On Tuesday, a small group of railroad and warehouse officials from Chicago—and one from Felton—gathered in the S. Martinelli & Co. warehouse in Watsonville to watch as workers loaded a rail car with pallets full of apple juice and other products for an 8-day trip to the Windy City.
While this may seem like a fairly mundane spectacle to the uninitiated, this was no ordinary event.
Until recently, stacks of product loaded into boxcars had to be buffered with dunnage—thick cardboard insulation and airbags—that buffered the fragile products and hopefully prevented breakage.
Even then, breakage was an unfortunate but expected by-product of shipping massive amounts of product.
But a new shipping frame designed by Lockport, Il-based CCT Shipping Frames, LLC has changed that.
The sturdy, shielded shelf-like frames—called Load Savers—can be adjusted based on the product, can hold up to 8,000 pounds of product, can be easily moved via forklift and have virtually eliminated breakage.
They can be loaded more quickly—30 minutes versus the four hours it took with previous shipping methods.
They also eliminate the need for dunnage, saving up to $1,000 per boxcar and for cleanup.
“It changes the way the boxcar is utilized in the rail industry, and it also allows the rail industry to go after products that traditionally couldn’t ship in a boxcar,” said Progressive Rail Director of Marketing Phil Smailes.
From the Martinelli’s warehouse, the rail cars are taken to the rail yard in Pajaro by Santa Cruz Big Trees & Pacific Railway, the freight service operated by Roaring Camp Railroads.
Such a service, forged three years ago, is vital for companies that rely on rail to ship their product. But it’s hard to find, since many larger rail companies such as Union Pacific prefer more profitable long-hauls over “short-line” work
And as the county ramps up for future plans by the RTC to build a countywide rail system, those services will likely see increasing demand.
Because the RTC has opted not to maintain most of the rail bridges in Santa Cruz County, freight operations are currently limited to South County.
But that could change. As traffic increases nationwide and fuel prices skyrocket, rail increase remains a good option, Smailes said.
“A rail car can move 2,000 pounds of freight 600 miles on one gallon of fuel,” he said.
Lineage Cold storage also ships products via rail, which also brings in products for companies such as Agron and Big Creek Lumber.
“Roaring Camp sees a bright future for freight rail in Santa Cruz County,” said Roaring Camp CEO Melani Clark.
Progressive Rail holds the Administration and Coordination License agreement for freight rail services on the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line, which was awarded to Progressive by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission.
Progressive has designated Roaring Camp to be its freight operator for the South County portion of the Santa Cruz Branch Line, from Lee Road to the Pajaro Junction, including two bridges, all signal equipment and two locomotives.
Freight moves between Pajaro Junction and locations in Watsonville, with active weekly operations featuring trains with up to 14 rail cars.
How does the youth get into local politics? My friends and I are interested in seeing how the new County CEO replacing Carlos J. Palacios will be elected and would like to hear about their incoming ideologies. It’s going to be interesting seeing how this plays out since palacios holds several joint powers authorities and local boards, including the Regional 911 Center, Santa Cruz Public Libraries and Central Coast Community Energy. Can’t wait to see who his predecessor is and what he has in store for Watsonville
We will definitely be looking into this, Cesar. I’d like to hear more of your thoughts on this. If you would like to write an opinion piece for the Pajaronian, you can send it to ed****@********an.com