Edgerton, KS: BNSF Kansas City Logistics Park (Intermodal Yard)

(BNSF Intermodal History; Satellite)

Dennis DeBruler shared

It is a shame it took a collapse of their oil and coal business to force them to pay attention to other customers. I guess better late than never.

I do hope these additional parks will remove container traffic from I-55 and I-80 near Joliet. I noticed they built an overpass for LPKC before they dumped a lot of trucks on the local roads. Maybe they learned from Elwood that it is not good business to screw the local town. Elwood, IL learned they paid a big price by agreeing to intermodal yards next to them ---- lots of trucks backed up at a train crossing in the town.

I wonder how they load containers with grain. Is there a machine that will turn them 90 degrees so the doors are at the top so they can just pour the grain in?
Daniel Perry I've hauled DDG (Dried Distillers Grain, a livestock feed byproduct of the ethanol industry) into Elwood, Il. and assorted other places. To load it in containers they back them into a dock where they build a wooden bulkhead just inside the back doors, that's about 6 foot tall, then extend a long conveyor up to the front of the box and fill'r up. The conveyor retracts back into the building as the container fills, generally the container and chassis usually sits on scales in the loading dock so they can load them quickly right to maximum allowed weight. They can load cans as fast as they can dump hopper trucks coming in to deliver the product.

Daniel Perry They can load almost any grain or bulk feed product into containers like this, there is a HUGE demand for livestock feed materials in countries like Japan, Korea and other such industrialized nations we trade with as agricultural land is in short supply and they are population dense nations hungry for locally raised meat and poultry.

BNSF from Progressive Rail Roading

BNSF from Progressive Rail Roading

Update:

safe_image for BNSF tests autostrads to improve intermodal operations[autostrads is short for automated straddle carriers.]
"BNSF is the first railroad in the world to use "autostrads" that carry containers larger than 40 feet and the first U.S. rail carrier to implement the technology at an inland intermodal facility, BNSF officials said in a website post."
[In other words, someone has already automated the handling of international containers and some coastal yards already have some automation.]

Michael Schwiebert commented on Lucas' post
Automated straddle carriers. They take the container off the chassis and drive it either to the loading area for loading on to the rail car or to a holding area for later unloading (obviously the reverse can happen too for getting the container from the rail car to a truck). In this instance the straddle carriers are unmanned.