It's a Team's Life A date with a train

[chillout]

Agent calls with easy load good money (this should have been a clue) Albuquerque, NM to Gallop, NM first thing in morning delivery.

First clue is we pick up a freight forwarding terminal and our times are mixed up one says pickup after 5 pm then we get a phone call pickup before 5 pm. To be on the safe side we get there at 4:30 and yep they are ready to load us. Glad we were early.

Then we call the receiver as we do not have a delivery address (2nd Clue) and he tells us to call back in the morning about six local, as he is not sure where the train will be. TRAIN? What train... Our delivery was to Loram and nothing was mentioned that there would be a moving delivery address. The receiver is not sure where the train will be in the morning but it will be within two cities in two different states. Really starting to figure out why this load pays well.

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[Treadmill]

That sounds so cool.

 

[Moot]

It was really interesting to learn more about this train and I hope if we deliver to them again they are in a better location.

The Loram plant is located in my neighborhood. I have delivered and picked up there but never out in the field.

 

[TeamCaffee]

Moot have you seen one of these trains work? I can only imagine after watching the You Tube how crazy that must look coming down the track looking like it is on fire. Least now I will know what I am looking at if I ever do see one. It was a interesting delivery and not one I want to repeat in that area but it was really fun to learn more about that train.

 

[Moot]

I've seen the Loram grinders in action, never at night though. Depending on the vegetation and how dry it is will dictate how many "water gunners" will be on the train. I saw one dumping water midway in the train with two guys on the last car shooting from the upper deck.

 

[Moot]

Here's another video:

 

[TeamCaffee]

Well it was pretty cool seeing one up close and another one of those crazy fun things we get to do as expediters.

 

[TruckingSurv]

Linda, I have seen the Loram grinders in action, pretty impressive sparkler show! Back in I think 2012 time frame I interviewed with them, pretty low pay and long hours, I had decided I probably didn't want to work for them, but they made the call and said no thanks, OK, no problem... Anyway, in my surveying/mapping career I have been around a fair amount of rail, I wouldn't expect the "receiver dock" conditions to be much better than your recent experience most of the time, so consider that if delivering to a train again, sucks you skinned up the paint on the skirts.

Shelby

 

[TeamCaffee]

Shelby the problem is we usually do not know it is a train until we accept the load and get the details. We have delivered to two trains and both were interesting like you say they do the stop in the nicest of places.

I know if I see a train coming at me that looks like it is on fire I will know it is a Loram working and I hope some day to see this.

You know who I want to meet some day is a train conductor as they are illusive. That seems like a really tough job and that have to have a lot of knowledge to stop those beast at the right moment.