Vail AZ Union Pacific storage (# 0698)

Hmm…. Along I-10 just west of Benson, you see to the south side of I-10 very long lines of idle Union Pacific diesel locomotives. Per a story of a year ago, May, 2016 (see ‘UP traffic’ below), rail traffic was down 11% and Union Pacific had 292 locomotives parked at this site. While it isn’t possible to tell if there were still 292 locomotives there in June 2017, it did seem like there are a very high number of idle locomotives at the site. Per a more recent report (see ‘overall traffic’), rail traffic was up 5.2% compared to last year.

UP traffic: wolfstreet.com/2016/05/04/freight-rail-traffic-plunges-aar-april-report-photos-idled-engines-transportation-recession

Overall traffic: www.aar.org/newsandevents/Press-Releases/Pages/2017-06-21-railtraffic.aspx