CSX spokeswoman Laura Phelps tells Trains News Wire that after a thorough review of the railroad’s Louisville-region operating plan, the railroad has informed employees that its Osborn Yard will transition from hump yard to flat yard switching beginning next week.
Phelps says the change will result in the elimination of approximately five union workers. Approximately 470 employees will still report to Osborn.
The Louisville announcement follows similar changes at the railroad’s Tilford Yard in Atlanta and Stanley Yard in Toledo, Ohio. Both of those facilities have gradually transitioned to flat yards switching as new CEO E. Hunter Harrison works to make the railroad more efficient.
Phelps says that by flat-switching freight cars, the yard will be able process trains faster.
CSX rail lines from Indianapolis; Evansville, Ind., Cincinnati; and Nashville; converge near Osborn Yard, a former Louisville & Nashville facility.
Earl there is no reason to shout. We’re not blind.
MR. SYMONDS, Do you know what a thousand jobs is, Ever been unemployed? It’s people like you that get us conductors and engineers wanting to hang you by your thumbs, how would you like to learn your job has been abolished, after fifteen or twenty years of service.
If flat switching is better why did he take Johnston yard from flat switching to a hump yard and name it Harrison yard hum can anybody answer that question
This shows exactly how ignorant the new Fuhrer of CSX is – believing ‘flat switching’ in an antiquated rural yard is going to be somehow “safer” than letting gravity do the work of switching !
I say the first fatality will occur within the first six months after the hand-humping begins.
LET THE SUPER-RAILROADER DO HIS THING…..A THOUNSAND OR MORE UNION JOBS AND 500 OR MORE MANAGEMENT POSITIONS ARE WITHIN HIS SIGHTS….
WHEN A RAILRODER RUNS A RAILROAD INSTEAD OF FINANCEIRS ONLY POSITIVE THINGS CAN THEN HAPPEN
BYE BYE “FEATHERBEDDING” THOSE DAYS ARE OVER MR. RAILROADER IS HERE……
Hunter is swinging the ax again, Just wait, more is coming boys. Hunter has no respect for anyone or anything chop, chop. $ $ $ $ $ $ $
Hump in Indy, Hump in Cinnci, Hump in Nashville. Closing Toledo (Willard is just down the road) closing Tilford and closing Louisville are smart moves. I mean how many times do you have to hump cars? Block them correctly in the first place and you don’t need that many humps.
And as a yard foreman for quite some time, yes we can switch cars rather decently with an engineer. Have an engineer and a ground man with me and it gets even better. Give me an RCO and things slow down immensely. EHH is also killing RCO’s GOOD MOVE!
Now if you either have shares in CSX or actually worked for the railroad…continue with the discussion. If you never switched a train out or invested in what your talking about…pipe down. You are irrelevant.
George Benson, flat-switching is not faster. The general idea is reducing car transit times by reducing the number of switching move per car.
CSX will run long-distance mixed trains that carry several blocks for the many yards along the way, and pick up more blocks along the way as they drop some. This somewhat works well at CN and CP, but on the more complex and heavier-trafficked CSX, I fear it will quickly gridlock the system if the pace of the changes is too agressive.
The cost differences (and other factors) between hump and flat switching can be pretty complicated, but there is generally a range of car and train volumes that determine which is best. Hump switching generally works best for small block switching of several thousand cars a day, while flat switching generally handles longer cuts better. Note the “generally” as it can also depend upon track length, commodities (some don’t go over a hump), scheduling of trains (many at once means parking trains in receiving or departure yards), train mix, etc. Moves toward larger blocks or unit trains typically favor flat or no switching, while single car marketing favors hump switching. You can also reduce the need for hump switching by pre-blocking near the origin, block swapping along the line, and then block delivery at the end.
One thing the closure of several hump yards seems to indicate is a move toward more long distance blocks and swapping, or a move away from singe car and small customer car blocks. However, it could also be caused by a redesign of the train movements, eliminating duplicate yards created by the mergers over the years, or simply a decision by someone who is known to hate hump yards.
Why cheaper? On the face of it, that shouldn’t be.
Track Hunterization effects here: http://www.railroadpm.org/home/RPM/Performance%20Reports/CSX.aspx
Radnor Yard is going to process more cars now.
Agreed with Mr. Norton. All the commenting on the matter are nothing more than an electronic bull session, and I am certain there are a lot of details that we simply don’t know. Let’s all meet back here next year at this time to see what shape CSX is in…
Could it be that the maintance of the hump yard related equipment, retarders, power switches, etc may also play a part in the decision in addition to some of the other things mentioned. Also Symonds needs to look up the meaning of the word Socialist. Union members are not Socialist.
Flat switching is considered cheaper because of manpower. Humping operations require more man power. engine crew ( engineer and conductor or single man rco operator), some older years have retarded operators and hump formans, signal maintainers other hump techs to deal with power switches and retarded problems. Even cost of electricity to power switches, switch position indicator lights and other little things. Flat switching requires a engine , a crew and a yard with hand thrown switches. Don’t get me wrong humps are faster for classifying cars, but flat witching is cheaper. I heard hunter says ” if the hump doesn’t put 1400 cars over the hill per days it’s not worth keeping them open. When he took over he had every hump make singe car cuts over the hill to study car counts at every hump yard. Usually humps allow 2 loads and 3 emptys for max cuts.
I agree with Mr. Oltmanm. Please tell us how flat switching is faster.
I said this a couple of days ago, At the risk of sounding like a broken record player I’ll say it again.
Who remembers 20 years ago when one railroad deceided to run another railroad their way. And then shut down the railroad network in the rest of the country.
To expand, if CSX starts bogging down what are the potential ripple effects? CN and CP having problems would not effect places like Chicago, St Louis, the Northeast. Atlanta?
Mr. Symonds, if you had been bothering to follow things with CSX you would know that they alredy eliminated 1000 management positions…I hardly doubt that there’s really that much fat left in the management ranks(unless you want to risk unmanaged employees, which is what happens when you actually end up with to few managers aka a manager managing more people than in reasonably possible).
Mr. Oltmann, the benefits of flat switching often involve very precise blocking of the longer trains Harrison proposes to operate. The issue will be, does CSX’s network and customer distribution lend itself to a limited number of large blocks? A very complete origin-destination pair analyses that also calculates volumes per pair is essential. A drawback is, Harrison’s basic operating plan does not like low volume or once-in-a-while moves. It’s from low volume or occasional customers that often come the worst customer service war tales.
Good reporters will be on the lookout for tales of declining customer service. Writing those stories will be pretty easy,and there will be many many sources with colorful quotes.
Generally, classification by flat switching is slower than humping. It would be nice if CSX would explain (or Trains would ask them) how flat switching is faster.
I don’t think Hunter cane up with these changes, single handled, in the few days he has been CEO. I would say they have been planned for awhile. Humter is the henchman that makes them happen.
The way to gauge the success of the new leadership at CSX will be how many more carloads they will carried this time next year. Not the cutbacks.
Gridlock will ensue. These “quick hits” are not solutions and will create new problems. Change for the sake of change is not an improvement.
I am surprised that so few ‘SOCIALISTS” will loose their job this is just a start at cleaning house.,STAY TUNED FOR WHEN THE REAL CUTS IN MANAGMET ETC START.