Shipper's car conversion plan may spark renewed interest in aggregates
Railroad backhauls typically are initiated by the carrier as a means of more efficiently serving two customers by using the same cars and getting more out of each equipment dollar. But Pioneer Concrete of Texas has created an in-house backhaul that should give it and its carrier, Union Pacific Railroad, a huge bang for both their bucks.
The economic feasibility of the backhaul - essentially a shuffle moving limestone and sand back and forth between Pioneer concrete plants in Houston and Dallas - relies on Pioneer's idea to modify used 52-foot steel gondola cars into 42-foot cars. But the volume on the cars is increased, not decreased, by the modification: the sides of the cars have been built up to accommodate more product vertically instead of horizontally, so that each car can haul roughly 115 tons instead of 100 tons.
The modification was essential because Pioneer had no way to expand its facilities to take standard-length aggregate cars in longer trains - something the railroads have been pushing for years. "We weren't able to go to these megatrains, because there isn't space available adjacent to our facilities," said Bill Debes, Pioneer's rail manager.
The backhaul aspect of the project was a huge selling point for UP. "We figured out a way to fill a demand on two different ends of our system," Debes said. Sand, which is abundant in Houston, and limestone, which is abundant in Dallas, both go into the production of ready mix concrete. Pioneer, one of the largest concrete producers in the world, has plants in Houston and Dallas. This allows UP to fill niches for Pioneer on both ends that previously could be accomplished only using third-party trucking.
The last piece of the puzzle is the modification of unloading systems on both ends that will allow for top unloading instead of bottom-dump unloading. "Basically we established a commodity that's in demand on both ends and we established receiving points on both ends;' Debes said. "In the past, our facilities weren't standardized to where they could take the same types of cars. Changing from a hopper-type car to a gon allows us to go into designated facilities through a standardized distribution network."
UP's operating department was sold on the idea of reducing the number of switches required by two and a half times due to the efficiency of the backhaul. "Our cycle times are improved, which is better not only for cars but also for locomotives and crews," said Curt Johnson, an official on UP's building construction products team. "It makes economic sense for us and it speeds up the delivery of our customer's product.