Top Three Most shipped Products by CSX?

[trisonic]

I was thumbing through the MR "Model Railroad Planning" 2010 this morning (I needed some light relief).

One interesting article in there started off by naming the top 3, most shipped products by CSX they are:

 

1. Coal (still)

2. Automobiles/Trucks (still)

3. Corn Syrup!

 

HFCS arouses strong feelings in a lot of people today (well, I don't like it either and try and avoid it). Signalmaintainer touched on this very subject of Corn Syrup deliveries the other day in another "topic" - it's interesting in that it comes in 6 grades and most plants have to have the right car at each specific unloading point in the siding. Not only that but in the winter the cars have to be heated before unloading.

One tank car of 5500 grade syrup carries enough sweetener for more than 1 million cans of soda.

 

With it being the third most shipped product (albeit on CSX) perhaps it deserves another look as a subject matter for modeling?

 

Best, Pete.

[shortliner]

Oddly I was reading Lances blog today and saw this too - you may need to go to the site and select Blog and then scroll down to it

Avoiding the Layout Design Death Spiral

February 14, 2010

 

[alcoRS1]

read this interesting article about high speed trains in the USA, and effect on the current rail owners.

 

article

 

 

I would like to see high speed rail, but not at the expense of the freight.

 

Lance has some funny blogs in his blog.

[trisonic]

Jack,

Linky no worky!

 

I'd really like to look at it too!

 

Best, Pete.

[alcoRS1]

Jack,

Linky no worky!

 

I'd really like to look at it too!

 

Best, Pete.

 

Lances Blog

[shortliner]

Sorry - that wasn't a linky - it is the title in the blog that you will be looking for - I couldn't find an individual link within the blog

[trisonic]

All I can say is: Great Minds Think Alike!

To be honest there's not much else that is interesting in this "book" (it's little bigger than today's Model Railroader but smaller than the old ones....) but the six pages of this article are crammed with a map and (mostly) photos - incredibly useful for the "on ground" pipe arrangements.

 

Best, Pete.

[Fat Controller]

I was thumbing through the MR "Model Railroad Planning" 2010 this morning (I needed some light relief).

One interesting article in there started off by naming the top 3, most shipped products by CSX they are:

 

1. Coal (still)

2. Automobiles/Trucks (still)

3. Corn Syrup!

 

HFCS arouses strong feelings in a lot of people today (well, I don't like it either and try and avoid it). Signalmaintainer touched on this very subject of Corn Syrup deliveries the other day in another "topic" - it's interesting in that it comes in 6 grades and most plants have to have the right car at each specific unloading point in the siding. Not only that but in the winter the cars have to be heated before unloading.

One tank car of 5500 grade syrup carries enough sweetener for more than 1 million cans of soda.

 

With it being the third most shipped product (albeit on CSX) perhaps it deserves another look as a subject matter for modeling?

 

Best, Pete.

Corn syrup is used on this side of the pond for synthesising Vitamin C, as well as its other uses as a sweetener. There used to be a regular traffic via the Channel Tunnel from a plant near Lille to Roche's plant at Dalry in Ayrshire. This was conveyed either in specially insulated ISO tank containers or similar bogie tank wagons, and was very time-critical, especially in cold weather.

[trisonic]

Corn syrup is used on this side of the pond for synthesising Vitamin C, as well as its other uses as a sweetener. There used to be a regular traffic via the Channel Tunnel from a plant near Lille to Roche's plant at Dalry in Ayrshire. This was conveyed either in specially insulated ISO tank containers or similar bogie tank wagons, and was very time-critical, especially in cold weather.

 

They probably need heating at the site over here. Even in a "coastal" state like New Jersey we get usually two weeks a in Jan/Feb crux when the temperature does NOT get above 0c for two weeks or so and the further you get inland the longer and colder this period is.

 

Best, Pete.

 

 

 

[Adrian Wintle]

One interesting article in there started off by naming the top 3, most shipped products by CSX they are:

 

1. Coal (still)

2. Automobiles/Trucks (still)

3. Corn Syrup!

 

With it being the third most shipped product (albeit on CSX) perhaps it deserves another look as a subject matter for modeling?

 

I'd think that general intermodal, and general bulk (covered hopper) traffic are probably more significant that corn syrup in terms of car counts, but both encompass multiple 'products'. On other railroads, grain would likely be right up there (but again, may be split into multiple 'products' for the survey). As in all statistics, it really depends on what and how they were counting.

 

Adrian

[Glorious NSE]

I think it's a fascinating article and yes it was the one that struck me most in that issue, really worth a read for that "operations" side complexities of what outwardly is a simple, you could even argue boring, industry with basically one car type (albeit two sizes)...

