By Theresa-Marie Wilson ~
A line of motionless train cars stretching along the tracks from Oceano and into Pismo Beach along Highway 1 has raised some concerns from folks wondering why they are there.
Although the approximately 100 cars have been there for months, Union Pacific Railroad, which owns the cars and operates the tracks, hopes they won’t be there for too much longer.
“We have a limited capacity to store rail cars,” said Union Pacific Corporate Relations and Media Representative Francisco Castillo. “The use of the rail cars is based on use and customer demand, and, at this time, we are not moving that type of product. It just depends on capacity and where there is room to store them. Right now that is the only area that we are able to store those cars.”
The railroad’s business mix includes agricultural products, automotive, chemicals, coal, and industrial products. Castillo said that the cars in the area are what are called coil cars in the railroad industry. They are designed for the transport of rolls of sheet metal, particularly steel.
“We have various types of cars in our system that we actually move commodities with, and a coil car is one of them,” said Castillo. “The coil cars were not used to transport any hazardous materials. They are empty cars.”
Union Pacific Railroad connects 23 states in the western two-thirds of the country by rail. Once the cars are needed again, they will be removed from the local area and be back on the tracks.
