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General railway discussions

Bordercollie said:
Maybe the Huntsville yard is full?
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Northern Light said:
Follow up on the HCR news advisory above:
View attachment 449618
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Perhaps but I doubt it. There's only a handful of customers along the entire subdivision anymore - all concentrated around Huntsville as far as I know. I wasn't even think of yards. There are sidings a various places along the route that appear to be no longer used (Gravenhurst, Novar, etc.). There are so few trains on the route now that passing tracks aren't needed as much and conflicts can't be solved by scheduling.
 
Bordercollie said:
Maybe the Huntsville yard is full?
Click to expand...

The spur between Airport Rd and Washago has a length of about 5 miles. There isn't anywhere close to that much storage space in Huntsville yard.

Storing cars out of the way en masse on abandoned branch lines is preferable in terms of safety and general operability.

If you like playing with Google maps, check out the aerial views of old prairie branch lines, some of which are stuffed with stored Trudeau hoppers. Miles and miles and miles of them.....

- Paul
 
crs1026 said:
The spur between Airport Rd and Washago has a length of about 5 miles. There isn't anywhere close to that much storage space in Huntsville yard.

Storing cars out of the way en masse on abandoned branch lines is preferable in terms of safety and general operability.

If you like playing with Google maps, check out the aerial views of old prairie branch lines, some of which are stuffed with stored Trudeau hoppers. Miles and miles and miles of them.....

- Paul
Click to expand...
Fair point. I'm just surprised given the size of their network. Both Class 1s seem only too eager to start ripping up track the day the ink is dry. Pretty much all the shortlines advertise 'car storage' as part of their service; it would seem cheaper to pay rent but I don't really know. I remember when DOT-111 tanks were falling out of favour and new ones were coming on line, then the economy tanked, pretty much every inch of unused track on the BCR was full of both old waiting for the scrapper and brand new cars. It even made it into Wiki:

1673395506762.png


I get storing surplus cars, but there is typically a a manner of proximity involved. Like the grain hoppers out west, you can often see a string of auto racks on the Ypres service track south of Angus waiting for a call up at Honda.

At least it's a stub, so no risk of having it reactivated, which they both seem to hate as though it is a hit to their decision making ego. I'm wondering if they foresee a big enough economic downturn to justify it.

BTW: Aren't those old 'Trudeau hoppers' destined for the scrapper?
 
lenaitch said:
Fair point. I'm just surprised given the size of their network. Both Class 1s seem only too eager to start ripping up track the day the ink is dry. Pretty much all the shortlines advertise 'car storage' as part of their service; it would seem cheaper to pay rent but I don't really know. I remember when DOT-111 tanks were falling out of favour and new ones were coming on line, then the economy tanked, pretty much every inch of unused track on the BCR was full of both old waiting for the scrapper and brand new cars. It even made it into Wiki:

View attachment 449764

I get storing surplus cars, but there is typically a a manner of proximity involved. Like the grain hoppers out west, you can often see a string of auto racks on the Ypres service track south of Angus waiting for a call up at Honda.

At least it's a stub, so no risk of having it reactivated, which they both seem to hate as though it is a hit to their decision making ego. I'm wondering if they foresee a big enough economic downturn to justify it.

BTW: Aren't those old 'Trudeau hoppers' destined for the scrapper?
Click to expand...
www.trains.com

Distinctive Canadian grain hoppers near end of the line - Trains

WELLAND, Ontario — The Canadian grain scene is starting to become a lot less cylindrical. For the last 50 years Canadian Wheat Board cylindrical covered hoppers have dominated Canadian rails as the main way prairie farmers moved large grain shipments to coastal ports for export. But with...
www.trains.com www.trains.com
 
lenaitch said:
I get storing surplus cars, but there is typically a a manner of proximity involved. Like the grain hoppers out west, you can often see a string of auto racks on the Ypres service track south of Angus waiting for a call up at Honda.

At least it's a stub, so no risk of having it reactivated, which they both seem to hate as though it is a hit to their decision making ego. I'm wondering if they foresee a big enough economic downturn to justify it.

BTW: Aren't those old 'Trudeau hoppers' destined for the scrapper?
Click to expand...

