Operation Ford
The news continues to circulate about changes in the rail service of the Northeast, as Guilford Rail System reaches for additional business while Conrail has been dissolved and CSX and Norfolk Southern are poised to compete directly for New England freight. In the midst of this wind of change, the transportation of Ford automobiles and trucks by rail continues into the heart of the Guilford system with little or no fanfare. Motor vehicles are such an important part of our daily life, yet one of the major distribution networks in the country hums along with little or no notice from anyone except the people that work to move the vehicles.
This operation is centered at Ayer, Massachusetts and is the point from which Ford vehicles reach the dealers throughout New England. This business is extremely important to Guilford Rail and is carefully watched in order to assure timely movement of trains and placement of railcars for unloading.
The Ford distribution system seems to flow smoothly as vehicles are brought in by rail and then are forwarded to the dealers on auto trailer trucks operated by Atlanta-based Allied Systems. The railcars arriving at Ayer had been loaded in Fostoria, Ohio at a “mixing” center. Under the current Ford distribution philosophy, vehicles are hauled from their manufacturing plants to the mixing center by rail, and the vehicles are off-loaded there for mixing. This simply means that the railcar which is reloaded at Fostoria will carry a variety of Ford products which is grouped for the individual dealer as predetermined by the orders he submits to Ford. Each carload is thus designed to maximize the delivery volume to individual dealers and minimize the number of dropoffs which the delivery trucks must make. The delivery process is thus made more efficient both in terms of number of delivery stops to be made and number of miles the truck travels less than fully loaded.
Ford required all railroads to furnish fully enclosed cars in 1989 as the means of eliminating the vandalism which had caused huge losses to the car manufacturers, dealers and carriers, and which threatened the future of rail participation in the vehicle distribution market. The height of the fully enclosed car precluded future movements through the Hoosac Tunnel at the time, and eventually the traffic routing was changed to bring the cars up from Conrail/CSX via Worcester into Ayer. CSX train ML438 brings the loaded cars into Ayer, and these are placed on the unloading tracks by Springfield Terminal switcher crews. It is significant to note that the track clearance improvement program, which was completed in 1998 and reported in the “Guilford Xpress”, has eliminated the restriction on moving the fully enclosed cars via the Hoosac Tunnel and Guilford Rail System is once again positioned to handle this traffic on the West End of the railroad.
The railcar unloading process itself is fascinating! The five unloading tracks have a total capacity of 36 railcars. If the average number of vehicles per railcar is 15, (this can vary according to type of vehicle, i.e. subcompact auto or truck), the number of vehicles to be “bayed”, or parked on the ground, can be on the order of 540 at one spotting. There are 2,000 assignable slots available, and each vehicle receives an assignment even before its arrival on the train. A barcoded label is applied to each vehicle on arrival, and this provides the means of identifying that vehicle for baying in the proper location and subsequent loading on the haulaway truck. There is a team of drivers who methodically (but rapidly) move all the vehicles to their bays, and the empty railcars may then be removed and replaced with more loaded cars. The whole process reminds the observer of a beehive, where every action is part of a large plan.
The success of the Ford distribution system depends in large part on component systems which must do what they are supposed to do. The dealers’ orders must correctly match the vehicles which move to the mixing area; the trains must move on schedule and be properly switched; the vehicles arriving at the mixing area must be properly barcoded and grouped; and the highway carriers must be available and perform the deliveries correctly. Since this all usually happens the way it should, you can bet that “there’s a Ford in your future”!
