Excessive freight train waits affecting cta operations

[BusHunter]

Don't know what was the story two nights ago but harlem was trained at grand for like an hour. I was waiting on it at diversey for 15 minutes walked to belmont took a belmont walked home and check the tracker around 9:45 the nb was stuck the next bus was a sb that was stuck and i believe there might have been a second nb stuck i know there was a second sb. The whole 90 needed a reload as the whole street was stuck. I never seen it that bad. Maybe they should have turned some  south  to north 

[Busjack]

This was more of an issue in the suburbs, for instance why 364 was moved to via State, 166th, Vincennes to get under the viaduct at 164 and State.

[Pace831]

Once I was on a bus that spent so long waiting for a train that the bus driver dozed off, and a passenger had to wake him up to let him know the traffic was moving again.

[sw4400]

12 hours ago, BusHunter said:

Don't know what was the story two nights ago but harlem was trained at grand for like an hour. I was waiting on it at diversey for 15 minutes walked to belmont took a belmont walked home and check the tracker around 9:45 the nb was stuck the next bus was a sb that was stuck and i believe there might have been a second nb stuck i know there was a second sb. The whole 90 needed a reload as the whole street was stuck. I never seen it that bad. Maybe they should have turned some  south  to north 

Where does the 90 meet freight trains? Just south of Grand Avenue? I didn't think freight trains came into the picture until Harlem and 27th or Harlem and Windsor, both of which are Pace-only areas.

[sw4400]

10 hours ago, Pace831 said:

Once I was on a bus that spent so long waiting for a train that the bus driver dozed off, and a passenger had to wake him up to let him know the traffic was moving again.

Only to have the gates come down with another long freight train coming toward the crossing before he could take off, I bet......  

 

[BusHunter]

5 hours ago, sw4400 said:

Where does the 90 meet freight trains? Just south of Grand Avenue? I didn't think freight trains came into the picture until Harlem and 27th or Harlem and Windsor, both of which are Pace-only areas.

Thought maybe there was a fatality or something but I didn't hear anything. The tracks are just  south of grand.  Someone I know from the area there in Montclare said one day the train stopped for a half hour. Being that some 90 runs still had another trip. I wonder if they made them run it out. If so there buses probably at midnight. They are supposed to always have a bummer bus even if they have to call someone over to do it.

[Busjack]

8 hours ago, sw4400 said:

Where does the 90 meet freight trains? Just south of Grand Avenue? I didn't think freight trains came into the picture until Harlem and 27th or Harlem and Windsor, both of which are Pace-only areas.

As Bus Hunter indicated, around Grand.That's the Milw W/CP, not BNSF.

The problem occurs because CTA extended 90 south of Grand-Nordica. If CTA hadn't, it would have only been affected by the backup, not the train itself.

[Busjack]

As my mother said, stuck on a Shore Line bus when there were many more grade crossings in NW Indiana, "this isn't a helicopter."

[andrethebusman]

On ‎7‎/‎28‎/‎2016 at 0:04 AM, sw4400 said:

Where does the 90 meet freight trains? Just south of Grand Avenue? I didn't think freight trains came into the picture until Harlem and 27th or Harlem and Windsor, both of which are Pace-only areas.

Just south of grand is old MILW crossing with CP freights heading east towards the Belt Ry to go to Clearing yard. IF BRC can't take them right away they are usually put into one of the three siding that remain from the old Galewood yard east of Ridgeland Av, but if CP sends too many at one time, of one is too long to fit into Galewood sidings, the tail can stick out past Oak park Av and even over Harlem. Even worse is when one stops to wait for another to leave Galewood Westbound before it can go in eastbound. Now you have first one sitting EB, then as soon as it start moving, here comes the WB.

This is far from the worst offender. Probably worst in city is 119th west of Ashland, on the old RI. Every day about 5pm, Iowa Interstate comes in with a long ethanol tank train from the west, and has to back into two, sometimes three tracks at the old RI Blue Island yard. Ties up 119th for easily half an hour at the height of the rush. Then later, about 9pm, Chicago Rail Link comes in from the north, and picks up what Iowa Interstate brought in to take it to the Norfolk Southern at Calumet Yard, having to reassemble the train again from two or three tracks. Another 30-45 minute blockade, but at least this is much later in the evening. 119 buses get incredibly fouled up aby this every day, especially about 5-6pm.

[sw4400]

On 8/1/2016 at 11:02 AM, andrethebusman said:

Just south of grand is old MILW crossing with CP freights heading east towards the Belt Ry to go to Clearing yard. IF BRC can't take them right away they are usually put into one of the three siding that remain from the old Galewood yard east of Ridgeland Av, but if CP sends too many at one time, of one is too long to fit into Galewood sidings, the tail can stick out past Oak park Av and even over Harlem. Even worse is when one stops to wait for another to leave Galewood Westbound before it can go in eastbound. Now you have first one sitting EB, then as soon as it start moving, here comes the WB.

