pretty well. My son maybe able to utilize it for grad school commuting into Philly.
If you look at the Northbound view, of course you see the bridge across the highway. Notice new catenary constructed on the west side? We were told this would not happen, but it appears to me the line is going to be extended further. Next substantial sized town is West Chester. Service to West Chester was discontinued in 1990. All that operates on the tracks now is a rich guy running a tourist train.
I guess they have decided to keep going with more track!

So I google earthed it a few minutes ago. Interesting. I guess if they built that bridge west of the station, they're planning on continuing west. I see the new catenary supports to the west. I went to the western end of that line in West Chester. Saw the yard for the rich guy. Looks like quite the eclectic collection. That line dead ends. You can see some old grade to the west of that, but there's a building directly across the street. There's that little yellow engine by the street. Looks to be a few old catenary supports there. So that was an electric line at one time?

 

[Hay Dude]

So I google earthed it a few minutes ago. Interesting. I guess if they built that bridge west of the station, they're planning on continuing west. I see the new catenary supports to the west. I went to the western end of that line in West Chester. Saw the yard for the rich guy. Looks like quite the eclectic collection. That line dead ends. You can see some old grade to the west of that, but there's a building directly across the street. There's that little yellow engine by the street. Looks to be a few old catenary supports there. So that was an electric line at one time?

Yes it was.
The end of the line in West Chester used to be a large mill called the “Sharpless Works” 100 years ago. It terminated into a tunnel in the mill. The mill was turned into luxury apartments.
The line also had freight traffic from the quarry in Glen Mills, between Wawa and West Chester. If you look real carefully to the south of the new train station on Google maps, you’ll see the train line that came into my town.
That was the one destroyed by Agnes in ‘72 and never rebuilt. It would still probably be open, or at least open/abandoned if we never met that fateful hurricane.

 

[Hay Dude]

A bit more history about that very fateful rail line. It was only about 8 miles of track from Wawa to Chadds Ford.
in the map below, you see the red line. It is the path of the old rails. The rails are still there in the weeds and I farm the land near them.

Right where the red line crosses Ring Road is where artist and illustrator N.C. Wyeth was killed along with his grandson in 1945. He crossed the tracks without looking or some say his car stalled. The train killed both of them on impact and pushed the car a few hundred yards down the tracks. The property I farm is just below the red line. The residents of the farm heard the brakeman jamb on the brakes, but far too late.

 

[MossRoad]

I saw that quarry. Quite the hole.

I think I've mentioned I have an abandoned RR grade on one edge of our rural property. And an old trestle. There was a siding on the south side of the bridge, so it's double wide in there for about 1/4 mile. It was active line until the 80's. They removed the track and ties but left the ballast. I kinda wish they'd have converted it to trails, but now it's just abandoned and overgrown. I find spikes and metal occasionally, but the trees are starting to come up through the ballast.

 

[MossRoad]

A bit more history about that very fateful rail line. It was only about 8 miles of track from Wawa to Chadds Ford.
in the map below, you see the red line. It is the path of the old rails. The rails are still there in the weeds and I farm the land near them.

Right where the red line crosses Ring Road is where artist and illustrator N.C. Wyeth was killed along with his grandson in 1945. He crossed the tracks without looking or some say his car stalled. The train killed both of them on impact and pushed the car a few hundred yards down the tracks. The property I farm is just below the red line. The residents of the farm heard the brakeman jamb on the brakes, but far too late.

The RR that went through our property crosses a highway at the bottom of a large dip on both sides. Many car/train accidents occurred there I'm told. An older man that worked for me at the Newspaper said during the Vietnam war, he was a conscientious objector due to religious beliefs. He took a job as an ambulance driver during the war here locally. He recalls going to that crossing many times and pulling bodies from the wrecks. No flashers, just cross bucks. All gone now, probably for the better in that location.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Tractors and Trains

 

[aczlan]

+ 1 on that Lou. One of my hunting buddies owns the local propane dealership (no I don't get a discount other than dryer gas which is tax exempt) and he has a rather large tank (bottle) farm in Adrian, Michigan with a siding. He usually fills them via truck because the rail is very inconsistent with deliveries and interestingly, if the deliver rail bottles, they have to be emptied in a very short time span or the rail charges detention (think it's called on them) and he told me this year, trucking was actually less than rail. If I remember correctly, he has 25 10,000 gallon bottles there. All fenced and key carded too.

For the cars that we get at work we have 24 hours from when they are "parked" at our rail dock to unload them (Sat and Sun do not count). We get heavy loads of product (~3000# per pallet space) shipped across the country via rail, that means 11-13 per truck or 48-70 per railcar (depending on the box car size).

Aaron Z

 

[RobS]

A little oops in Michigan Saturday. High winds brought some power lines down and a train found them!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1244604789368157

 

[MossRoad]

Yikes!

 

[CobyRupert]

A little oops in Michigan Saturday. High winds brought some power lines down and a train found them!

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1244604789368157

Good for the people in the cars that the train is going in that direction instead of the other way.