[dave1905]

If you go to the major roads' web sites and look in the "media" or "public" sections, most give a breakdown of the traffic they carry. Mostly its by general traffic type, not by specific commodity, but it can give you an idea of the general mix of traffic.

 

Of course the ACTUAL mix depends on where you are looking. It can vary wildly between lines on the same railroad.

[dave1905]

I'd think that general intermodal, and general bulk (covered hopper) traffic are probably more significant that corn syrup in terms of car counts, but both encompass multiple 'products'. On other railroads, grain would likely be right up there (but again, may be split into multiple 'products' for the survey). As in all statistics, it really depends on what and how they were counting.

 

Depends on how you want to measure it (carloads, tons, revenue).

 

On the UP for 2009 by revenue the commodity groups broke down:

6% Automotive (auto parts, finished cars)

16% Chemicals (oil, feedstocks, chemicals, plastics, alcohol)

16% Industrial products (ore, lumber, metals, metal products)

19% Intermodal (any commodity in a trailer or container)

20% Agricultural (food, refrigerated, grain, animal feed)

23% Energy (coal)

 

The following link has a similar breakdown by year for the last decade or so:

http://www.up.com/investors/factbooks/2009/disclosure.shtml

 

If you dig down through it, towards the bottom it gives breakdowns of commodity groups in more detail. For example Ag carloads are 19% food and refrigerated, 39% grain products and 43% whole grains. Plus there are maps that show traffic density of each commodity group. There are also maps of auto plants and power plants.

 

Really interesting if you want to see where which stuff goes where.

[trisonic]

I'd think that general intermodal, and general bulk (covered hopper) traffic are probably more significant that corn syrup in terms of car counts, but both encompass multiple 'products'. On other railroads, grain would likely be right up there (but again, may be split into multiple 'products' for the survey). As in all statistics, it really depends on what and how they were counting.

 

Adrian

 

That data came from CSX themselves.

 

Best, Pete.

[alcoRS1]

I'd think that general intermodal, and general bulk (covered hopper) traffic are probably more significant that corn syrup in terms of car counts, but both encompass multiple 'products'. On other railroads, grain would likely be right up there (but again, may be split into multiple 'products' for the survey). As in all statistics, it really depends on what and how they were counting.

 

Adrian

 

Location, location, location this decides what your business will be.

 

I do not know how much grain CSX ships but UP and BNSF probably this would be the case and much lower for Corn Syrup. BNSF&UP have most of the grain freight because most grain export is on the west coast. For example the local port ship 18% of the export grain, to countries like Korean, China, Japan etc.

BNSF has 35K covered hoppers compared to 10K open

 

BNSF top business in 2008

 

where

 

Intermodal 34% :

47% domestic (trailer train as well as container)

45% international

8% Automotive

 

Coal 23%

 

 

Industrial Products 23%

Construction 20% (Clay, Cement etc)

Building products 26% (wood, paper, pulp, sawdust)

petroleum 8%

Chemicals 13%

food and beverages 8%

Agricultural 20%

 

taken from the 2008 Annual Report

[dave1905]

BNSF has 35K covered hoppers compared to 10K open

 

Well that's not really a good comparison since both cars may have the same tonnage capacity. 286,000 lbs of corn might occupy 3500 cu ft and 286,000 lbs of coal might occupy 1000 cu ft. The tonnage is set by the axle loading and the cubic capacity is set by the density of the intended commodity.

 

Both the BNSF and the UP will haul more coal than grain since they each load probably 3 times as many coal trains as grain trains a day, grain trains are more likely to be 100 car trains while coal trains are more likely to be 125-150 car trains. Coal runs year round while grain tends to peak in the fall and winter unless there is huge international demand.

[alcoRS1]

Well that's not really a good comparison since both cars may have the same tonnage capacity. 286,000 lbs of corn might occupy 3500 cu ft and 286,000 lbs of coal might occupy 1000 cu ft. The tonnage is set by the axle loading and the cubic capacity is set by the density of the intended commodity.

 

Both the BNSF and the UP will haul more coal than grain since they each load probably 3 times as many coal trains as grain trains a day, grain trains are more likely to be 100 car trains while coal trains are more likely to be 125-150 car trains. Coal runs year round while grain tends to peak in the fall and winter unless there is huge international demand.

 

BNSF Grain trains though my area are 120/130 cars long, pulled by 2 , push by 1, 4000 hp GE locos.

 

coal trains on the other hand are 85% EMD power 2 front 2 rear, and about 120-150 cars.

 

Grain train are plentiful during winter, but grain train do run year round.