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HOG Wild at Night
Heart of Georgia’s Vidalia Turn Job roars past the old Seaboard Air Line depot in Ailey, Ga., on January 25. When the train arrives in Vidalia the cars will be interchanged with Georgia Central and forwarded to the Port of Savannah. Ailey was once a railroad town; back in the SAL days Ailey had a large wood yard that was a very busy customer. Remnants of the siding that was used by SAL to store cars for the wood yard are visible by the depot. With the Vidalia portion of the line restored, the line is now a route for intermodal container traffic.
PHOTO BY BLANE BRANDENBURG
a larger railroad to acquire KCS without the added burden of the STB merger rules.
Mexican Protests Interrupt KCSM
On December 14, KCS was forced to suspend service on KCSM’s main line at Caltzontzin, Michoacan, due to the tracks being blocked by civil protests. This activity affected traffic into and out of Port of Lazaro Cardenas, and eventually all of KCSM’s rail network. The service suspension ended on December 21, when tracks were cleared of protesters and service restored to normal.
Weather Woes Disrupt Service
In late December, severe weather
struck KCS in northern Texas and along the Kansas City to Shreveport mainline. In northern Texas, tornadoes struck towns along the KCS Greenville Subdivision, causing extensive damage to the area, but sparing KCS facilities for the most part. More significant interruptions occurred on December 28 when heavy rains and flash flooding interrupted main line service near Dalby, Mo., resulting in delays up to 48 hours.
Planned Work for Louisiana and Mexico
In December KCS announced two maintenace projects for early 2016 that could affect traffic patterns and create service delays. Specifically, KCS expects to begin maintenance projects between DeQuincy and Singer, La., from January 12 to February 16 and between Frierson and Trenton, La., from February 23 to March 1. In addition, significant maintenance activities will also take place in northern Mexico, affecting cross- border traffic in January and February.
NORFOLK SOUTHERN SCOTT LINDSEY
Peak Season Success for BNSF and NS
WITH THE CONCLUSION OF 2015, BNSF Railway declared a perfect UPS “peak season,” meaning there were no failures with packages delivered late due to BNSF not making established sort times. From November through December, BNSF handled more than 27,000 loads, which is roughly equivalent to 50 million packages. During the peak season, BNSF operated Z-LACNYC7, a special, dedicated UPS
train from Los Angeles, departing the West Coast Tuesday morning and arriving in Bedford Park, Ill., 49 hours, 15 minutes later. At Bedford Park, the traffic was handed off to CSX to forward to its New York City area terminal at Little Ferry, N.J., and Worcester, Mass., to reach the Boston and New England market. In addition to this special eastbound Z train, BNSF operated some extra Phoenix,
Ariz., trains under Z-WSPPHX6 symbols, usually when there was too much Los Angeles traffic on Z-WSPLAC (Priority UPS/LTL intermodal, Willow Springs, Ill.- Los Angeles), which typically carries a Phoenix block. In the midst of plunging coal traffic and Canadian Pacific’s hostile takeover attempt, Norfolk Southern managed to get through peak season without experiencing a single failure, a feat last accomplished in 2012. This does not mean all trains carrying UPS traffic arrived on time at NS terminals or that their loads were grounded by the advertised availability time. However, it signifies that NS worked with UPS to prioritize availability of any delayed loads and enable the parcel giant to not miss any cutoff times for package sorting at its destination facility. UPS officials expressed their appreciation to NS executives, who in turn are hoping that this performance will generate additional UPS traffic in 2016.—SAYRE KOS AND SCOTT LINDSEY
Pocahontas Division Changes
With the plunge in coal traffic and
a renewed focus on cost reduction, NS merged its Virginia and Pocahontas Divisions on February 1. With this move, the new territory assumes the Pocahontas Division name, but consolidates division train dispatching and other administrative functions at the Virginia Division facilities in Roanoke, Va. The new Pocahontas Division is comprised of 2,581 route miles, mostly the original Norfolk & Western routes east of Portsmouth, Ohio, including the former Virginian. One benefit of the consolidation will be that the mainline from Norfolk to Portsmouth will be managed by one division instead of two. Even with the coal slump, this is NS’ prime route for export coal traffic, along with the Heartland Corridor intermodal route into the Midwest.
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