View allAll Photos Tagged IndustrialSwitch
Former BN GP38-2 2096 and BNSF 2377 switch the spurs to Pacific Terminals and Sea-Pac Transport Services in between a variety of trucks on Chelan Avenue Southwest in Seattle's Industrial District West.
Walking down a dark alley in Miami's industrial quarters at night is always a good idea. You might expect to encounter some druggies, homeless folks, gang members, but probably not a train. Here CSXT 4420 crawls around the corner between warehouses on a rainy morning just before sunrise to retrieve two empty boxcars from Pan American Papers. The few remaining customers in Hialeah's East Rail District resemble the classic Floridian industrial scenes that were common just two decades ago. Hialeah, FL
UP 622 finishes up the evening's switching on Fox Avenue South having spotting a pair of tanks at Cascade Columbia Distribution along Union Pacific's East Marginal Way Lead. The track to the left continues down the street for another block or so but hasn't seen any use in probably decades. Seattle, WA
Former BN GP38-2 2096 and BNSF 2377 shove an empty bulkhead down Chelan Avenue Southwest on the spur to Pacific Terminals to pick up a pair of empty boxcars in Seattle, WA. The bulkhead was pulled moments earlier from the adjacent spur curving to the left from the second customer still receiving rail shipments on this short stretch of street running, Sea-Pac Transport Services. In the background is the West Seattle Bridge crossing the Duwamish Waterway. Seattle, WA
Eight Thousand Horses spot seventy tons of bricks at W.R. Taylor Company in the middle of Tarragona Street in Pensacola, Florida. With apparently no more four-axles in the yard, a pair of six-axle Gevos did the honors of swapping an empty for a loaded boxcar at W.R. Taylor this night. While certainly not the ideal set of power for my liking, having caught a rare daylight move a few days prior with a proper leader on this already very difficult to catch and unique operation, I was happy to document the odd move. The empty boxcar was set out further back so the conductor could connect a road barrier to it across the street to avoid any northbound traffic while switching. Pensacola, FL
Falls Road Alco RS32 #2035 shoves a reefer loaded with broccoli along the old Brockport Cold Storage, now Bonduelle, brick warehouse in Brockport, New York. Bonduelle is one of two customers at the very East end of the GVT owned shortline's line and receives broccoli loads from the West coast usually once or twice a week. It's very hard to find old structures like this still receiving rail service; especially reefer customers have gotten increasingly rare over the last few years. This particular one has been on my list for quite a while, and with traffic on the Falls Road having been very light during my visit I was very glad to see Bonduelle getting a car.
Falls Road RS32 2035 pulls a pair of empty reefers from the Bonduelle, formerly Brockport Cold Storage, warehouse at the railroad's end of line in Brockport, New York. The classic old warehouse remains as one of two active rail customers keeping the eastern most portion of the line alive.
The UP YPR60B local pulls a load of cocoa butter from the street level spur at Blommer Chocolate as a Metra F40 that has just departed the Ogilvie Transportation Center passes overhead. Chicago, IL
CSX's Oak Point based Hunts Point local shoves a healthy cut of loaded reefers down the littered Market Branch past Sal's Scrap Metal to service the Hunts Point Cooperative Market. Bronx, NY
A pair of BNSF Geeps shove a tanks and two insulated boxcars down the spur to spot Building 20 in the Spokane Business & Industrial Park. The crew would only spot the tank here and deliver the two boxcars to Building 32, but this spur also receives boxcars. At least five warehouses in the industrial park receive boxcars and they all seem to be a mix of these new Lineage Logistics 60' insulated boxcars and older standard height 60' cars. I don't know if they are all different customers that incidentally get the same type of car, or if it's largely one or two clients that use multiple warehouses. The rail to the right is used to switch out cars it appears but doesn't reach any other active customers. Spokane, WA
UP 815 pulls an empty hopper from Alpha Baking to swap for a load of flour on the Cragin Line in Chicago, IL.
