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Tracking Cars on Railways


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Hello and welcome to what I hope is helpful information for those of you who are trying to track your vehicles. First a couple of administrative announcement. I don't work for Ford, Lincoln, or any railroad. All that I can share with you are my experiences and those of other bloggers as they tracked their cars. Also I am tracking a Lincoln MKZ from Hermasillo, Mexico, other cars built in other locations may not apply to this forum.

 

Ok with that being said, the first part thing that you will need to track your car is the Railroad car that it is assigned to. Typically you can either find this information on Cyber D's Vehicle Tracking blog(make sure you read the rules carefully) or you may have gotten this information from the dealer or customer service.

 

Once you have that and for cars built in Hermasillo, the first place to call is CSX. The mexican railroad company FerroMex is the actual carrier but CSX tracks FerroMex shipments. Now FerroMex will only take the car through Mexico, and will typically drop off the car at a Border state such as Arizona(Nogales)

 

Here's how to track your ETTX railcar.


1. Call CSX at 1-800-235-2352
2. When prompted for location or weight, press "1" on your phone for location.
3. When prompted for the car initials, say ETTX then wait for the next prompt. OR key in 32-81-81-92 (for ETTX)(letter and position on your phone)
4. When prompted for the car number, say or key in your 6-digit ETTX car number
5. When prompted for next car say DONE.

 

From Nogales Union Pacific picks them up and starts their journey in the states. UP handles most railroad traffic west of the Mississippi and CSX handles most of the railroad traffic east of the Mississippi.

 

 

Now SMSGT, was able to find a way to track intermediate stops based upon some website that he found. I will let him add his instructions below.

 

Posted 09 February 2013 - 06:37 PM

Trying to figure out specifically what path our car is traveling on its way to IL, I came across this weather station map that you can use to possibly track your car's path. I noticed these weather stations were along railways and they also had codes like UP675; maybe UP stands for United Pacific. I took the last point where my car was and started tracing it out all the way to Chicago by only using paths listed as UP. Here is what I came up with and here is the link I'm talking about. I can't believe I'm doing this stuff on a Sat night; but it's fun.

 

http://mesowest.utah...urrTimeChecked=

 

Station Code Location

EFAW UP308

DURAN UP303

VAUGHW UP968

DAVIS UP300 SANTA ROSA, NM

NSTNOS UP355

ARVID UP273

TCMCRI UP441 TUCUMCARI, NM

OBAR UP377 TEXAS LINE

ROMERO UP453

KING UP458

DALHART KDHT DALHART, TX

CHBRNL UR096

CONLEN UP296

STEVNS UP415 STRATFORD, TX

TXHOMA UP424 TEXHOMA, OK

GOODWL UP320 GOODWELL, OK

GUYMON KGUY GUYMON, OK

OPTIMA UP383 TYRONE, OK

LIBERAL KLBL LIBERAL, KS

SHMRCK UP407

HOBART UP332

DW9907 BLOOM DW9907

GRNBRG UP323 GREENSBURG, KS

WELFRD UP430

PRATT MUN KPYY PRATT, KS

TURON UP423

PRTRGT UP394

HUTCHINSON MUN KHUT HUTCHINSON, KS

GRVLND UP324

MCPHERSON KMPR MCPHERSON, KS

GALVA UP317

DURHAM UP304

HERNTN UP330 HERINGTON, KS

LATMIR UP349

VOLLND UP428

MAPLHL UP360 TOPEKA, KS

GRANTI UP250

BUCKI UP091

LINWDL UP054

FORLKI UP020

ETON UP911 KANSAS CITY, MO

BUCKNR UP904

MYRICK UP926

BLOSER UP901

MRSHLL UP925 MARSHALL, MO

BLKWTR UP900

BNVILE UP902 BOONVILLE,MO

OVERTN UP928

ALGOA1 UP895 JEFFERSON CITY, MO

BONML1 UP903

WSNTN1 UP936 WASHINGTON, MO

GRSMT1 UP915 GRAY SUMMIT, MO

EURKA1 UP912 EUREKA, MO

GARD UP318 ST. LOUIS, MO

WALSHJ UP814

NOKOMS UP452 NOKOMIS, IL

EW1303 PANA E1303 PANA, IL

KIRKVL UP343

BURBON UP775

BONGRD UP773

ROYAL UP806

GOODWI UP045

WTSKA1 UP817 WATSEKA,IL

GRPTK1 UP787 GRANT PARK, IL

CRETE1 UP298 CHICAGO, IL

 

If your car is going to NorCal or points north DeDonut has put some information below for these trips.

 

Dedonut

And for anyone interested in the railcar shipment from Mexico to Northern California, it’s a 7 day trip:

 

Hermosillo, MX, Ferrocarril, Mexicano

Nogales, AZ, Junction Point, begin Union Pacific RR

Aldona, AZ

Tucson, AZ

Maricopa, AZ

Yuma, AZ

Salvia, CA

W. Colton, CA

Bakersfield, CA

Saco, CA

Fresno, CA

Stockton, CA

Roseville, CA

Davis, CA

Port of Benicia, CA

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Can we extend this to trucked tracking I wonder?

