• Greatest Rail Opportunity in 50 Years

  • For topics on Class I and II passenger and freight operations more general in nature and not specifically related to a specific railroad with its own forum.
For topics on Class I and II passenger and freight operations more general in nature and not specifically related to a specific railroad with its own forum.

Moderator: Jeff Smith

  by Gilbert B Norman
 
I don't know to what extent CNBC researched this fifteen-minute piece, or was it spoon fed to them by the AAR's "Minister of Information":

https://youtu.be/Q79BHfxfaSI

But factual or otherwise, it is a "slick" production.

Some here, especially those with Operating Employee on their CV, will "just love" the "puff" given to Precision Railroading.
  by Engineer Spike
 
Last summer I attended a conversation of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. The union president was speaking and touched on the point of the upcoming national engineer contract. Apparently the carriers are digging in their heels harder than they have in the past.

As stated countless times here, the railroads are in a labor shortage. It seems very counter productive to be cheapening out on pay packages (collective bargaining agreements) at a time when it is a job seeker’s market. Perhaps, since the contracts are long term, the railroads feel as if we will soon enough be back to a tight job market. This might be why they are holding out.

Over the last ten years of PSR the economy has seen fluctuations to the good and to the bad. Business has gone up add down too during the last decade. Under PSR no fat is allowed in the workforce. They hired like crazy during the oil boom. When it crashed boards were cut down to the bare minimum. Things picked up in other directions, and they were right back to being short handed. In the spring of 2000 the China virus was the next excuse to cut things to the bone. Sure everyone was recalled, but in my experience only a small fraction returned. Off on another hiring spree they went.

I understand completely why they had to make cuts. I’ve been around enough family businesses to see this. The difference is that board reductions of the past weren’t so drastic.

The main point here is what do the railroads really have to entice people to hire out initially, then stay, and finally return if cut? The answer is that they can except to work every day, maybe multiple times. There are no days off, especially with the reduction of allowable days off under the attendance policies like the one Uncle Warren just implemented.. With the meager raises, other jobs have caught up with the railroad wage scale, and the worker can have a job with regular hours and days off.

I’m lucky in several ways. The first is that I can hold a run which gives me time off. I also have other options, as I mentioned earlier. How though is a new hire going to be willing to give up his best years for no life? A recent class of new hires at work mostly left. Management’s response was that they hired kids who could still go back home to mama. The response was to hire more mature employees. Even these guys have been around the block. They’re shrewd enough to be looking to jump if something better comes along. Meanwhile we are still short and the rob crews from job to job as each emergency pops up.

Before I go, there is one additional point which I’d like to delve into. With PSR managers are implored to cut cut cut. Right not the adjacent hub terminal to mine is right to the bone. Whomever is running that terminal will likely get his reward for doing as told. The problem is that their lack of crews means delays to our trains being made up. Often our crews are instructed to do extra doubles and switching which that terminal should be doing. As a result of this our crews tend to run out of time because of the delays making up the train. Therefore PSR has turned the railroad into a game of hot potato where eventually drops the potato. Instead of giving the tools needed to efficiently do the job, everything gets passed down until the guy at the end ends up holding the bag.
  by Pensyfan19
 
I feel there is once again another great opportunity for railroads to thrive (that is, if anyone I the U.S. actually recognized the greatness of rail over other forms of transport) as the ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the economic sanctions against Russia that come with it are causing gas prices across the country to skyrocket. This is very similar to the oil crisis of the mid 1970s which caused many railroads to seriously consider mass electrification projects in order to decrease the reliance on oil. Considering there is now more of a push to stray away from fossil fuels, what is the viability for class Is and other railroads to implement electrification and other forms of alternate fuel (battery or hydrogen)?
  by Gilbert B Norman
 
Mr. Pensy, your immediate reminds me of a seatmate experience I had a few years ago riding Rosenheim, DE to Munich. A young adult Ugandan girl, higher educated in the UK, sat next to me and, in English (an official language in UG) better than I speak, she said she was with their transportation ministry. We talked about railroads; she mentioned all the "great plans" they have for such. Then she asked if we had electrified railroads? I said, "only for passenger trains where there a lot of them such as between New York and Washington." "Not for freight?" to which I said, "the distances are so long, and the further electric power is from the source, the less power it has". Then we came into cell range for a station stop and I showed her some photos of BNSF Container trains out West, and I said, "just one of those engines has more power in it than any electric locomotive has".

Munich Airport station was at hand - and that was that.
  by RandallW
 
Gilbert B Norman wrote: Mon Mar 14, 2022 7:28 am ... I showed her some photos of BNSF Container trains out West, and I said, "just one of those engines has more power in it than any electric locomotive has".
Except the Siemens Vectron (and its predecessor, the Eurosprinter) is offered with either 7000 or 8600 HP. The GE Evolution locomotives have 2-3 times the tractive effort of the Vectron, but I assume that comes down its gearing and weighing 1.5x per axle. So I think someone could make a much more powerful electric locomotive simply by adding axles and weight to it.
  by scratchyX1
 
RandallW wrote: Mon Mar 14, 2022 4:19 pm
Gilbert B Norman wrote: Mon Mar 14, 2022 7:28 am ... I showed her some photos of BNSF Container trains out West, and I said, "just one of those engines has more power in it than any electric locomotive has".
Except the Siemens Vectron (and its predecessor, the Eurosprinter) is offered with either 7000 or 8600 HP. The GE Evolution locomotives have 2-3 times the tractive effort of the Vectron, but I assume that comes down its gearing and weighing 1.5x per axle. So I think someone could make a much more powerful electric locomotive simply by adding axles and weight to it.
So, one of these, with batteries for operating off wires.

https://www.american-rails.com/centipede.html
  by JayBee
 
RandallW wrote: Mon Mar 14, 2022 4:19 pm
Gilbert B Norman wrote: Mon Mar 14, 2022 7:28 am ... I showed her some photos of BNSF Container trains out West, and I said, "just one of those engines has more power in it than any electric locomotive has".
Except the Siemens Vectron (and its predecessor, the Eurosprinter) is offered with either 7000 or 8600 HP. The GE Evolution locomotives have 2-3 times the tractive effort of the Vectron, but I assume that comes down its gearing and weighing 1.5x per axle. So I think someone could make a much more powerful electric locomotive simply by adding axles and weight to it.
The basic Bombardier TRAXX (now Alstom) is rated at 5.6 MW , for reference a 4400 hp. diesel is only 3.3 MW of power. The Vectrons and Eurosprinter standard rating was 6.4 MW. The SBB Re 620 Bo-Bo-Bo is rated at 8 MW (10,700 hp.) Tractive Effort is 395 kN (89,000 lbs)
  by west point
 
IMO during traffic decline do this. Operate shorter train that can miss yards and tell shippers you can deliver goods faster, The extra traffic would mean that not all trains will be as short as first starting this type of operation, Almost all short trains could go originating yard to destination yard. Makes train velocity rise. RToday's intermodal is mostly origin to dstination without intermediate handling. Probly would mean shorter times for yard crew and some going to road jobs.

Look at all the unit trains that go origin to destination without intermediate handling,