Monday, Nov. 20th, was the official start of "Peak Season". From now till Christmas Eve, supply chain companies will see their highest volume of packages of the year. To tackle this logistical challenge, BNSF and UPS team up to provide high priority service for the holiday packages. Chief Dispatchers, Division Superintendents, and Terminal Trainmasters are carefully monitoring the progress of their precious UPS Z-trains as they traverse the BNSF's system to and from UPS Hubs; willing to delay all other trains to prevent the Z-trains from being late. Here, the Willow Springs, IL to Los Angeles, CA Z8 races westward at nearly 70 MPH at Valentine with 30 UPS loads. This train will be one of the first Peak Season trains to arrive into Hobart Yard as the Kansas City (LPK) block it picked up enroute was designated as "peak" cargo. Somewhere along the way, the BNSF 6769 clipped an animal that has some of its remains on the plow.