 

That is the next hurdle to accomplish as mine will be off-loaded the rail system tomorrow and I assume it will be trucked over to Flat Rock. What will help is when MKZtracker updates my status once departed Flat Rock for FL. It still could down by rail though.

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SMSGT, let us know when your car gets to Flat Rock if possible and mode of transportation. Probably truck don't you think?? How far is it from Markham to Flat Rock??

 

It's like 264 miles, 4 hours and 2 minutes taking I94E. I assume they would truck it over there ... all I know is they have 10 days starting tomorrow to get it down here. The interchange at Markham was delivered at 5:49pm today.

Edited by SMSgt B
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I don't understand where you get the rail # to call in the tracking from?

It was on the MKZ tracking thread yesterday with the ETTX number. Today's update and the phone call both confirm it was passed over to UP > I am also getting calls from Lincoln (not my dealer) when stuff is happening now.

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It was on the MKZ tracking thread yesterday with the ETTX number. Today's update and the phone call both confirm it was passed over to UP > I am also getting calls from Lincoln (not my dealer) when stuff is happening now.

I'm getting neither, or maybe stuff just isn't happening yet.

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I still don't see where you are getting the ETTX number from?

On the Wed update from the MKZ tracking thread mine showed loaded and with the ETTX +number listed. I wrote it down , then called using the info in this thread. On the Friday update from MKZ tracking it has updated to passing on to Union Pacific - Last I see yours has not shown being moved off the ramp- Your next step would be loaded with the ETTX number however it appears that it is no great deal as it only takes a day to get into AZ and move on to UP for Flat Rock or wherever they are going

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OK...once your car arrives at Markham, IL via Union Pacific, it will probably go to Flat Rock via Canadian National Railways. Here is their contact information. Once you get through to a human, just give them the "Railcar" number (for example: mine is ETTX 810011) and they will provide the scheduled departure and arrival dates/times.

 

Carload Service Delivery Centres

CN's Service Delivery Representatives are your connection to Operations. Whether you need reliable shipment information or assistance in moving goods, your Service Delivery Representative is here to help the team can be reached by dialing one, easy toll free number 24 hours, seven days a week.

Phone: 1-866-926-7245
Email: Service Delivery Team

Edited by SMSgt B
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  • 3 weeks later...

Ok, for those of you tracking Railroad cars, i found some useful information. When FerroMex uncouples your railcar in Nogales, Mexico, it will state Load Interchange Arrived Nogales, Sonora. Your next step is for the railcar to cross the US border and be picked up by Union Pacific. When this happens the updated status will be Load Delivered in Interchange. What that means is the FerroMex has officially turned over the railcar to UP. From this point I suggest you call UP at 800-877-5123 as they will have better information, as well as ETA information that the CSX tracking number will not have. Keep in mind west of the mississippi UP owns the majority of the rails, and east of the mississippi, CSX owns the majority. So if your tracking to the east coast(yes that means you XG!) then you will need to call CSX again once you get the Delivered in Interchange message again from UP.

 

Hope that is helpful to all..

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By the way, that UP 1-800 # hangs up on you. Here is a UP tracking phone # 1-800-272=877 then press # for live help.

 

In Transit

Passing (Union Pacific Railroad )

Dalhart, TX

Mar-04-2013, 01:10 CT

 

Called the 800 # above and they said the train was also in Kansas on it's way to Chicago (ETA 3/8). From there they said it hands off to CSX, so I will post these #'s below for anyone with cars going east, they apparently hand off and use the same rail car tracking # all the way in.

 

Union Pacific
1-800-272-9777
press #
press #

CSX
1-877-744-7279
press 5 then 6

Edited by xgman
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What does it mean when there is "no status" listed on the rail car? I think my car got delayed in Kansas for some reason so it missed the "leave schedule" Probably why no status today. Maybe the snow... After all this time waiting, it's hard not to obsess over the final delivery schedule.

Edited by xgman
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I'm now leaving Ft, Madison Iowa at 8 am today. Need to get to Chicago and then about 3 days from there to the delivery depot.\

 

update: 3/6 made it to Yard Center Illinois somewhere.

 

now they say won't move out of that depot till Monday. The wait goes on, and on, and on . . . .

Edited by xgman
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  • 4 weeks later...

I found out a way to get more detailed information from Union Pacific.

 

I had been calling 1-800-235-2352, entering the railcar number, then listening to a computer synthesized voice tell me that my car, "Departed Nogales, Mexico". Except it was difficult to understand what the computer voice was saying.

 

Here's a way to get additional information like the next city the railcar will arrive and the estimated time it will arrive. Also, this method includes an option to have the information sent to you via a fax.

 

 

  1. Call UP at 1-800-877-5123
  2. "Welcome to Automated Trace."
  3. Press 1 for english
  4. Say: "Freight"
  5. "How many pieces of equipment?" Say or enter 1
  6. "Whats the first ID?" Say the railcar number complete and clearly. Example: CN123456 all together, surprisingly faster is better.
  7. "Would you like a faxed copy of this trace faxed to you?" Press 1 for Yes or 2 for No. If yes, say or enter 10 digit fax number.

Here's what the faxed copy of my trace looks like:

 

uptrace.jpg

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