I stopped (well, sat at Interstate for several hours) today and saw 4 container trains.

BNSF 4030 pulled out of the yard, making an inbound hold at the light.
BNSF 4953 finally pulled in. This train and the one behind 4030 looked exactly alike!
BNSF 4667 led a westbound trio of units pulling another stacker.
BNSF 5487 and a CN took the (Z)-CHILAU
BNSF 4796 worked with NS 6573 to pull what I would guess was the NTWPAS, there was a DPU pushing.
BNSF 643 led the last one.

Two war bonnet dash-9s were a nice treat. Can anyone confirm the CHILAU as a Z or Q and any other IDs would be greatly appreciated.

Are the stack trains with mainly Hyundai containers and a block of autoracks on the end still TACKCK?

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The CHCLAU is a Z everyday except Thursday when it's a Q and it does not run on Fridays. I shot the same train, but over 300 miles to the west.

TACKCK? I've never heard of that. V-PTLCHC has been the only consistent easbound V train. During the winter it and the V-CHCTAC were the only one V trains through Northtown.

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I looked through my archives and it was longer ago than I remembered. Back in 2005, twice I caught a Q-PTLKCK (oops, I thought it was TAC).

http://twincitiesrailfan.com/photo-album/bnsf_qptlkck
http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos. ... d=V-PTLKCK (2 rp.net photos from 2004, listed as a V train)
http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos. ... Q%20TACKCK
http://www.railpictures.net/showphotos. ... P%20TACKCK

They were always a long block of green (or orange) Hyundai containers and often auto racks. I thought there were some listed as V, but I entered them as a Q train. I imagine the train continued onto a plant in the southeast - maybe via the NS or KCS.

If the BNSF is still transporting Hyundai parts, maybe they arrive in California and travel the southwest. Or maybe the UP got the service.

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I still see plenty of Hyundai containers, but I have no idea what and where they are going.

A PTLKCK running via Northtown seems a bit strange. It's certainly not the most direct route and would require it to travel through several congested terminals and mainlines that would be avoided on a more direct routing. Maybe the traffic has been rerouted or even lost but 5 years is an eternity in terms of symbols and traffic routing. That stuff is always changing.

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