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  • BNSF/CSX Chicago Runthroughs?

  • Discussion related to BNSF operations. Official site: BNSF.COM
Discussion related to BNSF operations. Official site: BNSF.COM

Moderator: Komachi

 #1248919  by Danny252
 
Up until recently, BNSF and CSX seemed to have plenty of runthrough manifests in Chicago - SELGAL, CSXKCK, and so on. However, it's recently been pointed out to me that almost all of these have stopped running, but similar trains to/from NS and CN are still regular runners. The only CSX one I can find running regularly is the M-GALSEL, continuing as Q384 to Willard/Selkirk (it seems to bounce back and forth between those two every time someone in CSX HQ sneezes).

Are there any other Chicago runthroughs between the two these days? If not, how is CSX getting the traffic to BNSF? Surely they aren't sending it all via the IHB/BRC, and sending it as piecemeal transfers seems odd as Cicero Yard isn't really suited to handling large quantities of manifest.
 #1249222  by doepack
 
I think the GALSEL manifests to/from CSX tend to use BNSF's Chillicothe sub; from Barr yard, they'll use the IHB to McCook then head west on the BNSF. Or they could go via IHB to Blue Island, then CSX north to BNSF's Chicago sub, and on to Galesburg from there. Since both lines meet at Galesburg, eastbound trains to CSX can use either route if one route is clogged. However, trains using the Chicago sub may require a crew change at Cicero (not certain about that) but if so, one could see why the Chillicothe route would be preferable.

Manifest run-through traffic may be down, but CSX is still getting a steady amount of crude oil traffic from BNSF, nearly all of which is interchanged at Cicero...
 #1395064  by Engineer Spike
 
Same pool out of Galesburg runs both routes to Chicago. Half of the turns are SF, and the other half are Q. The BNSF crew goes mostly to the foreign yard. I was on a KCKCSX once, and we went SF to McCook IHB. This is because the Chicago Sub requires a reverse move to enter IHB from the west. On that trip, I believe we swapped with the CSX crew at IHB's Argo yard office.