The Vicksburg Problem
Some days are better than others on the railroad. More often than not the plans of well intended managers to save money or a crew start often cost the railroad more money in delays than the intended savings ever would have realised in profits. Case in point is “The Hill” in Vicksburg, Mississippi, along the CPKC railroads Vicksburg subdivision. Vicksburg hill is an aberration in the landscape along the railroad’s Meridian Speedway. The speedway is known for its high capacity, easy access for west-east coast intermodal and auto products, and high speed, mostly flat, running. The climb out of Vicksburg is the fly in the ointment for trains headed eastbound towards the In this image CPKC Railroad’s “JV” (Jackson-Vicksburg) local turn is seen crawling up the aforementioned hill at their maximum tonnage rating behind four Electro Motive Diesel GP series motors.
“The Hill” is left over from the former Alabama and Vicksburg railroad’s ramp track that ferried cars from the Mississippi River landing in Vicksburg up towards the mainline to Jackson, Ms, and beyond. The original alignment of the ramp had grades in excess of 4% as the railroad assaulted the nearly impenetrable cliffs along the eastern bank of the Mississippi River. Only slightly improved, the current alignment officially lists at 1.85% on more modern track charts, but unofficially is around 2.9% directly starting up from the river.
Eastbound trains attacking this steep grade have their work cut out for them. After a 60mph sprint across miles and miles of flat Mississippi Delta lands through eastern Louisiana, you are faced with a ten mile per hour permanent slow order, for the length of your train, over the nearly two mile long Mississippi River crossing. A slight downgrade off of the bridge only further exacerbates this issue causing most trains to brake to keep their oftentimes 10,000 foot long trains at the ten mph maximum speed limit. By the time eastbound trains reach CP West Vicksburg they are often just barely beginning to accelerate out of the permanent speed restriction over the river bridge. When trains reach the toughest section of uphill running it is a slow notch out until you are in full run 8 to make it up and out of Vicksburg. Multiple reverse curves and a tunnel keep track speed to a maximum of 20mph on the steepest portion of the grade, which is rarely realized by uphill trains. The nasty grade levels out somewhat as trains pass through the Vicksburg National Battlefield and approach the long siding at Newmans. Eventually the grade completely levels out by the time trains reach Edwards siding east of the Black River crossing in Bovina.
For the new managers of CPKC this hill has caused the railroad more trouble than not. Most trains are run severely underpowered, or with poorly performing trip optimizer, on this section of the Meridian Speedway. Trip optimizer is a computer system that is supposed to optimize fuel efficiency and power usage on road trains across the network (LOL). This spotless December morning this section of track would prove smarter than its managers once again, and cause a cataclysmic backup of trains that would trigger 4 recrewed hotshots and 3 delayed departures for trains in the area. The JV turn, moving west, would scurry into town and begin switching the water level CPKC yard next to the main. Shortly after an eastbound train of grain loads would get signals to head east to Jackson with 90 grain loads behind a 1x1 consist. A 1x1 consist indicates the train has one head end motor and another distributed in the middle of the train. The underpowered train made it about halfway upgrade before they stalled out with no chance of restarting. Shortly after calling the PTC “help” desk they were asked if weather conditions on a perfectly sunny day were affecting their ability to make it uphill. After the litany of following questions about train handling they were instructed to stay put for a following movement to shove them out of town. A little over an hour and a half later inbound Sanchez, NL, Mexico, to Jackson, MS, high priority manifest train M275 arrived, cut their lead engines off, and nosed up to the rear of the grain load. At this point the engineer of the stalled grain load notified the dispatcher that he was only an hour out from dying on hours of service. With only 40 minutes to spare the grain train got the shove they needed to make it out to Newmans siding east of town before the crew expired. For the next hour trains began to stack up on the Louisiana side of the river. First out was eastbound Los Angeles to Atlanta blue streak intermodal I968 with 13,500 feet of double stack containers for the east coast. Behind 968 was an eastbound Dallas to Atlanta hotshot I168, and finally, the subject of this photograph, the running from the law JV turn. Westbound, and holding at Edwards, was manifest M267 with a short consist for Shreveport, LA.
Around an hour later the light motors of M275 returned to grab their 8900 feet of train at the bottom of the hill in town. Another half hour passed and the crew of the local alerted the dispatcher they were ready to leave town with only an hour and a half of time on their timecards for the day. As M275 was crawling uphill at 15mph on the main, the JV job shoved out with their maximum tonnage train, and waited for a light. Fifteen minutes passed and the light they needed finally came. Eleven hours after going on duty in Jackson the outbound JV turn crawled uphill out of town ahead of all other traffic. A yard crew would meet the train at Monument siding, on the west end of Jackson, to relieve them with mere minutes to spare. Later on in the afternoon as we left to follow the KCS 1 west towards Monroe we would again hear another inbound train, this time the high-priority intermodal/manifest I166 stall on the hill again with another 1x1 consist. Nothing else was around to assist this 166, and we never heard what happened to them as they attempted to make their way east to the Norfolk Southern interchange, across the state, in Meridian.
This is one example of many teething problems the CPKC was having along the Meridian Speedway as the new managers use real time trial and error in an attempt to squeeze maximum operating efficiencies out of their busiest east-west corridor system wide.
