The push for renewable energy is changing what railroads are hauling. CSX Q418 (Pavonia, NJ to Selkirk, NY) is seen coming off of the Trenton Line onto CR’s LEHL in Bridgewater, NJ on July 2, 2011. The leader is CSX’s 5107 (AC44CW), a/k/a “The William Thomas Rice Special”, and an unidentified second CSX diesel. Behind the motive power are a number of flatcars carrying some components for wind turbines. 2005 marked the first year CSX started to record these types of shipments. Since 2007, this has proven to be a steadily emerging market for CSX. Wind components shipped by rail are categorized as blades, tower sections, hubs and nacelles.
The shrouded objects seen here on Q418 are nacelles. This item houses the main shaft, gear box and generator. Average dimensions for a nacelle can be twelve feet wide by twenty feet long. On a percentage basis order, tower sections represent over fifty percent of all the wind turbine components transported by CSX. Towers seen most frequently here in the United States are about 260 feet high and are cylindrical in shape. The second most frequently shipped component by rail are nacelles, followed by the 148 foot long blades and lastly are the wind turbine hubs. CSX forecasts for 2011 are estimating a total of 2,000 carloads for all these components.