I’ve seen some strange things, but….

[rgeiter]

I’ve worked on the railroad in my younger days. It wasn’t very long, like a little over 12 years or so. I did see some strange things railroaders do. I saw some strange / unique things railroad company’s did. Well, I have something new to add that I didn’t think I’d ever witness.

I was watching the North Platte, Nebraska UP Bailey Yard live feed on Friday night. What I saw was… interesting. They were humping double stack cars. Some were single stack, some double, some were 5 pack, 3 pack, and so on. All were well cars. It wasn’t a whole train, maybe 30 to 40 cars. I did not know railroads did this. I know NS does not do this. I texted my NS conductor friend and a sent him pics. He was surprised as much as I was.

Is this a normal practice for UP or was this something else? Enlighten me please. Thanks

 

[bnsf971]

Sometimes a cut of double stacks will need to be set out, or routed to a different location than the rest of the train, but they are almost always flat-switched. I'm with your friend, I've never seen a cut of stack cars humped before.

 

[Rico]

I worked intermodal for a little while and I’ve never heard of it either.
Running late, no one is watching…

 

[bnsf971]

I worked intermodal for a little while and I’ve never heard of it either.
Running late, no one is watching…

Or, the computer routed the cars through the hump.

 

[rgeiter]

I worked intermodal for a little while and I’ve never heard of it either.
Running late, no one is watching…

That’s what I thought too!

 

[rgeiter]

Or, the computer routed the cars through the hump.

In the pics, you can see the cut list displayed. (The red/ orange display by the tower.) This seemed planned. Crazy!

 

[TheXModelRailroader]

Grand Theft Rolling stock?! Just a idea...

 

[rgeiter]

Well, not a fluke. They are humping double stacks right now. So it must be common practice for UP?

 

[Rico]

Well what do you know!
Maybe on a clear track there won’t be the sudden stop at the bottom.

If you look closely in the second pic you can actually see the kadee magnet between the rails!
Or should I switch to decaf this time of day…

 

[J.Albert]

I'll take a GUESS that the stack cars that are getting humped/classified are lower-priority shipments that don't rate inclusion into the fastest dedicated stack trains...