How CSX uses block-swapping to replace Ohio sorting terminal NEWSWIRE

csxtomorrow

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Transportation is increasingly relying on block-swapping intermodal traffic as it prepares to shut down its massive container-sorting hub in North Baltimore, Ohio, which last year handled more than a quarter of the railroad’s intermodal loads. The Northwest Ohio Intermodal Terminal was designed to support CSX’s hub-and-spoke approach to serving smaller intermodal […]

Read More…

New CSX strategy dooms Ohio and North Carolina terminals NEWSWIRE

Harrison

A 2011 CSX Transportation video touting North Baltimore’s place in intermodal strategy. Via YouTube. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The days of CSX Transportation’s hub-and-spoke intermodal strategy are drawing to a close. The railroad aims to end container sorting at its busy intermodal terminal in North Baltimore, Ohio, by Nov. 11. And CSX will not build the […]

Read More…

Maryland wants explanation for CSX Howard Street Tunnel decision

csxtomorrow

WASHINGTON — Maryland’s entire congressional delegation has written to CSX Transportation CEO E. Hunter Harrison, asking him to explain the railroad’s decision to drop out of a partnership to raise clearances in the Howard Street Tunnel. On Nov. 1, in response to media inquiries, CSX confirmed that it no longer considered the long-sought tunnel project […]

Read More…

Tracking train lengths

TRNAT1215_10

Controls for measuring the length of a train (circled) are integrated into the touch screen Video Information Display on an EMD SD70ACe. Tom Danneman Q If an engineer has a train with 100 or more cars and he gets a signal to take the siding, how does he know when he and all the cars […]

Read More…

Common rail performance metrics called into question NEWSWIRE

csxtomorrow

WASHINGTON — CSX Transportation is now operating as well as or better than it did in 2016 thanks to improved terminal dwell and average train speeds holding steady, railroad executives told federal regulators this week. But a merchandise shipper told regulators that key performance metrics don’t show much that matters to them. On-time arrivals, re-crew […]

Read More…

CSX closes Willard hump NEWSWIRE

WillardOhio

Willard, Ohio Google Maps JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Transportation has shut down the hump at Willard Yard in Ohio, the latest terminal to be converted to a flat-switching facility under CEO E. Hunter Harrison and his Precision Scheduled Railroading operating plan. Last year, Willard was the fourth-busiest hump yard on the railroad, when it processed […]

Read More…

The double-stack derailment crisis you never heard of NEWSWIRE

MONTREAL, Quebec — Derailment investigation expert Gary Wolf speaks with Trains Associate Editor Steve Sweeney at the 2017 Wheel Rail Interaction conference in Montreal about his career in railroading and how he came to be part of a group that investigated double-stack container wrecks in the western United States. Wolf is the primary source for […]

Read More…

Railroad business trains

TRNAT1215_01

On June 8, 2015, Montana Rail Link’s business train soars high over the white waters of Fish Creek, near Rivulet, Mont. During this trip, the railroad’s owner, Dennis Washington, hosted business partners aboard the train. Steven Welch Q What is the purpose of railroad business and inspection trains, and who would use them? – Dennis […]

Read More…

CSX begins scaling back operations at key Ohio intermodal terminal NEWSWIRE

NorthBaltimoreOHIOYard

CSX Transportation’s North Baltimore Yard, near North Baltimore, Ohio. Brian Schmidt JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — CSX Transportation is preparing to scale back operations at its intermodal hub in North Baltimore, Ohio, which opened in 2011 as the $175-million centerpiece of a new intermodal strategy. The Northwest Ohio Intermodal Terminal was designed to support CSX’s hub-and-spoke approach […]

Read More…