Hunter Harrison at CSX

Check the Wall Street Journal today - he is doing away with Hump yards. This guy is the scourge of North American Railroads. I pitty anyone who works for CSX right now. They are applying in droves to every other RR.

Yäger is no camel; he dislikes humps - or so reports the Wall Street Journal:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/railroad-c ... 1492531098" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fair Use:

Barely a month into his job leading CSX Corp , Hunter Harrison is already executing some signature moves from his railroad-turnaround playbook.

First among them: doing away with hump yards, longtime fixtures of rail operators where long trains are broken down into individual cars by pushing them over a hill, then letting gravity send them down different tracks. From there, they are reassembled and sent to their next destination.

Mr. Harrison joined CSX last month, and the Jacksonville, Fla., company has already closed four humps, in Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio and North Carolina, according to a CSX spokesman. Mr. Harrison has said such facilities are inefficient because of the time-consuming way they work and the high costs of manning and maintaining them.

I'd guess the ultimate would to hump a block of cars, but I'm not aware if that practice has been adopted by the industry or if technologically posdible.

Is there really money to be saved in closing hump yards? I'd imagine at the least that they would spend more money on fuel flat switching. I'm guessing the idea is to do less switching overall, but is that even possible?

DogBert wrote:Is there really money to be saved in closing hump yards? I'd imagine at the least that they would spend more money on fuel flat switching. I'm guessing the idea is to do less switching overall, but is that even possible?

Hump yards are very expensive to maintain. Retarders cost tons of money, and don't last long. IF the volume exists, they are great and efficient. If the volume does not exist, they are a drain on the checkbook, without much benefit.

As I have stated previously Hunter has a railroad background and he is very familiar with operations. Hump yards cost money and if they are not needed doing away with them is a plus. He kept only one hump yard on the Canadian Pacific and the railroad is no worse as a result. Railroads make their money in moving freight and not have it sitting around in various yards. I don't want to see railroaders lose their jobs, after all I worked for 41 years in the industry and still have friends working for them as well. Having said that, I believe Hamlet, NC; Toledo, OH and Atlanta, GA are going to lose facilities and jobs as well. Overall I still think the folks will not get hit bad, maybe in a few places but overall I think CSX will be a better railroad as a result of this. Here is a link to an article that I got from the union website regarding Hamlet. I think the handwriting was on the wall for Hamlet after they closed the line to through traffic north.

http://yourdailyjournal.com/news/71014/ ... amlet-yard" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Noel Weaver

Putting his money where his mouth is: CNBC.com

CSX shares pop after new CEO Harrison buys $15 million in stock

Shares of railroad operator CSX jumped Tuesday after the firm's newly minted CEO disclosed a $15 million stock purchase.

Hunter Harrison, who was named the company's chief executive in March, bought 300,000 CSX shares at $50.20 per share on Monday, according to an SEC filing.
...

Ouch; I sold out too soon!

The shares were in an IRA, and at my age there are Required Minimum Distributions, or RMD's. They were going nowhere and all I could foresee was loss of coal traffic that would hardly be offset by an expected Neo-PANAMAX surge.

Well look what happened. Coal has "stabilized" and Neo-PANAMAX? Well as I've noted throughout this site, the East Coast ports all threw a big party - and nobody came.

Makes one wonder now about your "Coal" topic, Mssr. Norman! I'm all too familiar with MRD's (not for myself, but for tax clients when I was still in the industry).

Anyway, it was interesting to read the updated guidance. Hopefully, those impacted by the hump yard closures will be first in line for other duties.

Well folks, seems like our initial thoughts have been at least partially vindicated:
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22csx% ... e&ie=UTF-8" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Noel Weaver wrote:As I have stated previously Hunter has a railroad background and he is very familiar with operations. Hump yards cost money and if they are not needed doing away with them is a plus. He kept only one hump yard on the Canadian Pacific and the railroad is no worse as a result. Railroads make their money in moving freight and not have it sitting around in various yards. I don't want to see railroaders lose their jobs, after all I worked for 41 years in the industry and still have friends working for them as well. Having said that, I believe Hamlet, NC; Toledo, OH and Atlanta, GA are going to lose facilities and jobs as well. Overall I still think the folks will not get hit bad, maybe in a few places but overall I think CSX will be a better railroad as a result of this. Here is a link to an article that I got from the union website regarding Hamlet. I think the handwriting was on the wall for Hamlet after they closed the line to through traffic north.

http://yourdailyjournal.com/news/71014/ ... amlet-yard" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Noel Weaver

Understand ALL Road Foreman of Engines positions were eliminated April 28, 2017.

Wonder who will now be responsible for Engineer Qualification runs and other duties the RFE's performed.

Is it true that hunter will instruct train crews to write up railfans filming or taking pictures of csx trains?

....is Page 1 on The Journal today:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/as-csx-vote ... 1495052146" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fair Use:

...Since Mr. Harrison joined CSX in March, company watchers have been puzzled by the executive’s low profile. He appears no more than a few days a week at the company’s Jacksonville, Fla., headquarters and has been spotted using a portable, over-the-shoulder oxygen system, say people familiar with the matter.........During his final two years at CP, he used the portable oxygen system and rarely traveled to the company’s head office in Calgary, Alberta, because the high altitude made breathing difficult, people familiar with the company said.

For many years he has conducted most of his business from his home office near West Palm Beach, Fla. Lately, he has been monitoring the progress of new train schedules and cost cutting at CSX rail yards and dispatch centers from computer screens

Oh and by the way; Calgary's elevation is 3428ft; commercial aircraft are pressurized in flight to about 6000 ft. Guess Yäger makes it his business not to be seen aboard such.

My stock has already been voted against Harrison. CSX doesn't need and can't survive a invalid for a CEO.

Noel Weaver wrote:As I have stated previously Hunter has a railroad background and he is very familiar with operations. Hump yards cost money and if they are not needed doing away with them is a plus. He kept only one hump yard on the Canadian Pacific and the railroad is no worse as a result. Railroads make their money in moving freight and not have it sitting around in various yards. I don't want to see railroaders lose their jobs, after all I worked for 41 years in the industry and still have friends working for them as well. Having said that, I believe Hamlet, NC; Toledo, OH and Atlanta, GA are going to lose facilities and jobs as well. Overall I still think the folks will not get hit bad, maybe in a few places but overall I think CSX will be a better railroad as a result of this. Here is a link to an article that I got from the union website regarding Hamlet. I think the handwriting was on the wall for Hamlet after they closed the line to through traffic north.

http://yourdailyjournal.com/news/71014/ ... amlet-yard" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Noel Weaver

Who says they are not needed? A 72 year old carrying an o2 tank around (who has never set foot in any of these places) who foretold what he was going to do prior to even being hired and seeing the data?

CP is a shell of what it was 10 years ago. It was stripped down enough to be able to handle exactly what they wanted to keep that operating ratio down.

For CSX's sake he will retire before too much harm is done.

CP is a shell of what it was 10 years ago. It was stripped down enough...

Uhhh, not by the looks of financial performance, operating metrics and stock price!