Humping, the practice of sorting rail cars by allowing them to…
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 Energy Minister said that a handful of cartel members have 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 payload.
