Francis Scott Key Bridge - Class I Impact

[Jeff Smith]

Do we have any more rail-related news to report? Last 5 or 6 posts have concerned the Dali, rebuilding plans, and the channel. I'm loathe to lock topics, but this is a railroad forum.

[Gilbert B Norman]

Sergeant Smith does have a point and, with my interest in maritime industry affairs, I acknowledge my guilt.

But in about a week, vessels - some that will make m/v Dali look like a bathtub toy, will be calling at the Port of Baltimore. Absent anyone wanting to see all the Containers they will disgorge on the highways - especially considering how the 695's utility has been reduced - Chessie and Topper had best be ready. Can they recall enough T&E crews to handle the traffic? Are there enough engines with "good dates" or did the "railroad usual" of simply deferring them prevail?

So far as recalling qualified T&E, lest we forget that "railroading for a living" is no longer passed down from Father to Son - and unemployment is not much of an issue in any industry at this time. So the jobs that each road abolished after the incident occurred and now are presumably being posted ("advertised") again may not be instantly filled.

Possibly our on the ground reporters such as Messrs. Scratchy and Wolf can "pick up" on how the traffic is moving.

[Jeff Smith]

Why I don't lock topics, even if I really, really want to lol.

News: finance.yahoo.com

Reuters Events: CSX fully resuming Baltimore coal exports this week, CEO says

ATLANTA (Reuters) - CSX this week will return to normal coal export operations at the Port of Baltimore after work crews cleared part of the deep channel serving the second busiest U.S. trade hub for outgoing coal shipments, the railroad's CEO said on Wednesday.

CSX is scheduled to receive and load the first large ship at its Curtis Bay coal terminal on Saturday, Joe Hinrichs, CSX's CEO said at the Reuters Supply Chain conference in Atlanta.

"We're now starting to load trains at a regular pace" to support normalizing coal operations, Hinrichs said.
...

[eolesen]

I get the desire to keep things railroading... but this adjacent space event is hopefully a once in a lifetime discussion.

I purposely added an off-topic area on my forums to encourage discussions like this, be it sports, politics or figurine modeling...

Perhaps that might be worth considering here for the occasional airline/bus/shipping/trucking conversation.... it's certainly less disruptive than telling people to take the discussion elsewhere.

But..... if that's what it takes to let Prof. Norman, Mr Wolf and I continue what's been a great conversation, we can move this over to Trainsim.com and "The Roundhouse"....

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[Gilbert B Norman]

Perhaps that might be worth considering here for the occasional airline/bus/shipping/trucking conversation.... it's certainly less disruptive than telling people to take the discussion elsewhere.

Not necessarily politics, but case in point:

http://www.railforum.com/cgi-bin/ultima ... um/45.html

But volks, I personally believe, along with my fellow culprits Messrs. Olesen, Scratchy, and Wolf, that this incident and the recovery from such is a directly related railroad industry affair.

After being lost for the past two months, a flood of traffic is coming, and railroads being railroads, have whacked staff and let engines go out of date (mandatory FRA inspections) "for the duration". The traffic comes back, such as it is about to do at the Port, and if railroad managers are simply "expecting" that employees are "waiting by their phone" to have it ring and that anything that rolls will instantly be fit to do so, I have a certain structure spanning the East River I'd be happy to sell you.

[scratchyX1]

Perhaps that might be worth considering here for the occasional airline/bus/shipping/trucking conversation.... it's certainly less disruptive than telling people to take the discussion elsewhere.

Not necessarily politics, but case in point:

http://www.railforum.com/cgi-bin/ultima ... um/45.html

But volks, I personally believe, along with my fellow culprits Messrs. Olesen, Scratchy, and Wolf, that this incident and the recovery from such is a directly related railroad industry affair.

