Grain Rush

When does the grain rush typically start? I'm an out west transplant, and would like to observe this phenomena.

Where are you working out of? We get most of the grain rush here in Portland, I've heard that there are 2 growing seasons but it changes due to weather factors. You'll know it's happening when you start seeing a ton of those big purple leased Canadian units. The grain pool is an easy job, road work but you're home every night. Unfortunately it's feast or famine, you're either 8 on 8 off or working every third day.

Well I don't work for the railroad (yet), but I just moved to Kansas so I have no idea how the grain rush works. I'm a student, but I'm hoping to join the management team at KCS or BNSF after I get my law degree.

Out in eastern Colrado and western Nebraska the rush normally begins in late summer and runs till late fall or early winter. Lot of variables such as crop size, grain prices, export markets and the storage capacity at the various elevators to name a few. On the BN(SF) 54 and 108-car grain trains were the norm. Many elevators extended their trackage to accomodate these trains which were made up of C-6 covered hopper cars.

Tadman, if the BNSF CEO has his way, you won't see too much "rushing" on his property. The article in Railway Age a couple of months back, had an interview with him. He stated, very clearly, that if shippers weren't going to provide unit trains, of at least 110 cars, they weren't going to take their business. He also opined, that at one thousand dollars, per container, that his interest was in intermodal, not ANY traffic that he couldn't make a pile of money, off of. We have some customers, on the Carlsbad sub, being told they won't be receiving grain cars, in the very near future, unless they all consolidate, and accept unit trains of grain, only. This means the construction of a balloon track, somewhere, central to all of them, and a way to store it, on site, prior to distributing it, amongst themselves. It will be intersting, to see, if UP follows suit, although their loss of trailers/containers to BNSF makes it harder for them, to demand such actions, from shippers or receivers, of grain. Regards

First off, the grain rush as so to speak depends upon what is left in storage from last crop, and how big the crop is this year. Also figure in what the demand is and your geographic location. Places like West Iowa, Nebraska, and further west tend to use processor / export markets to Seattle/ Portland. East of there, we tend to send export to the Gulf. No producer, unless he has a contract on his grain, will sell it unless the market is right, and he has storage. Right now, the market is right.

And one other factor figures in, Ethanol.

The 2006 export season has been quite long. Starting in July, the export market to the Gulf has been steady. In fact, it has been many years since grain hoppers have been stored idle on the Branch lines, and UP added over 2000 new hoppers in 2005/2006. There were periods in July where customers had to wait for trains they ordered. That was short lived. As of now, every active elevator on our branch has a loaded train waiting, and some have empties on the way.

UP has used different tactics on unit train sizes. They do not refuse single car customers. However the rates for under 75 cars is high as compared to 100 car units. Yet we still have specialty corn marketers who take singles all year round. Gone are the days when elevators could "combo" to make a unit. Instead, they have built bigger facilities, or become storage for the larger operations.

Ethnaol has made an impact upon grain marketing. We serve a market that has five plants, and two more under construction. This takes whole grain from the market, but in it's place a finished product. Ethanol is moved under a higher rate than corn, while the byproduct; DDGs does not. However the result is, an overall increase in revenues from Ethanol versus whole grain. Ethanol plants also use private cars, which eliminate the headache of car allocation (that is left to Ethanol marketing companies). (Side bar: for the first time in four years, a plant ran out of empty tanks for loading. This is quite unusual since they are under the control of the Marketers, who have a huge fleet to cover their plants However, one Marketer will not share his fleet with another.) And unlike whole grain units, Ethanol plants do "combo" to make a 75 car train for a single destination. Yet you will find there is still a lot of singles out there, and I suspect there always will be due to so many smaller destinations. Our district loads four or five units a week, three for Sewaren, NJ, and at least one for Ft. Worth, Tx. The third location, Albany, NY is served by other originating lines as well as UP, but I see a lot of singles heading that way.

Still there are customers who require whole grain for food and animal feed (and cannot use DDGs). For those, the unit trains will remain. And with a trend starting here, the corn plantings may increase to meet demand breaking the tradition of crop rotation. What impact it will have on beans I don't know, and I am sure no one else will either til spring when the rows are planted.

Tadman:

Good luck on getting into mgt with a JD. I had one when I hired out with BNSF, passed the KS bar four years earlier, practiced law and the only thing BNSF thnks I can do is be a conductor. Oh well, their loss.

The grain rush has been in full swing from Nebraska south. I work out of Newton and we take a couple of trains a day up and down the Lost Springs sub of the UP to Abilene, Concordia and Superior, NE. We get on the UP at Peabody and get off at Lost Springs. Then it is up the Strong City sub to one of the above stations.

To be honest, there isn't a whole lot to see. We take 110 car trains up there and drop them off. The elevator loads them and we pick them up. What is impressive though is the pile of grain sitting on ground with a tarp over it. The pile is about 75 feet in diameter and about 30 feet tall. It is a whole lot of milo.

If you want to see a lot of damn trains, take the drive from Douglas, Wyoming to Gillette up the Orin sub of the Powder River Division. It is 129 miles long and usually has between 45 and 60 trains on it. Both UP and BNSF. It is bumper to bumper coal trains. The Orin sub runs right next to the highway for about 10 miles either side of Bill, Wyoming where UP has a crew change point at. Of course it is not a flashy as the Transcon, but it is a railfan's dream.

I am guessing that during the grain rush the peak power units might be used.
http://utahrails.net/all-time/all-time-65.php#sd40-7875
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=322803
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=597639
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=42848
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=495506

U-Haul wrote:I am guessing that during the grain rush the peak power units might be used.
http://utahrails.net/all-time/all-time-65.php#sd40-7875
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=322803
http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPi ... ?id=597639

I have only seen one rent-a-wreck on grain in Iowa, LTEX 5855. Most are AC motors, GEVO's or the new ACe's. Of late some SD70M's too if Ft. Worth is out of AC's.