Rail tracking still impossible?

[Cobra427]

Now that our car has shipped, wondering if tracking the rail shipment is still impossible. There used to be ways to discover the rail car number by calling Ford Performance, and that went away. Palsapp had a backdoor way to track, and recently heard that slammed shut, too. Saw a post in which a customer said he knew his car's location by asking Ford.com support chat. Does that work?

So, is it true that once your car is loaded on a railcar, it enters a black hole? Update please.

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[Cobra427]

Checked with Ford chat and they can provide a railcar number and tell you the last checkpoint the train passed. Not great, not bad, either

 

[NJ_MachE]

Not sure where you got the idea that tracking via rail is/was impossible. There's plenty of information in the main tracking thread and many of the build week threads on tracking railcars once you get your railcar info from Ford Chat or your dealer's VVR. I used search to find these threads with helpful info, but it's posted elsewhere as well.

KCS: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/01-03-22-build-week-chat.11959/page-126#post-398642
UP: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/1-17-22-build-week-chat.12457/page-18#post-414094
NS: https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...-a-rail-car-norfolk-southern.3001/#post-98380

BNSF has no public tracking, but some folks have success calling one of the other rail companies for status info on a BNSF railcar. There's also this thread: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/bnsf-burlington-northern-santa-fe-rail-tracking.15402/

Palsapp never tracked rail even when it was working. It was just able to tell you when it was being moved (by truck) from the KCS railyard to another carrier's railyard (or your dealer for deliveries in the midwest).

 

[Cobra427]

Not sure where you got the idea that tracking via rail is/was impossible. There's plenty of information in the main tracking thread and many of the build week threads on tracking railcars once you get your railcar info from Ford Chat or your dealer's VVR. I used search to find these threads with helpful info, but it's posted elsewhere as well.

KCS: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/01-03-22-build-week-chat.11959/page-126#post-398642
UP: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/1-17-22-build-week-chat.12457/page-18#post-414094
NS: https://www.macheforum.com/site/thr...-a-rail-car-norfolk-southern.3001/#post-98380

BNSF has no public tracking, but some folks have success calling one of the other rail companies for status info on a BNSF railcar. There's also this thread: https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/bnsf-burlington-northern-santa-fe-rail-tracking.15402/

Palsapp never tracked rail even when it was working. It was just able to tell you when it was being moved (by truck) from the KCS railyard to another carrier's railyard (or your dealer for deliveries in the midwest).

Thanks. I did a search and didn't yield much, wrong keywords, I suppose. Looked at the KCS site, saw nothing about tracking. Thanks for the tip about the 800 number. This stuff should be in a pinned post.

 

[emersonsdad]

You can ask the dealer for the railcar number.

 

[Cobra427]

You can ask the dealer for the railcar number.

My dealer guy says they can't

 

[AKgrampy]

My dealer guy says they can't

The railcar number will show up on the Vehicle Visibility Report when assigned. Perhaps need them to check with the sales manager.

 

[Cobra427]

You may find this post interesting:

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/5-16-22-build-week-adventures.16322/post-431382

 

[MellowJohnny]

The railcar number will show up on the Vehicle Visibility Report when assigned. Perhaps need them to check with the sales manager.

They absolutely have the rail car number - maybe it’s just a question of when.

My dealer (probably sick of hearing from me by now…) has sent me multiple screen shots of from the Order Fulfilment Vehicle Visibility system from the time it landed in California.

But I only started seeing a rail car number after it left Kansas City (at which point it also showed as “delivered”), with the carrier - Canadian Pacific in my case - noted in brackets.

Then I poked around the CP web site and found their automated tracking 800-number.

Good luck!

 

[GreaseMonkey]

@Cobra427 is 100% correct. We are currently unable to get rail car numbers regardless the source of information. For some reason, they offloaded the vehicles at a junction in Mexico and are in the process of loading onto new rail cars. For what it's worth, Ford customer service advised me to call tomorrow after Memorial and thought they would have better info then.

I personally am not going to worry about tracking, just maybe get an occasional update late June. It's too stressful for me to follow play-by-play. Will focus on chilling the bubbly (like someone on the forum recently mentioned).

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