by
Tom Moore on Apr 24, 2017 8:00:00 PM
Humping, the practice of sorting rail cars by allowing them to go downhill and switching each car to the desired track is used in a lot of places. I hate it! It generates a lot of damage. In my earlier life, I saw large steel coils being “smooshed” by massive collisions as the hump operator failed to slow the 200,000+ lb cargo. It turns out that Hunter Harrison, the new head of CSX, dislikes Humping too – and has closed 4 of the 50+ CSX hump yards. Hunter prefers to string like-destination railcars together at the origin and use a locomotive to marshal them to the new train.
Energy notes:
- Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister said that a handful of cartel members had reached a tentative agreement to cut more supplies
- Chinese oil refiners are becoming huge exporters. While domestic demand has skyrocketed, refining capacity has risen faster, tripling to 15% of the global total by the end of 2015 and 20% in excess of China’s needs. China predicts a further 5% rise in refinery capacity in 2017 and another 55% rise in net diesel exports, following record exports in the second half of 2016
A Tesla all-electric truck sounds great, but while Wall St. may eat it up, most remain wary of battery weight eating up the payload.