The V90 interrupts busy traffic on Mörikestraße as the crew switches Lotter, this branches only remaining customer, just past sunset. This Lotter location receives liquified petroleum gas in tank cars a few times a week during the colder months of the year. The company's other location not far from here receives a variety of steel products by rail on a branch with plenty of street running right through the city. Unfortunately the first loads after New Years holiday at the other location wouldn't come in until after my visit. Ludwigsburg, Germany
A photo from previous years of this operation: flickr.com/photos/henry_dell/20597022133/in/album-7215764...
And some of the other location getting serviced: flickr.com/photos/henry_dell/27931021269/in/album-7215764...
flickr.com/photos/henry_dell/21233129412/in/album-7215764...
Former Burlington Northern GP38-2 2096 and BNSF 2377 move a flatcar loaded with 20' containers at Sea-Pac Transport Services on Chelan Ave SW to get access to an empty bulkhead ordered to be pulled by the customer. Sea-Pac is one of two customers utilizing the street trackage here, the other being Pacific Terminals via the spur to the left. Sea-Pac receives a variety of cargoes on flatcars, ranging from large beams, heavy equipment, and interestingly even 20 foot containers, but also ships with boxcars. I don't think I've ever seen a carload customer receive flat cars loaded with containers, so I found that quite interesting. The customer also appears to ship outbound, at least the boxcar tucked behind that bulkhead appears to have gone out loaded the following week. Pacific Terminals to the left receives loaded boxcars, with both customers receiving about two switches a week. Seattle, WA
Arcade & Attica Railway 65-Ton 112 and 80-Ton 113 shuffle a long string of cars at the railroad's only customer, Reisdorf Bros, at the end of line in North Java, New York. The 112 is an impressive 78 years old, having been built in 1945 for the US Navy, and the 113 not significantly younger with a built date of 1959.
In Seattle Industrial District West a small piece of industrial street running remains intact on Chelan Avenue Southwest to service two customers, Pacific Terminals and Sea-Pac Transport Services. Here the BNSF crew with former BN GP38-2 2096 on the point yanks four boxcars from the spur to Pacific Terminals. I was on the East side of the Duwamish Waterway when I heard a horn on the Westside and quickly navigated this way under the suspicion that this was probably what was happening. To my chagrin the giant swing bridge to cross over was open for a ship to pass through so I had to bite my nails for a while before making it across. When I finally made it over the two units were already on the spur hooked up to the boxcars but thankfully hadn't pulled out yet, so I was able to grab at least one shot. It appears the only reason I made it in time was because a truck had blocked the spur to Sea-Pac which they attempted to pull first but they would end up having to leave for later in the week. Seattle, WA
CSX O717 spots a load of lumber on the sporadically used spur to Olympia Building Supply in Pompano Beach, FL. The crew brought most of their train down the creaking spur which also serviced a cold storage warehouse up until about six or seven years ago. Unfortunately, especially single car cold logistics has largely disappeared from the rails in the last five to ten years.
CSXT 2724 shoves a cut of reefers through the mess at Sal's Scrap Metal toward the Hunts Point Cooperative Market. Bronx, NY
Matching CBRW SD9s 166 and 171 and GP9u 2274 pull a pair of hoppers from Columbia Bean Produce in Wheeler, WA.
Pioneer Valley Railroad GP9 7031 shoves a pair of empty hoppers down Water Street toward the Pan Am Railway interchange. The street trackage is lined with old factory and mill buildings from a more industrial era, many of which still house industrial companies operating along the canals along the Connecticut River. The line has seen regular service once or twice a week since the beginning of 2019 prior to which it had been out of service for six or seven years. Holyoke, MA
Delaware Lackawanna C420 #414 and RS32 #211 pull a cut of boxcars out of the Valley Distributing & Storage warehouse on a frigid January evening in Scranton, Pa. This customer is worked probably once or twice a week or so and is relatively unique nowadays with its complex of very large brick warehouses. For that reason it's been on my to-do list and I was lucky enough to catch the crew pull a cut of empties and spot a pair loaded boxcars on my last day of the trip.
