Soda Ash TransLoad Train

Hey man, the big Soda Ash transload at T4 here is reopening. Start sending those unit trains my way so I can get back on the road board!!

Built ya a short one the other day buddy, 85 of them i think. Got cut back to the yard jobs then i guess? I got on a empty soda ash off the shortline the other day, an OGQWV i think it was, where is GQ?

We get them in IL on BNSF sometimes but they are in open top hoppers from NS. They stink like High Hell.

Those aint soda ash trains Amtrak, they fill some hoppers with manure and other stinky by-products. That smell aint soda ash. Soda ash looks just and smells like laundry soap or baking powder. Soda ash cars are always closed hoppers.

If Soda Ash comes in contact with water, it hardens to a concrete-like substance. Sometimes you'll see it in the yard where there have been leaky cars.

Yeah UPRR, I got bumped down to the yard extra board, just for a cup of coffee as it turns out...worked one job then my road bid got picked back up. Looks like the second grain season is in full force, we had three extra jobs called in addition to the pool turn to run those Grain Shuttles up to the Port of Kalama, WA.

Do you ever get those leased Canadian motors in your neck of the woods? Those monster SD90MACs that are purple with CEFX reporting marks? I've had those the last few trips, and they're really nice. Very comfortable, the refrigerators work and there's a hotplate and a coffee pot down in the nose. They have little drawers on the conductor's side with blank forms; I thought UP and BNSF were crazy with all the paperwork, you should see some of the forms the Canadian crews have to fill out.

Good deal, back on the road again. Yep, i've had those CEFX motors in my consist before, never on the point, UP cab signals here buddy. Next time i get one ill have to do more then sign the card, ill have to check it out more. How are those cloth seats buddy? You forgot to tell me where GQ was.

Do you guys out west (BNSF, UP) move those big trains of bentonite clay? Sometimes those cars make it to LI for a lanfill they are capping out here. Almost all the cars we receive are of BN, ATSF heritage from somewhere out there.

Funny that you mention those cloth seats, I worked as a brakeman last night and my conductor was complaining about those...all the smells and the moisture that get trapped in them as opposed to the vinyl we have in our units. I think he was implying that some guys aren't the cleanest in the world, not sure.....The ones that we get on our end have the cab signals, they are captured power from the Grain Shuttles that run from Eastport Idaho (ET) to Kalama WA (KA). We use ACS between Portland and The Dalles, OR so they have to be compliant. BTW, I couldn't find "GQ" as an origin or destination...is it a foreign line destination maybe?

Freightguy, I don't think the clay is coming from my neck of the woods. Other than Lumber, Auto and intermodal traffic, we don't originate a lot of stuff here.