I saw a reference to a "proposed Super-Z" UPS service that UP was going to operate in a post on another forum on 6,000HP locomotives. I know that UP and BNSF run some "hot" trains for UPS between places like Chicago and Los Angeles. Does anybody know if this was a proposal to run a coast to coast service from NYC - LA? I believe the schedule was going to be a Monday departure from NY/LA with a Thursday arrival timed to accomodate UPS's sorting procedures. I did a quick google and saw that, at least for a limited time, a coast to coast train was run but it was shelved. The posts I read indicated that the UP tried to run the train but the disruption it caused on the system was substantial. Anybody have any more information on this?

Happy Fourth of July!

--Reed

The UPS "bullet" train did run on the UP for a while. It messed up, at the time, the Sunset Route, LA-El Paso so bad it took days to recover.

Who knows. That section of track is being converted to 2 main tracks.

Who knows? Now, it may come back.

Never sell the UP short. They are still digging out of a hole, but are capable of running a fast service when they get the multiple main track finished. I don't care much for them, but I definitely respect them.

UPS delivers from NY to LA in 4 business days via ground. I imagine they are using TOFC.

Also, I read about an accident last year where some UPS trailers were blown off a train by a cross wind near Port Clinton, OH as the train crossed a causeway along Lake Erie.

Santa Fe used to run the "Super C" every day during the 70's and 80's between the west coast and Chicago. It was a high-speed run-through train that was handled like a passenger train. It always had the Santa Fe's best and newest power on it, usually GP40-2's. They ran that train for years and managed to do it without messing up the division.

I wonder why we can't do it today?

quote:

Originally posted by Prof. Courtien:
UPS delivers from NY to LA in 4 business days via ground. I imagine they are using TOFC.

I believe TOFC still handles the UPS busines with the exception of the Tuesday departure (Friday delivery needed). The posts I found on the cancellation of the coast to coast "bullet train" (which had departed Tuesdays from Los Angeles, Little Ferry, NJ, and Worcester, MA) indicated that trucks were used as the replacement service for just that Tuesday departure - drivers drove through to Tulsa, OK and swapped rigs. This information is dated 2004 so perhaps things have changed given the capacity improvements on the UP and BNSF and the higher cost of fuel.


--Reed

Rich, the SF Super C actually started in the late 60's and used FP45's in warbonnet to start the service. They sometimes ran with one flat with a couple trailers and a caboose with giant SF circle emblem the full height of the caboose side. Ed

quote:

Rich, the SF Super C actually started in the late 60's and used FP45's in warbonnet to start the service. They sometimes ran with one flat with a couple trailers and a caboose with giant SF circle emblem the full height of the caboose side. Ed

And Super C dies in the 1970's according to Trains MAg rag. This is something different... although a similar concept.

I think ATSF could do it because:

1. They knew how to run a passenger train well, even in the late 60's, including keeping it OT.

2. Most of the ATSF route was either:

a. Two Main Tracks
b. Double track, or
c. Double routes (Raton Pass and the Texas Panhandle.)

SP's route west of El Paso was a mostly single track with trains dragging everything but the yard office with it. With the increase in stackers, it could not keep the SUNSET LTD OT, much less a "bullet" or "supershotter" train.

Dominic,

You are comparing the late 1960s/early 1970s with late 1990s/early 2000s! The UPS "super Z" was first tried on BNSF/NS. The BNSF did their part but NS just couldn't seem to fit the super Z in with all their manifest trains.

The UPS "experiment" then moved to the Union Pacific/CSX, powered with UP 6000HP GE units. It took 100% rider coverage on GE's part to "get the units over the road". UPS eventually decided the cost didn't justify the effort.