Interesting article on the shortage of hoppers and motive power.
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Here where I live in State College, PA there is a siding that must have 50 to 75 tank cars parked and have been for over a year. Wonder who ownes them and why they are parked?
I seem to remember a similar meltdown in the upper Midwest during the peak of the crude-by-rail boom, that happened to coincide with a really rough winter.
You can find out the tank car owner from the reporting marks if no other logos are present. I do it all the time. Google "reporting marks XXXX" with the XXXX replaced by the 3 or 4-letter code beneath or preceding the car number.
---PCJ
Those parked tank cars are probably older DOT-111 types that are no longer approved for crude oil transport.
I have notice a string of hoppers that have been parked in the Myrtle Beach (SC) area for more than 2 years. I don’t long how long they were there before I noticed. Stored that long you would have to question their serviceability.
GN man is spot on. The regs changed several years ago and 111 cars are being phased out of flammable service and replaced by 117’s that have been designed specifically with flammable products in mind. Since this limits the number of liquid chemical products that may be handled in 111’s; there is a growing glut of this car type.
I handle railcar leasing for a chemical company and lease rates on general service 111’s are now half what they were in 2014 at the peak of the crude by rail period.
Curt
