RE: Day 1 ConRail split. The bulk of the congestion on CSX was caused by placing former ConRail officials in charge of 'running the railroad'. Their theory of operation was 'fewer bigger trains'. based on their experience with the large yards ConRail was operating. They could not comprehend that CSX terminals were much smaller and were driven by 'turning over' the yards multiple times per day. As a consequence, they held trains in terminals for 'tonnage' which would end up being 3 or more tracks that had to be doubled to make the departing train and thereby fouled the departure end of the terminal while the doubling was taking place - no other trains could enter or leave that end of the yard until the train was gone. The inbound train that had three or more tracks worth of train had to wait until there was space in the terminal - repeat this congestion at each CSX terminal and you had a mess. After 4 to 6 months the former ConRail officials were sent on to other careers and a workable operating plan began to be formulated that took into account the operating realities of each of the CSX terminals. One size does not fit all.
