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BNSF ran what is believed to be the U.S. rail industry's first 10,000-foot intermodal train from Los Angeles to Logistics Park in Chicago earlier this week, reports Trains.com.
The 10,009-foot (including power) international intermodal stack train departed Los Angeles on May 13 and arrived at the Chicago intermodal terminal May 15. The train ran on BNSF's Transcon, on which BNSF has been steadily increasing the amount of double track in recent years. Because almost the entire 2,200-mile route has now been double tracked, siding length was not an issue. The train used distributed power: four locomotives in the front and two in the back.
BNSF is studying the use of longer trains to maximize the amount of containers that it can carry while minimizing the number of trains it takes to move the containers, which increases efficiency and takes advantage of the aggressive program of double tracking BNSF has been conducting on the Los Angeles to Chicago route for several years.