Sure thing, Angela.
Since the Baltimore & Ohio began hauling flour from Ellicott’s Mills to Baltimore in 1830 — grain, flour, and seeds have been an important part of railroading.
Grain moved in boxcars for decades, but in the early 1960s, Southern Railway’s new, 100-ton — Big John — covered hopper revolutionized grain movement. Illinois Central and Cargill came up with the first unit grain train a few years later.
Today, railroads originate more than a quarter of all U.S. grain shipments.
In the last 25 years, grain moving less than 500 miles has shifted to trucks, while rail moves have gotten longer.
The king of grain transportation is BNSF Railway. That western railroad hauls more grain than any other.
Long gone are the days when a diesel road-switcher trundled down a 10 mile an hour branch line, with a shirttail of covered hoppers in tow to switch out country elevators.
They have been replaced by big unit trains of nothing but grain in covered hoppers.
There was one problem, the average grain elevator didn’t have enough grain or space to load 100-plus cars.
So, what do you do?
Burlington Northern pioneered the way.
BN offered customers discounts for shipping trainload quantities that could be loaded and unloaded, quickly.
The railroad backed up their offer with thousands of new 286 thousand-pound covered hoppers that carried a hundred-ten tons of grain, each.
BN ran these cars more often and in solid trains called “shuttles” in a practice BNSF continues today.
Shuttles, along with a strong export market, enabled BN to post an all-time grain moving record in 1995.
Burlington Northern’s successor *BNSF Railway* likes shuttles too and gives its lowest rates to shippers that can load a 110-car train in 15 hours.
Other railroads have followed suit, though loading times vary.
Since the advent of shuttles, some 300 elevators have invested millions in additional track and grain-handling capacity to meet BNSF’s shuttle requirements.
These grain elevators are improving their positions as merchants and helping farmers.
In early 2015, railroads concentrated on whittling down their backlog of grain traffic while investing record amounts of money in track and equipment to catch up to demand and restore speed. BNSF alone spent $6 billion.
On top of more second main track and sidings, railroads are buying new covered hoppers that are shorter than previous models —- but designed to carry more cargo.
More are on the way, too.
Think about that the next time bread pops out of your toaster or you pour a bowl of cereal.