UP: What Can You Ship by Rail?

What Can You Ship by Rail?

A Freight Shipper's Guide

We take a close look at all of the items that ride the rails and keep America moving.

Wondering what products you can ship by rail? The short answer is that trains can haul just about anything. From materials mined from the earth to the products that make a house a home and everything in between, you can ship it by rail.

But let’s get into a little more detail.

Don't miss the "What Can You Ship by Rail?" video at the end!

Building Materials

Pipe

Ask a rail fan and they’ll say trains build America. Even though they may be a little biased, it’s sort of true. Think about the materials used to build your own home – odds are, they probably moved by rail before making their way to the job site. Those building materials include things like:

Lumber
Pipe
Metals
Paper
Rebar
Metal Coil
Bricks

Household Goods

Household Goods

If you take a closer look at the items inside your house, most everything you see can ship by rail.

Boxes
Parcels
Shoes
Clothing
Toys
Furniture
Appliances
Electronics

Note: While railroads do ship goods that ultimately end up in peoples' homes, they typically don't ship personal property (e.g., an individual person's household goods). So where they do ship household goods, they don't ship individual households.

Food

Food

What’s in you fridge? How about your kitchen cabinets? Most of that — including the cold stuff! — can move by rail.

Packaged Food
Canned Goods
Frozen Food
Produce
Seafood
Cheese
Chocolate

Beverages

Beverages

Beverages can move by rail, too — even those that come in glass bottles.

Beer
Wine
Tequila
Orange Juice

Liquids

Liquids

Everything from the fuel that powers your vehicle and heats/cools your home to the corn syrup that sweetens your cereal can be moved by rail.

Ethanol
Biodiesel
Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF)
Corn Syrup
Petroleum
LPG

Large Items

Large Items

Rail cars can also hold really large items, especially those that can be difficult to move by truck.

Transformers
Wind Turbine Blades
Machinery
Military Vehicles

Small Items in Large Quantities

Small Items in Large Quantities

Teeny tiny items in really big quantities (better known as bulk items) are also ideal for rail.

Sand
Plastic Pellets
Soda Ash
Flour

Vehicles

Vehicles

A train can also move vehicles — and even the parts they're made of (but please note freight railroads typically don't ship personal vehicles).

Cars
Trucks
SUVs
Auto Parts

A Little Bit of Everything Else

What else? Well, just about anything can ship by rail.

Paper
Solar Panels
Waste
Feed Products
Christmas Trees
Paint
Carpet
Irrigation Equipment
Fibers
Grains
Minerals
And More

What's Left?

That leaves one question: What can’t you ship by rail? It’s a short list: Personal property, passengers, pets or other living things.

Learn More

Want to learn more about shipping by rail? Get in touch to find out where you can ship and how you can ship door to door, even if you don’t have access to railroad tracks today.

Related Articles:

What Can You Ship by Rail? video

How to Ship Oversized Freight

Have you ever wondered how large, heavy freight like military tanks, tractors or wind turbines ship by rail? While big, unwieldy items like these may seem tough to handle, railroads can find a way. It’s not uncommon to see military equipment, farm equipment and other machinery ship by rail. Referred to as “dimensional loads,” railroads can customize shipping solutions for all types of high, wide and heavy freight.

What Is a Gondola Rail Car?

When you think of a gondola, do you start daydreaming about a leisurely boat ride on a Venetian canal? While aptly named for their shallow boat-like shape, in the world of freight transportation, a gondola means something quite different.

Gondola rail cars are used to transport rugged, unfinished commodities used in construction and manufacturing. In fact, rail plays a major role in transporting the products that keep America moving, like sand, gravel, scrap metal, steel and other raw materials used to build roads, machinery, skyscrapers, shopping centers and much more. According to the Association of American Railroads (AAR), in a typical year, U.S. freight railroads transport more than two million carloads of construction-related materials.

For an in-depth look at everything you need to know about gondola rail cars and how they safely transport a wide variety of materials, read on.

How to Load and Unload Rail Cars

Rail cars can carry just about anything: cars, clothes, lumber, liquor, food, fertilizer, grains, gas and so much more. And they can hold a lot of those products, on average carrying 3-4 truckloads per rail car. So while there is no doubt that you can ship just about any type of freight by rail, the question becomes this: How do those products get into and out of rail cars?

The answer depends on what product you are shipping and in which type of rail car. Here’s an inside look at how each rail car type is loaded and unloaded.

What Is a Coil Car?

Unless you are in the construction or the manufacturing industry, you may not give rolled (or coiled) metal sheets much thought. But coiled steel is used to make many of the products we use on a daily basis, including the cars we drive, the appliances in our homes and even the lockers we use at the gym or at school.

Rail plays a big role in delivering coiled steel and other metal commodities along their journey to manufacturing plants to be made into final products ready for market. In fact, in 2019, railroads moved nearly 569,000 carloads of steel and other primary metal products, according to the Association of American Railroads (AAR).

Coiled steel is hauled in specially designed rail cars, called coil cars, which are outfitted with “troughs,” or open compartments, to accommodate various sizes of coils. For an in-depth look at everything you need to know about coil cars and how they safely transport coiled metals, read on.

Can Transportation Solve the Landfill Problem?

Cities are growing. As populations increase, so do the challenges related to municipal solid waste. At the same time, many of these growing communities are running out of space in nearby landfills — and establishing new ones nearby isn’t a viable option.

While this is a growing problem, it is not a new one. The City of Seattle faced this very challenge more than three decades ago. Thanks to Waste Management and Union Pacific Railroad, they found an environmentally friendly and cost effective solution — a model other growing communities can follow.

11 Train Facts that Could Save Your Life

Operation Lifesaver is a non-profit dedicated to rail safety education with the goal of preventing collisions, injuries and fatalities on and around railroad tracks and crossings. Every September, the organization holds Rail Safety Week, a week of awareness activities designed to help prevent track tragedies. Rail Safety Week is a time to raise awareness about the importance of rail safety education and empower the public to keep themselves safe in the presence of railroad tracks.

In honor of this important week, we’re sharing these 11 facts you may not know about trains — because they may just save your life.

Behind the Scenes with Father and Son Rail Photographers

Is railfanning genetic? As a scientist, Paul B. Larsen will tell you the answer is definitively “no.” But when you meet his son, Zachary, it makes you wonder. Both Paul and Zachary have had a lifelong love of trains, and they photograph the many trains they see, sometimes together, sometimes on their own.

With seven decades of railfanning between them, Paul and Zachary have an impressive collection of photos to document the history of their shared love of trains. Here they share their three favorite photographs from their respective collections, the stories behind them, and how they became rail fans.