The Vicksburg Problem
Some days are better than others on the railroad. More often than not the plans of well intended managers to save money or a crew start often cost the railroad more money in delays than the intended savings ever would have realised in profits. Case in point is “The Hill” in Vicksburg, Mississippi, along the CPKC railroads Vicksburg subdivision. Vicksburg hill is an aberration in the landscape along the railroad’s Meridian Speedway. The speedway is known for its high capacity, easy access for west-east coast intermodal and auto products, and high speed, mostly flat, running. The climb out of Vicksburg is the fly in the ointment for trains headed eastbound towards the In this image CPKC Railroad’s “JV” (Jackson-Vicksburg) local turn is seen crawling up the aforementioned hill at their maximum tonnage rating behind four Electro Motive Diesel GP series motors.
“The Hill” is left over from the former Alabama and Vicksburg railroad’s ramp track that ferried cars from the Mississippi River landing in Vicksburg up towards the mainline to Jackson, Ms, and beyond. The original alignment of the ramp had grades in excess of 4% as the railroad assaulted the nearly impenetrable cliffs along the eastern bank of the Mississippi River. Only slightly improved, the current alignment officially lists at 1.85% on more modern track charts, but unofficially is around 2.9% directly starting up from the river.
Eastbound trains attacking this steep grade have their work cut out for them. After a 60mph sprint across miles and miles of flat Mississippi Delta lands through eastern Louisiana, you are faced with a ten mile per hour permanent slow order, for the length of your train, over the nearly two mile long Mississippi River crossing. A slight downgrade off of the bridge only further exacerbates this issue causing most trains to brake to keep their oftentimes 10,000 foot long trains at the ten mph maximum speed limit. By the time eastbound trains reach CP West Vicksburg they are often just barely beginning to accelerate out of the permanent speed restriction over the river bridge. When trains reach the toughest section of uphill running it is a slow notch out until you are in full run 8 to make it up and out of Vicksburg. Multiple reverse curves and a tunnel keep track speed to a maximum of 20mph on the steepest portion of the grade, which is rarely realized by uphill trains. The nasty grade levels out somewhat as trains pass through the Vicksburg National Battlefield and approach the long siding at Newmans. Eventually the grade completely levels out by the time trains reach Edwards siding east of the Black River crossing in Bovina.
For the new managers of CPKC this hill has caused the railroad more trouble than not. Most trains are run severely underpowered, or with poorly performing trip optimizer, on this section of the Meridian Speedway. Trip optimizer is a computer system that is supposed to optimize fuel efficiency and power usage on road trains across the network (LOL). This spotless December morning this section of track would prove smarter than its managers once again, and cause a cataclysmic backup of trains that would trigger 4 recrewed hotshots and 3 delayed departures for trains in the area. The JV turn, moving west, would scurry into town and begin switching the water level CPKC yard next to the main. Shortly after an eastbound train of grain loads would get signals to head east to Jackson with 90 grain loads behind a 1x1 consist. A 1x1 consist indicates the train has one head end motor and another distributed in the middle of the train. The underpowered train made it about halfway upgrade before they stalled out with no chance of restarting. Shortly after calling the PTC “help” desk they were asked if weather conditions on a perfectly sunny day were affecting their ability to make it uphill. After the litany of following questions about train handling they were instructed to stay put for a following movement to shove them out of town. A little over an hour and a half later inbound Sanchez, NL, Mexico, to Jackson, MS, high priority manifest train M275 arrived, cut their lead engines off, and nosed up to the rear of the grain load. At this point the engineer of the stalled grain load notified the dispatcher that he was only an hour out from dying on hours of service. With only 40 minutes to spare the grain train got the shove they needed to make it out to Newmans siding east of town before the crew expired. For the next hour trains began to stack up on the Louisiana side of the river. First out was eastbound Los Angeles to Atlanta blue streak intermodal I968 with 13,500 feet of double stack containers for the east coast. Behind 968 was an eastbound Dallas to Atlanta hotshot I168, and finally, the subject of this photograph, the running from the law JV turn. Westbound, and holding at Edwards, was manifest M267 with a short consist for Shreveport, LA.
Around an hour later the light motors of M275 returned to grab their 8900 feet of train at the bottom of the hill in town. Another half hour passed and the crew of the local alerted the dispatcher they were ready to leave town with only an hour and a half of time on their timecards for the day. As M275 was crawling uphill at 15mph on the main, the JV job shoved out with their maximum tonnage train, and waited for a light. Fifteen minutes passed and the light they needed finally came. Eleven hours after going on duty in Jackson the outbound JV turn crawled uphill out of town ahead of all other traffic. A yard crew would meet the train at Monument siding, on the west end of Jackson, to relieve them with mere minutes to spare. Later on in the afternoon as we left to follow the KCS 1 west towards Monroe we would again hear another inbound train, this time the high-priority intermodal/manifest I166 stall on the hill again with another 1x1 consist. Nothing else was around to assist this 166, and we never heard what happened to them as they attempted to make their way east to the Norfolk Southern interchange, across the state, in Meridian.
This is one example of many teething problems the CPKC was having along the Meridian Speedway as the new managers use real time trial and error in an attempt to squeeze maximum operating efficiencies out of their busiest east-west corridor system wide.