1. Railcar 101 The Basics of Railcars: Car Types, Components and Rules
How the Railroad Works Carol Scarborough

2. DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar
Railroad Operations
Data Flow
Train Operations Overview
Terminals
Network Operations
Interchanges
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

3. Railroad Operations Data Flow
It all starts with a bill of lading
Railroad
Customer
Service
Center
Movement
Waybill
BOL
Instructions
to pull car
Incorrect BOL information will be carried throughout the movement
Railroad
Rating
System
Freight
Bill
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

4. Railroad Operations Data Flow
Origin
Switch
List
Train
Consist
Inbound
Switch List
Delivery
Instructions
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

5. Railroad Operations Train Operations Overview
Pull car from
plant
Local Yard
Road Train
Intermediate
Classification Yard
Road Train
Local Yard
Place car
at Consignee
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

6. Railroad Operations Terminals
Origin Terminal
Work Order to Pull Car
Industry Crew Pulls Car
Crews usually work programmed shifts
Except for very large facilities, plants are usually switched once/day.
Generally, multiple plants and industries are switched by each crew
Railroad usually cannot easily return for late cars, mistakes or special movements
Local serving yard is often some distance from the plant requiring transit over main line or heavily used secondary tracks
Return to Local Serving Yard
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

7. Railroad Operations Terminals
Origin Terminal
Local Crew Yards Train
Train is inspected, bad orders marked for shop
Based on waybills, switch list is produced
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

8. Railroad Operations Terminals
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

9. Railroad Operations Terminals
Origin Terminal
Yard Crews switch inbound local
Yard Crews Make up Outbound Train
In a very small yard, industry local may switch their own train
Most small yards are “flat switch” facilities
Blocks are combined on outbound train and set in departure track
Bad orders switched out of train
Train Inspected
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

10. Railroad Operations Terminals
Origin Terminal
Bad Order Cars Repaired or Switched Out
Road Power and Crew Ordered
Train Departs With Permission from Dispatcher
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

11. Railroad Operations Terminals
A “No Bill” car is handled differently
Wait
Pull car
Arrive local
yard
Switched to
“Hold” track
Wait
Car gets switched to
outbound track and back in
normal service
“No Bill” track is generally switched at most once/day
Lack of billing will delay a car at least oneday
“Hold” track
switched
Billing
Received
NB Charges
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

12. Railroad Operations Terminals
A “Bad Order” car is also handled differently
On inbound
inspection car is
bad ordered
Pull car
Arrive local
yard
Switched to
shop
for repair
Yard crew
spots cars in
shop or Riptrack
Yard crews will generally spot the shop or RIP track with new cars once/day
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

13. Railroad Operations Terminals
A “Bad Order” car is also handled differently
Car is repaired
and released by shop
Yard crew pulls
cars from shop
When shop is pulled, cars may be added to another track to be switched instead of switching directly to outbound track
Car gets switched to
outbound track and back in
normal service
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

14. Railroad Operations Terminals
Destination Terminal
Train Arrives Destination Yard Arrival Track
Switch List is Prepared From Inbound Consist
Industrial serving yards’ process is to switch inbounds during a certain shift.
Larger yards will work 24 hours and sometimes 7 days/week
Trains are switched to make up industry switch locals or yard transfer locals if the serving yard is different from linehaul destination yard
Yard Crew Switches Inbound Train
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

15. Railroad Operations Terminals
Destination Terminal
Yard Crew Makes Up Industry Local
Industry Local Switches Plant Spots Load
Yard crews generally work specific shifts
Many yards can only switch inbounds or make up industry locals or outbound trains during one shift/day.
Industry locals or local transfer jobs will also often only operate once a day
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

16. Railroad Operations Network Operations
Terminals are generally scheduled operation
Arrivals and departures at major yards are coordinated so inbound cars can be switched and depart on outbound trains in hours
Most blocks will depart once/day
“Schedule” is a rough plan but the network is constantly subject to daily variations
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

17. Railroad Operations Network Operations
All mainline tracks are under control of dispatcher
Arranges train “meets” and issues instructions and permission for trains to occupy tracks in their assigned territory
Corridor manager, chief dispatcher or director of operations controls overall flow of traffic and makes decision on priorities
Dispatcher controls switches to sidings
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

18. Railroad Operations Network Operations
Road trains generally have an engineer and conductor
Both must be “qualified”on the territory they operate over
Crews usually change at 100 mile or 200 mile intervals
Road trains receive inspection every 1,000 miles
Unit trains file a waiver for inspection every 1,500 miles
Hours of service laws limit on duty hours and specify minimum rest period before they can be on duty again.
1,000 mile inspection includes set up and release of breaks, cars with shifted loads, etc.
In general road train operations are not significant sources of delays
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

