Traffic on the former IC

Since the CN takeover,how has the traffic been between Effingham and Chicago?

My impression is that post-merger IC is handling about the same
tonnage as pre-merger IC. The line north of Effingham seems to
be hosting something like 20 freights per day, in addition to four
Amtrak trains. I saw about a train per hour on the line when I
was in the Champaign-Tolono area this past July.

- Ed Kyle

Thnx for the reply,ED.
When i'm in the former IC territory,i usually stop at Manteno,IL.
I noticed that painted IC units are getting very scarce on this line.

I heard 15 to 20 Exculding Amtrak.

AmtrakFan

Ladd's Railroad Traffic Atlas shows the line carrying more than
40 MGT, which Ladd says is equivalent to more than 20 "average
weight" (about 5,480 ton) trains per day, or to more than 5 coal
train pairs (5 loads and 5 empties) per day. If one or two coal
trains run the line per day, I would believe the 15-20 freight
per day average.

They come in fleets due both to the single-track and to the
Amtrak schedules. For example, I logged five freights in two
hours on 7/30/04, and five in four hours on 7/31/04.

- Ed Kyle

Whatever happened to the double-stack trains IC used to run? Did the merger have something to do with this? Because I remember before it, IC used to run intermodals (such as double stack/TOFC/autoracks) with GP40Rs, then right at the merger, I believe they went to SD40's and then stopped altogether. About the only railroad in southern illinois that does this now is Union Pacific and CSX.

There are two daily intermodals, one each way. Q194 and Q195. Southbound is usually out of Homewood around 630-645pm, northbound pulls into Homewood in the morning, between 6 and 8 I'd say. Power is usually a pair of IC 2400's(ex-LMS C40-8Ws) or IC 1000's(SD70's).

emd_SD_60 wrote:Whatever happened to the double-stack trains IC used to run? .

I haven't seen any so far, at least on the main line that is. Because all I see are manifests and grain trains at that time. Although, there is a line that begins at Edgewood, Illinois and heads south, and joins the mainline just west of Fulton, Kentucky, just right on the Kentucky/Tennessee state line. That must be the line the southbound/northbound intermodals travel on. I saw intermodals almost everyday on the mainline, at least up until the merger. CN must have had something to do with the re-routing.

emd_SD_60 wrote:I haven't seen any so far, at least on the main line that is. Because all I see are manifests and grain trains at that time. Although, there is a line that begins at Edgewood, Illinois and heads south, and joins the mainline just west of Fulton, Kentucky, just right on the Kentucky/Tennessee state line. That must be the line the southbound/northbound intermodals travel on. I saw intermodals almost everyday on the mainline, at least up until the merger. CN must have had something to do with the re-routing.

They do indeed use the "cut-off", a.k.a the Bluford sub. The Bluford sub runs from Edgewood (MP 41.6) to North Siding (MP 40.7)
The mileposts are a tad confusing. It's MP 41.6 south to Metropolis JCT. (Illinois) MP 122.9. From there the mileposts start over at Chiles Jct. MP 0.2 and continue to North Siding MP 40.7
North Siding is a short distance from Fulton.

I hope there are plans to run intermodals on the mainline again, because I am sure getting tired of grain trains, that's for sure.

emd_SD_60 wrote:I hope there are plans to run intermodals on the mainline again, because I am sure getting tired of grain trains, that's for sure.

By mainline, I'm assuming you mean the Centralia-sub? Met Q-194 late Thursday evening, on the Bluford-sub. The dispr. had the pig-train waiting north of Akin Jct for the southbound Paducah/Duquoin local to make a pick-up at Rust Jct. The IC isn't really serious about their intermodal trains. They're often underpowered and holding them for a rag-tag local proves it.

Most of the double stack traffic was off the UPs former SP traffic. This was when they ran 3 GP 40s. Most of it ended when UP pulled it back to home rails. I cannot remember the year and any more specifics. I really enjoyed watching these monsters! They generally were huge trains.

ic9623 wrote:Most of the double stack traffic was off the UPs former SP traffic. This was when they ran 3 GP 40s. Most of it ended when UP pulled it back to home rails. I cannot remember the year and any more specifics. I really enjoyed watching these monsters! They generally were huge trains.

I didn't know that, I thought it was 100% IC traffic... Probably most of the double-stack traffic nowadays is CN I guess.

IIRC it was about 2001-2002 when this stopped.

In my neck of the woods (east Toronto), CN used to run the following intermodals (please note these are not the only intermodals in this corridor):

136 Toronto - Halifax
137 Halifax - Toronto

146 Chicago - Auburn (Maine via SLA)
147 Auburn - Chicago

148 Chicago - Halifax
149 Halifax - Chicago

My recollection is that these would typically handle 80 - 100 trailers and containers per day... so lets say 240 - 300 loads per day. Along comes the IC and the "Chicago Outfit" with the bright idea to combine these trains into one massive intermodal between Chicago and Halifax, trains 148/149. These are basically long distance locals that work Durand, MI., Toronto (Brampton), ON., Belleville, ON., Montreal, PQ., Quebec City, PQ., and Moncton (but I'm not sure). At Quebec City and Belleville, 149 will lift loads of aluminum from Alcan in Arvaida, PQ.

Not too surprising that the "new" 148/149 typically have 100 - 150 trailers and containers per day... sometimes as few as 30! Nice job guys, 240-300 loads per day to 100-150. They are killing the Port of Halifax to the benefit of CP in Montreal, and NS/CSX in Boston, NY, Philly... etc (though big savings in crew calls and locomotive utilization). Service is pretty bad when you run one train to Chicago each day that does the work of two others as well. There is a 120/121 still runs Toronto - Halifax, but I think that is it for intermodals.

Now IC... er, CN is going to somehow blossom the Port of Prince Rupert, BC into some super container terminal to take advantage of it's proximity to China? Right, 10,000 ton intermodal with two units and an average speed of 17mph that will likely work Jasper, Edmonton, Winnipeg, N Fon du Lac, and whatever else lies between. Maybe they can fill her out with 5000 tons of grain somewhere is Saskatchewan, too! Halifax is the closet mainland deepwater port in North America to Europe and CN is pooping that down the drain.

IMO, from what I've seen they either don't care about intermodal, or they figure that treating them like manifest freight is a good way of keeping and growing the business. I doubt anything will change until they get the IC guys out of the management of the RR. Maybe some ex AT&SF or BNSF guys could rebuild the intermodal side of CN. Santa Fe did alright as an intermodal road, and CN is blessed with so much carload freight, you'd think they'd do a better job with containers. It seems that CN does alright in the intermodal trade between Montreal/Toronto and Western Canada (five daily trains, IIRC), but not so good in the Halifax - Chicago and on the ex IC side, and I see from pictures on the internet that CN Vancouver - Chicago intermodal trains look like manifest freights more than anything else.

CN is pretty darn good at moving carload freight, however.

End rant.

I don't see a "maximum effort" to expedite intermodals in the US, max. speed for a fully loaded inter-modal in 2000, 70-MPH. Now, max.speed is 60-MPH. ?
Seems I recall Q-195 going in the hole for us (loaded coal train) @ Saline. last week. We were a tad short on time, no need to delay an intermodal though. ?