This past weekend, i spent 21 hours in the car.
Ok, 16 of those were spent driving between San Jose and my brother's house, but that's my problem. Still, that much time at the wheel gives one plenty to think about. In my case, i wondered about boxcars.
Specifically, down around Camp Roberts, there's a stretch of 101 where some train tracks parallel the road. This track isn't used a great deal and it's not uncommon for there to be dozens of unused cars waiting on the track. Sure enough, on the trip down and back there were about a hundred or so cars waiting for.. well.. whatever it is that they were waiting for.
Thing is, they were all the same basic style (semi-open, tall cars that one could presume would be loaded up with stuff that didn't need to be protected from the elements), but more importantly, they were from all over. i spotted cars there from Union Pacific, Norfolk, Michigan Rail, several Mexican lines, and even a couple out of New England.
Now, i realize that these things are like ship containers and it's not uncommon for them to get shuffled around, but i'm betting these cost a heck of a lot more than standard shipping containers. To the point where i wondered what the economies are for these things. Are they rented and Union Pacific is burning cash by having them sit idle for a week? Do they just get ordered and tossed in the global "boxcar supply" bucket on demand? Is there some accountant wondering where the hell 20 of their cars are?
Sadly, my search-fu skills are letting me down on this.
Any ideas?
