Pacific Harbor Line, Inc. provides origin and destination switching services for dimensional cargo (high – wide – heavy cargo) moving on the Union Pacific Railroad or the BNSF Railway. Within the San Pedro Bay port complex, if destined for direct transfer between ocean transportation and rail transportation, this cargo is handled at either the California United Terminal Berth D28, or the SSA Terminal Berth 206/207 in the Port of Long Beach . These facilities are the two break bulk terminals in the port complex that have direct transfer rail facilities (see map).

Schnabel railcar consist at J H Baxter, Long Beach
courtesy J H Baxter, 2005

Both of the direct transfer berths have weight restrictions. Shippers must ensure that the serving terminal makes a formal request to handle their cargo to the Port of Long Beach Engineering Department, and receives an approval. The request must include the specifications of the railcar(s) to be used and the characteristics of the cargo. In the planning stage for a move, shippers can make an informal determination that their proposed combination of railcar type and cargo will meet weight restrictions at the proposed berth by consulting the Port of Long Beach document "Approximate Axle Load Capacity for Heavy Lift Cargo Discharged to On-Dock Railcar” (pdf). Cargo tie-downs on cars loaded at PHL must be inspected and approved by the class 1 railroad that will be accepting the loaded car outbound from PHL.

Transformer departing SSA Long Beach
copyright Tom Paiva , 2006

For dimensional movements that do not require use of a dockside direct discharge track, PHL serves other trans-loading facilities, including a privately-owned third party facility in Long Beach, and the PHL Wilmington team track in Wilmington .

PHL's rates for movement of dimensional cargo may be found in PHL Tariff 8000D, Items 260 and 270. A portion of these rates will normally be absorbed through BNSF or UPRR's origin/destination switching allowance in their Tariffs.

For additional information on PHL Dimensional Shipments, contact Don Norton, Director of Marketing and Administration, at (310) 984-5773.