Southwest Power Desk Anahiem Circus Train and the Wharves. in Tales of the Jointed Track

Yep, beside the railroad, railroad management, and all of our short comings, the Circus is in town. The Ringling Brothers Barnum & Bailey Circus was in Anaheim, and the BNSF was to move it to San Diego, CA, that Sunday. This is also, where the Stack train program, is running hard from the Long Beach docks. Usually on a late Saturday, early Sunday morning, we would reposition power toward the Long Beach area, to cover the 12 or more stack train origination's.

What is a Stack Train? For those that are near a heavy mainline, or have observed trains, they are ship containers ( like truck trailers with out wheels, they can be "trucked" on a special chassis.) placed in cars that are built for container traffic. Single well, five unit articulated sets, the containers are placed in, and another locked into place on top. These stack trains are land bridges between the coasts of the United States. It is quicker and cheaper to unload on the east or west coast, and go by rail, to the other coast, than going through the Panama Canal, or around the tip of South America. Yes there is container traffic that finds it's destination, within the US somewhere.

Southern California Call Sunday Morning:

The discussion was around the terminal Hobart Yard, the inter modal needs and the Circus train at Anaheim. The Circus wrapped up on the Saturday night performance, and was already being packed up to head to San Diego. Power was in place, a crew was readied, there was an edict, that this move was not to be delayed due to Power, Crew, or the Operations plan in general. Not that BNSF was shutting down for this, but this train needed to be moved and en route, as requested. This was repeated on the calls the last few days. The plan is in place.

After the call, and what was needed at Long Beach, I placed a D-LACWAT (Los Angeles/ Watson Yard ) a lite power only move in the crew line up for a 1200 pm call. This was going to reposition twelve locomotives, to cover the stack trains. This would come off the LA Engineer and Conductor's extra board. I was flexible, and I did not care how they did it. They just needed to get this power there.

I'm doing other chores on the territory and the phone rings. It's the LA Terminal Manager, with a concern and a complaint about the power move. The complaint was that they didn't have the crews to go and make a power move to Watson. Also the concern, was a crew start, in making this move. His solution was to place the extra power on the BARWAT (Barstow/Watson). They were changing crews anyway and had the time to pick up the extra power, add it to the train and problem solved, or was it.

I said to him, politely, what about the system General order that prohibits more than 12 locomotives on the head end of a freight train? The inbound BARWAT has 5 on the train already, so add 12 more, that 17. That's not only against the rules or the system special instructions, but almost 4250 tons of locomotives on the head end. I stated that I wasn't instructing him to break the rules, that a crew would be under a formal investigation for doing, but if that was a chance he wanted to take?, that was his and the terminals decision. Also, there is the Circus train at Anaheim, which was a hot topic the last few days. There is also a major track work project on this line, due to the heavy traffic. Disturbed track, slow orders, anything can and could happen. I stated again, you now have over 4200 tons of power alone on the head end of the train. If the train goes into emergency, for any reason, there is a 90% chance of a break in two with all this power, regardless of trailing tonnage. The tonnage of the train into Watson Yard was 9800 tons and 112 cars, a mixture of loads and empties. What if this blocks this Circus train. The reply was "Now you have me scared". It was not my intention to "scare", but lets think this through and make it work. I said, "Do you have a yard job and or local going down there?" "Yes, two of them." "Then break up the power and get them down there that way". He said, "Man..I am glad we were able to figure this out". I told him, I was glad we could work it out, and stated the power is staged at Anaheim for the Circus train, right? Oh yes it has been there for over 12 hours and a crew is on the way to get it.

The Circus train, left and arrived at San Diego on time for the 2 week performance there. The power for the stack train needs, arrived and was in place for the outgoing program. I called Watson, and said "It is coming down on two yard jobs. I'll predict them out, and I can make changes in the consists, lemme know how they show up." It all worked out, if only Northern California was as easy as this. Nah never