19. Railroad Operations Network Operations
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

20. Railroad Operations Network Operations
Train Symbol HOWCM
BLOCKING DEPARTING HOUSTON – ENGLEWOOD YARD 1
San Antonio 2
El Paso 3
W. Colton
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

21. Railroad Operations Network Operations
Time Day
Dep. Houston-Englewood
Ar. San Antonio
Set out 1
Pick up 2, 3 in block
Dep. San Antonio
Ar. El Paso
Set out 2
Pick up 3
Dep. El Paso
Ar. W. Colton
First connection WCEUM 2100
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

22. Railroad Operations Network Operations
Classes of road trains
Intermodal
Automotive
High Priority Manifest
Unit Trains (coal, grain, etc.)
Manifest
Local
Intermodal and automotive generally have highest priority
High priority manifest include backup service for automotive, run through trains, etc.
Amoco traffic would generally move on high priority manifest or manifest trains
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

23. Railroad Operations Network Operations
Intermediate Terminals
Hump yards or large classification yards
Make blocks for other yards in system and interchange connections
Make up trains from various blocks
These yards can be significant sources of delay
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

24. Railroad Operations Network Operations
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

25. Railroad Operations Network Operations
Intermediate Terminals
Train arrives in arrival yard
Carman, bleeds air, inspects cars
General yardmaster schedules train for humping
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

26. Railroad Operations Network Operations
Intermediate Terminals
Hump engines pull train out of arrival yard
and push over hump
At cutoff time, general yardmaster instructs “Trim” engine
crew to set blocks to departure yard
Trainman uncouples cars and they flow into classification tracks (bowl)
Trim engine crew couples cars and pulls from classification tracks and set in block order on departure track
Carman will fix any defects they can in the departure yard. Serious bad orders are marked for switching out before departure
Carmen lace air hoses, connect to air supply and inspect train
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

27. Railroad Operations Network Operations
Intermediate Terminals
Road power and End of Train Device connected
Crew departs with train at appropriate time
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

28. DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

29. DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar
Hump Yards
The world's largest classification yard is a hump yard
Bailey Yard in North Platte, Nebraska
Other large hump yards are:
Kansas City- Argentine - 2nd largest (BNSF)
Chicago - Clearing (BRC)
Houston- Englewood (UP)
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

30. DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar
Hump Yards
The gigantic Bailey Yard covers a total expanse of 2,850 acres and is over 8 miles in length and 2 miles wide.
The yard is made up of 315 miles of track, including 18 receiving and 16 departure tracks.
Bailey Yard handles over 10,000 cars every day. Approximately 3,000 cars are sorted daily in the yard’s two humps.
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

31. DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar
Hump Yards
Using a mound cresting 34 feet for eastbound trains and 20.1 for those heading west, these two hump yards allow four cars a minute to roll gently into any of 114 "bowl" tracks where they become part of trains headed for dozens of destinations.
Together these two yards have 18 receiving and 16 departure tracks.
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

32. Railroad Operations Interchanges
Data Flow
Local transfers
Run-through train operations
Interchanges are often sources of delay and problems
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

33. Railroad Operations Interchanges
Data Flow
RR 1
Waybill
RR 2
Waybill
RR 1 will automatically transmit advance copy of waybill when it is created
RR 1 will transmit interchange delivered CLM when car is transferred
RR 2 will match car record up with waybill when car arrives
RR 2 generates interchanged received CLM
Process usually works differently with shortlines that don’t have reporting capability
EDI Transfer
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

34. Railroad Operations Interchanges
Local Transfers
RR 1
Interchange Yard
RR 1 Local train places cars on
interchange track
RR 2 Local train pulls cars from
RR 2
Interchange Yard
Interchange yard acts similar to a local switch yard, switching cars for local industry and to various connections
Interchange track could be a track within one of the railroad’s yard
Two railroads will sometimes operate out of the same yard. Interchange tracks are in a designated section of the yard
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

35. Railroad Operations Interchanges
Run-Through Train Operations
CSX
Indianapolis
St. Louis
ALS UP
CSX
Interchange locations are often congested with inadequate facilities
Interchange must also often be accomplished through an intermediate carrier (ex. IHB, BRC, ALS)
Railroads cooperate to eliminate the interchange delay and make blocks for interior points on each other’s systems
Train is interchanged whole at point remote from congested areas, often with run through power
St. Elmo
Houston UP
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar

36. DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar
May 21, 2008
DTE Rail Services, Inc. Maintenance Management Seminar