A pair of BNSF Geeps shoves two 60' insulated boxcars past the numerous warehouses in the Spokane Business & Industrial Park toward Building 32 where they will be spotted. Two boxcars are waiting at Building 24 that will be pulled on the way out; Building 29 to the left also still receives boxcars. Spokane, WA
362 547 has just spotted three loaded "sliding-wall cars" (the European equivalent to boxcars, with the difference being that half the sidewall of the car slides open for loading and unloading instead of just one door) at Reederei Schwaben in the port of Heilbronn. The crew has to shove through the warehouse to spot the cars at an unloading dock where forklifts would begin unloading the cars and reloading the freight onto trucks the second the brakes were set. Heilbronn, Germany
In what is some of the classiest street running trackage left in the country, PVRR 7030 and 2647 take their train down Water Street past a series of old mill buildings. The train is returning from the Pan Am interchange; this spur was reactivated the beginning of this year after lying dormant for six or seven years. Holyoke, Ma
Title is a lame song reference.
A pair of Gevos return to pick up the empty boxcar set out in the middle of Tarragona Street after having spotted the loaded car at W.R. Taylor Brick. Pensacola, FL
UP 815 spots a single load of paper at the Chicago Tribune printing plant in Chicago's downtown area.
NS 4713 switches boxcars at Continental Paper Grading Co., one of the last classic customers in the downtown Chicago area. The crew will pull one load of what is some sort of shredded paper/pulp and spot two empties for loading. There is only one loading door at the building that hasn't been bricked up, and so one boxcar is spotted on each of the two tracks parallel to one another so that one can be loaded through the other. The classic brick building was built around 1890 and aquired by Continental Paper in 1932, some 82 years ago. In 2020 CPG continues to ship by rail and work in its 130 year old building on Lumber Street. Chicago, IL
The rails creak as Union Pacific's Marsh Job shoves two-hundred thousand pounds worth of product down the rickety spur to the only brick warehouse near Milwaukee's historic Third Ward still receiving rail shipments. Aside from being one of the only rail customers left in the area period, the 1891-built structure is one of the few old warehouses that still sees industrial use and has thus far avoided condo developers. In the Third Ward across the Milwaukee River, pretty much every brick warehouse that managed to avoid getting razed has been turned into condos and all industry has just about disappeared. Here in the Harbor View area, a handful of old warehouses still stand and are slowly getting turned into condos by the developers, notably the old Wayne Pigment structure just North of here which is currently undergoing conversion. Up until six or seven years ago, Wayne Pigment also still received shipments but has since relocated into a newer warehouse along CP trackage. National Warehouse still occupies the building and receives cars of salt and aggregate probably around two to four times a month. The tank behind the engine is for Elementis, one of the other three customers North of the KK River bridge. The only other rail-served customer with a classic brick building such as this that I can think of in recent memory was Continental Paper Grading in Chicago, which has since relocated and abandoned its 1890-built structure on South Lumber Street. For now, National Warehouse is holding out.
Milwaukee, WI
Prairie Line MP15DC 1001 pulls out of the over one-and-a-half century old Anheuser-Busch brewery complex with an empty hopper on the crew's first switch of the plant for the day. St. Louis, MO
An oddly paired GP38-2 and Gevo spot a loaded boxcar of bricks on the W.R. Taylor Company spur off the Tarragona Street running trackage leading to the port of Pensacola. Once spotted, the crew will pick up the empty set out in the middle of Tarragona Street and head back to Goulding Yard. I can't even remember how many trips I've made to try and catch this move as it's extremely elusive and almost exclusively done at night. Depending on demand, W.R. Taylor might get as much as two cars a week or just one every two weeks or less. The only reason this happened in daylight (and barely as it was basically dark when they finished) is because the crew wanted to stay ahead of a storm and took care of it first thing on their shift.