I agree - the railways have behaved badly by decapitalising storage capacity only to discover they have no place to store fleets.... definitely a case of focusing on short term balance sheet performance in a way that is not prudent over the longer term.

There is storing and there is staging. The auto cars are being held close by the customer because while they may not be needed today, they likely will be needed before long. The cost of moving cars to get them out of the way for the longer term isn't that high in the overall picture.

Car supply is a very interesting business. There have been major new car orders that went directly into long-term storage because the demand for that particular rail car faded between the time the order was placed and when the cars were turned out. Conversely there are car shortages because investors don't see the demand holding up, even though it may be at crisis level shortage in the very short term. Investing in rail cars is not for the faint of heart.

The Trudeau hoppers are mostly being scrapped, yes.... but the throughput capacity of the scrappers, and the fluctuation in price for scrap steel, doesn't mean they will all disappear immediately, even if they never haul another load.

To digress even further - the extensive steam locomotive preservation industry in the UK only happened as a fluke - at the time when British Railways sent their last batches of steam engines for scrap, the scrappers were making too much money scrapping surplus railcars (of which there so many that getting them cleared out was more urgent). Scrapping the retired locomotives was not considered a priority. So hundreds of castoff locomotives sat in a scrapper's yard for years, giving the various preservation groups time to get organized and raise enough money to buy them up.

- Paul
 
Northern Light said:
The Lac Megantic railway relocation project is proving to cause much consternation among those whose lands would be taken for the new ROW.


I would imagine that is to be expected in such projects; but I do wonder, if the community writ large still favours the idea.
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I would imagine it's still pretty raw; 47 victims is a lot of families. Nobody likes to be expropriated. I imagine if truth be told, the affected residents support a bypass, just not this one.
 
I thought that occurred to me the other day, in the Era of shipping containers, what products are transported in rail box cars now? I watched a train pass by with a number of boxcars as part of the consist.
 
Fritter said:
I thought that occurred to me the other day, in the Era of shipping containers, what products are transported in rail box cars now? I watched a train pass by with a number of boxcars as part of the consist
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Bulk pulp as well as lumber are still carried in box cars still use box cars.
 
Lumber is mostly shipped on either centre-beam or flat cars (mostly bulkhead). I'm guessing any load that is palletized and/or where the customer has their own siding with dock. Also, small general cargo destinations, such a Moosonee.
 
I’d like to get your knowledge @reaperexpress toward a very specific question I’ve had - why do you think in and around the Helsinki (Finland) region, the long-distance trains operate with right-hand traffic, but the suburban trains operate with left-hand traffic. This is on a 2 fast-2 local ”city” (S-Bahn) track arrangement. The only real benefit I see from this is being able to switch over to the fast track at least in one direction without obstructing oncoming trains. To obscure matters, this arrangement is possible on the Northern mainline outbound, while on the Western mainline it’s possible inbound (Helsinki is a dead-end terminus). Then, once the trains switch over from the ”city” section to the mainline, they change back to right-hand traffic. The main reason I see for this is trying to mimic Swedish left-hand traffic.

Just curious on your thoughts behind the logic, and whether this would have any benefits in a Toronto situation? Thanks.

Helsinki Suburban Train map (in purple):
Lahiiikenne-reittikartta-2022_1744x2500-g.jpg

Source
 
Fritter said:
I thought that occurred to me the other day, in the Era of shipping containers, what products are transported in rail box cars now? I watched a train pass by with a number of boxcars as part of the consist.
Click to expand...
Containers are handy when the cargo is travelling across multiple modes (ship to train to truck, for instance), but are are very limited in terms of volume when compared to a boxcar. Thus when the cargo is staying within North America and moves in sufficient quantity it makes far more sense to send it in boxcars.

Paper products are still one of the most common things to ship by boxcar - but also still sent in large volumes are auto parts and completed appliances.

Dan
 
mind_the_gap said:
around the Helsinki (Finland) region, the long-distance trains operate with right-hand traffic, but the suburban trains operate with left-hand traffic. This is on a 2 fast-2 local ”city” (S-Bahn) track arrangement. The only real benefit I see from this is being able to switch over to the fast track at least in one direction without obstructing oncoming trains
Click to expand...
Another benefit may be cross-platform transfers between stopping and express services in one direction with change-platform transfers in the other, rather than change-platform transfers in both directions.
 
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