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They didn't want all these little tracks to businesses, Intermodal was the wave of the future. And so this is why you see lots of Rails Torn up that used to serve many types of industries who are now served by Big Trucking Firms which tend to Clog our Freeways more now than ever.
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Joining GM layoffs and plant shutdowns. Economy is going into a whirl wind, slow down.
*cough* Precision Scheduled Railroading *cough*. 'Scuse me, I think I'm coming down with something.
@1161mac: I also like shortlines better than the big class 1 railroads for several reasons. One of the reasons is that trains go a bit slower than on Class 1's. Some are more scenic than others. They also have a smaller motive power roster, which means it takes a lot less time to make an entire fleet than a large Class 1 railroad. Some of them tend to be more interesting, specifically shortlines running tourist trains, such as the Chattanooga & Chickamauga Railway. However, I also like branchlines for Class 1 railroads for similar reasons.
This has me greatly worried, and it is obviously apparent why this is happeningJoining GM layoffs and plant shutdowns. Economy is going into a whirl wind, slow down.
This has me greatly worried, and it is obviously apparent why this is happening
I have said it before and I'll sat it again, you can't have all your eggs in one basket, years ago, I spoke with certain folks in the Railroad World, better than a decade ago not just this one but other RR Co's too about why Branch lines and small business didn't have a good working Rail System, and was basically told, the vision of the companies is the most basic, Point A to B straight as the Crow Flies.
They didn't want all these little tracks to businesses, Intermodal was the wave of the future. And so this is why you see lots of Rails Torn up that used to serve many types of industries who are now served by Big Trucking Firms which tend to Clog our Freeways more now than ever.
And an additional Intermodal Facility was to be built in the Northern Los Angeles County area to take the Strain off Port Trucking off our Freeways and Distribution of Intermodal stuff........ It never happened either, so take a look at how many trucks go up the Grape Vine (5 Freeway) and see what happens to them when our Storms and or Snow White outs close the Grape Vine down! Bet you the Railroad would have no problems getting their loads over the hill.
I spoke with several manufacturing firms, and asked why they were not shipping by Rail... .Guess what the answer was?
Railroad won't serve us anymore, or it's too expensive, or the Track gets broken and can take months to fix Spur lines etc.........
Also Spoke with some unnamed ROW workers and they confirmed the same answer as the Manufacturing Firms.....And will leave it at that.
Now you add to that the California Port Strike that went on for months, and we had several hundred ships sitting off our coast, while longshoreman fought for higher Raises..
https://www.google.com/search?q=Port+Strike+on+Pacific+Coast&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-1
And this little Strike struck a raw cord with both Local Companies that couldn't get their Goods and lost tons of money, prices went up for consumers, and now we pay higher prices all the way around.
Granted everyone has the right to Strike, but this one got way out of control, and Washington needed to do a better job, it didn't happen.
It was also whispered that certain Countries said enough is enough, we will not deal with unreliability, so now other places are building Ports to handle the Business we didn't here locally. And our Port will never attain the business they could have had due to internal Labor and Cost problems.
Not to beat a Dead Horse here, but with Coal Mines shut down, and so many other things, I'm not surprised about the layoffs.
There needs to be a change of thought about how Railroads serve local businesses, because what I see now, is lot less Rail Service here than what we used to have, and whole lot more Trucking carrying what was once shipped on the Rail.......I have nothing against the Trucking Industry, they are vital to our Country, but Railroads are not utilizing the capacity they have built up.
I have been watching lots of Tracks unused all over California and other States too, and a lot of Track torn up too, you know what happens when track is torn up, it usually is a death sentence to the Right of Way, and never comes back again, all in the name of Progress, now ask Californians how they like driving on the Freeway.......We have the worst traffic in the nation, and that is disgusting to me.
Sorry about the Rant, but this is the way I see it.............Thank You Sir Dave for sharing..........
Fred Frailey (I believe) did a write-up either on or related to PSR in a recent issue of Trains. Specifically, he was talking about some of the things CN does when faced with longer trains and a lack of infrastructure: they break the train in two, tie it down in two separate sidings, wait for conflicting traffic to clear, then reverse, couple, and continue on. Someone please explain to me how that's anywhere close to efficient.
CSX came up with a clever solution with running longer trains on the Western & Atlantic Subdivision, specifically at the passing siding in Dalton. If you take a satellite view of Dalton. CSX has two diamonds across the Norfolk Southern tracks: one crossing NS' mainline to access CSX's small yard and another one where the CSX mainline crosses NS' mainline. The yard connects directly to the passing siding that ends south of CSX's mainline crossing with NS' mainline. If the train is too long to fit in the siding, the train will instead be directed across the NS' mainline into the yard and then out of the yard and into the passing siding. This happens at least once a day so the route is able to handle most of the longer trains that are result in the implementation of PSR. That's a pretty clever solution to running PSR on such a historic route.
YouTube guy mbmars001 (I think that's his name) has some nice videos of the action along the Dalton line including some trains really grinding and groaning away as they run along the line down there. At 15,000 Feet, these are massive trains!
I think it is akin to the Chevy Vega, the Ford Pinto, and the Corvair ... nobody really wanted them ... useless productsIt's called, over production, market over valued as usual.... Spills over into everything else....... We have been warned several times over the last year by talking head's.....
I spoke about a lot of that in my personal marketing plan for one of my business classes. Precision Scheduled Railroading places a higher emphasis on operating ratios and efficiency instead of where the focus should be: on the customers. It's a lot like a certain political belief where it looks great on paper but it's terrible in reality.
Fred Frailey (I believe) did a write-up either on or related to PSR in a recent issue of Trains. Specifically, he was talking about some of the things CN does when faced with longer trains and a lack of infrastructure: they break the train in two, tie it down in two separate sidings, wait for conflicting traffic to clear, then reverse, couple, and continue on. Someone please explain to me how that's anywhere close to efficient.
All these issues are reasons why I want to work in the rail industry...I come from a customer service background. I couldn't imagine leaving a customer cut off from service they need for efficiency's sake. I understand that things happen but...there's a limit.
Someone needs to get it through their head that efficiency doesn't mean jack if you don't have any customers.