W.R. Taylor receives brick shipments in these classic former-SP Hydro-Cushion boxcars from Columbus, MS. A few years ago they also still got high-cube boxcars from Chicago, but that has ended due to routing changes and the accompanying higher rates. W.R. Taylor is one of only a handful of customers in the entire country that still get serviced from a spur branching off of a street running section, so the operation is extremely unique. Pensacola, FL
Here is a link to a photo of the only other time I had managed to capture the move. It was back in 2017 and the crew was pulling a high-cube that had come in from Chicago during the more usual hours of this operation: flickr.com/photos/henry_dell/33865010663/in/album-7215771...
MNNR 80, an RS23, leads a cut of boxcars from the Commercial Transload of Minneapolis along 71st Ave toward the siding. The RS23's sole job is to swap cars at the transload and International Paper (the property to the right) as demanded by the customers. The Commercial Transload reloads mostly coils and steel and often requires cuts of three cars swapped out several times a day. Cars are then interchanged with the MNNR's Belt Job which interchanges the cars at the siding just East of here. MNNR 80 is one of probably less than a handful of RS23s still actively hauling freight in the US. The former CP unit was built in 1959 and continues to earn her keep at the Minnesota Commercial on almost a daily basis. Fridley, Minneapolis, MN
NS 4713 is tucked away between boxcars and the over a century old Continental Paper Grading warehouse as the crew picks up a load of waste paper. This is some of the very last carload business near downtown Chicago and one that dates back to the 1890s. South Lumber St, Chicago, IL
CSXT 1541, one of the few GP15-1s rostered by CSX at the time, switches boxcars at Wagner Logistics. I believe all (perhaps one or two remain, I'm not sure) GP15-1s have since been retired from CSX and this warehouse no longer receives boxcars. I think the company probably moved out and a new owner now occupies the warehouse. The track was rebuilt to receive hoppers about a year or two ago, so while it's good to see rail service continue, no more boxcars are received here today. Jacksonville, FL
CSX 2625 and 5353 intercept traffic on Tarragona Street as they hook up to a pair of boxcars spotted on the spur to W.R. Taylor Company. Since W.R. Taylor only has one unloading spot, the crew will pull both cars from the siding, re-spot the load and take the empty car back to Goulding yard. This unique switching operation takers place as needed but sometimes as often as twice a week, depending on demand, but almost always at night. This day the crew wanted to stay ahead of an approaching storm and had no cars to switch around at the port, and thus they managed to get to W.R. Taylor just as dusk started to set in. While this type of scene might have been commonplace 50 years ago, nowadays this operation is one of only a handful of instances left in the entire country where a carload customer is switched out from street running trackage. Pensacola, FL
The guys at Sal's go back to work after getting a quick break to let the train pass through the commotion. Today's Hunt's point local had no cars for the market, but had plenty to pick up and re-spot at the various customers inside the market. Hunts Point, Bronx, NY
A pair of Union Pacific GP's pull a lone tank onto the industrial street trackage on Fox Avenue South along Union Pacific's East Marginal Way lead. The crew will shove the tank back down Fox Avenue South to spot at Cascade Columbia Distribution. Currently one other customer, Seatac Marine Services, receives carloads on this trackage on the track continuing straight ahead (behind me). The switch to the left leads to Emerald Services, formerly Brenntag, and seems to have been dormant for about two years now. About a year ago or so they did redo the portion of track pictured here and the switch was kept in place, so that's at least a good sign. Seattle, WA
I actually liked this view better at nighttime, so here's that: flickr.com/photos/henry_dell/53020444760/in/dateposted/
Conemaugh & Black Lick Railway SW7 #104 rolls past the extensive Gautier Steel complex after having dropped a single empty wire coil gondola at the NS interchange on the East end of town on a frigid January morning. The old mill buildings were once part of Johnstown's vast Bethlehem Steel plant which finally shut down in 1992 and much of which has been razed to date. Now under ownership of Lehigh Valley Rail Management, the CBDL continues to serve the surviving Gautier Steel complex on occasion and Johnstown Wire Technologies on the North end of town. Traffic on the line is rather irregular; this morning the crew pulled an empty gon from building 112 North of JWF Industries, which presumably serves as another unloading spot for Johnstown Wire (the plant also has a direct spur), delivered it to the interchange and tied down after a less than one hour work day. Johnstown PA
CSXT 6014 swaps a loaded centerbeam for an empty boxcar at Wholesale Building Products in Jacksonville, FL. This customer has expanded its lot over the last few years but rail service has always been very infrequent and sporadic. The crew has just spotted the centerbeam and goes to pick up the boxcar which has been set out on the spur continuing South to Coastal Films of Florida, currently the main customer in the industrial area here receiving two or three switches a week. Adcom wire used to be the biggest customer here (behind the engine in the photo), but they closed down completely three or four years ago leaving behind an empty lot.