This is far from the worst offender. Probably worst in city is 119th west of Ashland, on the old RI. Every day about 5pm, Iowa Interstate comes in with a long ethanol tank train from the west, and has to back into two, sometimes three tracks at the old RI Blue Island yard. Ties up 119th for easily half an hour at the height of the rush. Then later, about 9pm, Chicago Rail Link comes in from the north, and picks up what Iowa Interstate brought in to take it to the Norfolk Southern at Calumet Yard, having to reassemble the train again from two or three tracks. Another 30-45 minute blockade, but at least this is much later in the evening. 119 buses get incredibly fouled up aby this every day, especially about 5-6pm.

This one here, I take it?

[strictures]

17 hours ago, andrethebusman said:

Just south of grand is old MILW crossing with CP freights heading east towards the Belt Ry to go to Clearing yard. IF BRC can't take them right away they are usually put into one of the three siding that remain from the old Galewood yard east of Ridgeland Av, but if CP sends too many at one time, of one is too long to fit into Galewood sidings, the tail can stick out past Oak park Av and even over Harlem. Even worse is when one stops to wait for another to leave Galewood Westbound before it can go in eastbound. Now you have first one sitting EB, then as soon as it start moving, here comes the WB.

This is far from the worst offender. Probably worst in city is 119th west of Ashland, on the old RI. Every day about 5pm, Iowa Interstate comes in with a long ethanol tank train from the west, and has to back into two, sometimes three tracks at the old RI Blue Island yard. Ties up 119th for easily half an hour at the height of the rush. Then later, about 9pm, Chicago Rail Link comes in from the north, and picks up what Iowa Interstate brought in to take it to the Norfolk Southern at Calumet Yard, having to reassemble the train again from two or three tracks. Another 30-45 minute blockade, but at least this is much later in the evening. 119 buses get incredibly fouled up by this every day, especially about 5-6pm.

There's either a state law or a municipal ordinance that bans trains from blocking a crossing for more than 10 minutes. Supposedly the crew is to break the train at the crossing to let traffic by.

But it's never enforced. I've seen on TV that Hammond seems to have it the worst.

[BusHunter]

1 hour ago, strictures said:

There's either a state law or a municipal ordinance that bans trains from blocking a crossing for more than 10 minutes. Supposedly the crew is to break the train at the crossing to let traffic by.

But it's never enforced. I've seen on TV that Hammond seems to have it the worst.

The railroads are making 100's of thousands of dollars transporting these goods. I hear they just pay the fine and go on their way. No sweat. It's like with otr trucking you can take the toll road and the company pays for it. Time is money. 

[Pace831]

3 hours ago, sw4400 said:

This one here, I take it?

That's the one. The train pictured is a Chicago Rail Link job with what looks to be an ex-CN GP40-2LW and Hudson Bay Railway SD50. The CRL has an interesting collection of locomotives.

4 minutes ago, BusHunter said:

The railroads are making 100's of thousands of dollars transporting these goods. I hear they just pay the fine and go on their way. No sweat. It's like with otr trucking you can take the toll road and the company pays for it. Time is money. 

That is also the usual reason for "freight train interference" delays on Metra, even though they are supposed to be fined for that too.

[andrethebusman]

On ‎8‎/‎2‎/‎2016 at 6:13 AM, Pace831 said:

That's the one. The train pictured is a Chicago Rail Link job with what looks to be an ex-CN GP40-2LW and Hudson Bay Railway SD50. The CRL has an interesting collection of locomotives.

That is also the usual reason for "freight train interference" delays on Metra, even though they are supposed to be fined for that too.

CRL has been using NS locomotives on the Blue Island to Calumet trains of late, normally two big GE's. The Hudson Bay loco is another ex CN GP40-2W, by the way. CRL has never "owned" a six-axle unit. Currently they seem to have several GMTX GP38-2 leasers.

[Pace831]

2 minutes ago, andrethebusman said:

CRL has been using NS locomotives on the Blue Island to Calumet trains of late, normally two big GE's.

IAIS has been using NS locomotives as well. I've also recently seen UP and CSX locomotives in the Blue Island yard, but I'm not sure whether those were being used by CRL or IAIS.

[andrethebusman]

Locomotives these days are almost treated like freight cars. You can see locomotives from all major railroads on all major railroads (with the single exception of KCS, which seem to stay mostly on home rails). With computerized accounting, keeping tack of who has what is no big deal.