After being lost for the past two months, a flood of traffic is coming, and railroads being railroads, have whacked staff and let engines go out of date (mandatory FRA inspections) "for the duration". The traffic comes back, such as it is about to do at the Port, and if railroad managers are simply "expecting" that employees are "waiting by their phone" to have it ring and that anything that rolls will instantly be fit to do so, I have a certain structure spanning the East River I'd be happy to sell you.

I've not seen anything about the class 3 railroad involved in this. How has Canton railroads business been?

[Gilbert B Norman]

Obviously Mr. Scratchy, I don't know. But let's see if any responses are made here.

[eolesen]

Gil, we can dive deeper into the maritime discussion here if you want.... Registration is free, and the content moderation won't come down like the bridge deck on the Dali...

[Link Deleted}

I don't know that any of the larger non-Railroad.net conversation or reporting has focused much on the railroad impacts except in passing.

It's mostly been about engineering, recovery and rebuilding.

[Jeff Smith]

Gil, we can dive deeper into the maritime discussion here if you want.... Registration is free, and the content moderation won't come down like the bridge deck on the Dali...
...SNIP

I hardly think that's warranted. We talk about railroads here; yes, there are often tangential topics. I've allowed this topic to continue because, as my immediate concerns railroads, there are further developments that ARE relevant. As I've also commented, I'm LOATHE to lock topics. It hasn't always been that way, and I always explain my actions and intentions. Is the topic locked? No. I'll let a few OT posts go, but eventually, we are RAILROAD.NET. I would think you'd understand that. I for one appreciate your posts as they present cogent arguments, and hope you continue.

[eolesen]

Of course, I understand it. All I've been trying to advocate for is that the occasional off-topic discussion isn't necessarily a bad thing in an online community.

Those who want to engage can, and those who don't can skip it and move to the next thread..

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[eolesen]

Cruising is back at Baltimore as of today.

RCCL's "Vision of the Seas" returned from a planned dry dock visit, and departed today for Bermuda.

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[Gilbert B Norman]

Mr. Olesen's immediate was further reported last evening on CBS Radio News.

The Love Tub in question draws 25' and therefore can use the open 35' MLW channel. However, it certainly bears out that a full reopening of the Port next weekend is a "doable".

Chessie and Topper, sharpen your claws and kick your hinds, as the flood of traffic is coming. Post those jobs you abolished, get your FRA Inspections done on your engines, and standby.

disclaimer: author has sailed TRANSAT on both s/s Rotterdam and s/s Constitution during '60

[ExCon90]

I suspect that import containers have been moving through New York and Norfolk all along and export containers have been doing likewise. Both railroads serve both ports and should be able to take this in stride. I'd be surprised if these diversions amount to as much of a difference as regularly occurs between a Monday night and a Friday night at either port in a normal week.

[Gilbert B Norman]

Mr. ExCon, you do raise an interesting point.

On one hand we have the reports that vessels are sailing "Dead Slow" up the Bay to time their arrival at Baltimore with the planned reopening of the Channel this Saturday, but on the other, we must note your perfectly logical assertion that the maritime companies have become over the past two months become accustomed to calling at PNY and Norfolk.

There could well be a "please come back" from Baltimore. This is exacerbated by that now is not the best of times for the maritime companies. Even if somewhat stabilized at present, there are still too many little boys playing Cops and Robbers around the Suez Canal raising costs to sail around the Cape with not necessarily a like increase in rates. China is in a severe recession while it appears the Western world will have a "soft landing" post-COVID. The trend to "on-shoring" manufacturing continues with Mexico, despite its security issues, along with CPKC (there; this post is now rail related), the beneficiaries.

So we shall see; perhaps our resident on-the-ground reporters, Messrs. Scratchy and Wolf, will be able to report to what extent traffic at the Port of Baltimore has recovered.

[eolesen]

Just a guess, but I would imagine that the channel is not operating at 100%, and the port may not want any traffic moving through there outside of daylight hours. If that's the case, I suspect traffic is going to return a little more gradually. Shipments already in progress will continue to go to either Norfolk or New York, and I would guess that shippers might do so until things are truly stabilized.

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