Have You Noticed All the Trains Waiting?

Its like that everywhere Art. Volumes are way up, and being peak season, if you're not a hot Z train, you're gonna sit and wait. Even those hot Z's are gonna wait, because the yards are plugged. Gotta get a train out, before there is room to bring one in.

When I drive down I 355 in the western suburbs of Chicago, I invariably see eastbound UP trains at the overpass waiting to get into Global 2. When we were looking at houses 20 years ago, one lot we looked at in Wheaton backed up to the UP, and the trains were waiting then, too. Global 2 is a gigantic yard, of course, so waiting for a signal is part of the deal.

I live in a small town near the tracks in PA, the amount of freight and number of trains that pass thru since Warren Buffet purchased BNSF has increased dramatically.

 

Art

Art This is the reason why you will see many of my shots taken and they are not moveing, the trains even get stoped going west in Somanauck. But the majority of my shots are east bond trains. This is one of the trains parked going inbound at Sandwich, Illinois that you saw that day. This has been going on since I first started taking photos of the trains back in March. I can hear a East bound train right now heading toward Chicago.

My daughter lives 3 blocks from the CSX mainline near Charleston WV....the tracks are very busy during our visit last week. Lots of coal, covered hoppers and intermodal. Very little other traffic......I know box cars are out there....but not many in this area. CSX is hiring in Huntington too........my son interviewed but their schedule didn't mesh with his....so he had to pass. 

read page 6;

 

bnsf

 

 

the other railroads are doing the same.

 

they all post info on their facebook page and you do not have to have a facebook page to read about it.

I am seeing it in Tampa too. The CSX line that runs along 41 south to Bradenton has seen a dramatic increase of traffic. The line runs by my house. CSX is now hiring conductors in the Tampa area.

 

Doug

Just got held up at FEC crossing for 15 minutes. That's a record here. I live along a section of US 1 in Florida where there are industrial sidings included along with the FEC mainline. Yes traffic has been increasing and the switchers are building longer consists.

Art those UP unit trains are the same ones that are constantly blocking the crossings in Elmhurst while waiting to get cleared to the Proviso yards.

The tracks run through the center of town and there have been times when they blocked crossings for 15-20 minutes at a time.  

My family is probably one of the few that when approaching a railroad crossing we are hoping for the lights to come on.  And slow down so we don't have to cross the tracks and can watch the train.

 

Art

I've seen this happen a few times here outside Austin (UP Territory)--in particular eastbounds, paralleling McNeil Road and Hwy 79, heading toward Taylor.  A couple of times I've also seen a train waiting to enter Taylor yard from the north, although I don't know what traffic was like behind them.

I drove the Water Level Route from Rochester to Albany & back last week. It sure seemed like there was heavy traffic. Detectors were keeping the scanner busy all the way too.

It is said that when UP's Global One/Proviso is full, traffic can back up to central Iowa. The US rail system can be compared to the human circulatory system......a blockage in one section impacts the entire system eventually. Same in the airline industry. Northwestern University has a masters degree major in automobile traffic management and they employ the circulatory system as their model.

Something else I've seen more of lately: DPUs, and not just on coal trains!  I'm seeing them on a variety of trains now, with an autorack train being the most recent.