An NS GP33ECO pulls a loaded 50' standard height boxcar at the over a century old brick warehouse of the Continental Paper Grading Company to spot one in its place for loading. Continental receives rail service once or twice a week, normally on Tuesdays and sometimes on Wednesday or Thursday. Lumber Street, Chicago, IL
WC 3018, the last Wisconsin Central GP40 on the CN roster, pulls a single hopper from Carmeuse Lime & Stone in Rockwood, WI, on a freezing February afternoon.
Today seemed a little messier than usual at Sal's Scrap Metal, which made for an even better shot as the Hunts Point Local shoves through the clutter with just the caboose. Hunts Point, Bronx, NY
A pair of BNSF Geeps lift a single 60' standard height boxcar from Building 8 in the Spokane Business and Industrial Park. At least five warehouses in the park still receive reefers or boxcars and a few more receive other shipments. I was just checking out the industrial park on some downtime and what do you know, there's the crew switching out customers. I missed most of the other switching, but as luck would have it the last thing on their list was to pull this lone boxcar from the most decrepit spur in the park, much to my delight! Spokane, WA
Union Pacific's Marsh Job takes a single gon for Miller Compressing down to street level in Milwaukee's Harbor View area. The crew would spot the loaded asphalt tanks to the left at Construction Resource Management and pull the empties and leave the gon to spot at Miller the following day. Milwaukee, WI
294 885 leads two tanks down the waterfront along the Rhine (Rhein) river after working Neska, one of four active customers along the waterfront here. The crew delivered three two-axle sliding-wall cars (effectively comparable to boxcars in the US, only with half of the sidewall sliding open as compared to the single/dual doors on North American boxcars) and the tank cars will go to another customer somewhere on the Mühlauhafen harbor island. I had always gotten a glimpse of this spur from the train when visiting family and always wanted some photos of it getting serviced. I unfortunately failed to catch the shove down to the customer so I'll have to try again sometime and catch them with the (to me much preferable) two-axle sliding wall cars, but this will do in the meantime. It's a very neat and nowadays more and more unique operation, running down quasi-street running right on the waterfront and even with some remaining patches of cobblestone in the street. I'm not sure if the crew has to abide by the awfully slow 10 km/h posted speed limit, but the speed bumps they can certainly avoid. Mannheim, Germany
Prairie Line MP15DC 1001 shoves a set of hoppers down Dorcas Street toward the Barley House for unloading at the Anheuser-Busch St. Louis Brewery. I got assigned to work out of STL for another two weeks and was glad to see the unit had been flipped the proper way round during my stay this time. St. Louis, MO
A GP38-2 leads a single boxcar for the Chicago Tribune, a flour hopper for Alpha Baking, and a CNW caboose into what's left of Grand Avenue yard. Five years ago I observed the Tribune taking strings of 10 cars or so three times a week and this entire week the crew spotted just this one car. YPR60B works here (if needed) out of Proviso twice a week on Tuesday and Friday to reach the Tribune and lower level spur of Blommer Chocolate, and judging by the car volume these days one wonders how much longer UP will bother coming down here. Aside from that, I'm sure there's plenty of interest in cropping up some more beautiful condos where the Tribune and yard are currently sitting... Chicago, IL
The Marsh Job spots a loaded boxcar at National Warehouse in Milwaukee's Harbor View industrial area. Milwaukee, WI