Waterville yard.

See them moving about the yard from time to time with doors open.  Haven't caught out on the road yet.

Looking at the map

There's a small yard in Dover, NH, and what looks like a repurposed roundhouse.  That's not too far from where I saw the open doors.  But, it's definitely on the main line (or, considering the destination, the Maineline?) and the next active industry is a few towns over; the Shaws distribution Center in Wells, Maine.  I would expect that cars from the south would be going there loaded, and cars going north would be loaded further up the line with other stuff.  (Dover/Rollinsford are south of the Shaws grocery distribution center.) Definite main line running with open doors on long manifest freights.  Not an intermodal to be seen up there, nor an autorack.   Old style freight operations with passenger mixed in.

Intermodal

Here ya go Irish Rover.  Intermodal in Waterville!  Scroll around.  Empty spine cars and some with containers.  No double stacks because of clearance issues in Maine and the Intermodals usually run with mixed freight.

My oops

I never saw any intermodal on the line through Dover/Rollinsford, nor the few times I saw trains in White River Junction.  Absence of evidence does not mean evidence of absence.  Still, a lot of old fashioned freights up there.  How long has the intermodal facility been there?

I can't remember seeing...

...any cars with doors open in the Tulsa area for years and I railfan fairly frequently.

Maybe BNSF/UP are stricter with this policy.

On and Off

Until recently, the intermodal traffic has been on and off.  Now becoming more frequent! I don't foresee any plans to add clearance for double stacks as there are many old overpasses that date back to the Maine Central line back in the late 1800's early 1900's.  In fact some clearances are just high enough for "excess height" boxcars.  Most of these are overpasses on very rural roads.

Open doors

.... are a safety hazard, especially open plug doors, they actually make the car a "wide" load.  Some railroads pay more attention to safety than others. 

Open doors or not

Hello

Next time you are driving on a motorway at high speed. Open all side windows in your car. Do you feel any difference in stability? I guess so.  And besides, the fuel consumption increases too. 

That is why RR run with closed doors. Stability and fuel consumption - or if you like that is pure economy.

Just one cent from me.

Doors

While open doors do increase drag, the incremental drag of open doors is not that much, considering how un-aerodynamic a train is.  An empty open top hopper car is worse.  

If the doors are open and not secured they will roll back and forth.  They can hit somebody, they can damage the doors, they can fall off the car hitting something on the ground and they allow trespassers into the cars.  If the door gets damaged its a risk to the carmen having to work on the car or the customer employees trying to open or close the door at the customer facility.  All of which are potentially worse than drag.

Plug doors are even worse.  An open plug door sticks out from the car, which makes it wide.  In Philadelphia, where the high line crosses Walnut St. there is a through plate girder bridge that is so narrow they put the walkway on the outside of the bridge.  It wasn't that unusual to see a plug door sitting on the walkway, where it had been shaved off the car by the bridge girder.  That was if it was lucky.  Sometimes the doors would get knocked off and fall back into the parking lot 4 stories below.  A plug door falling from that height and hitting on edge will cut an automobile in half.  Seen it.

Plug doors are almost always

Plug doors are almost always closed.  If they don't want to close at a customer, we leave the car and call the car department to fix it.  Sometimes they will wedge it closed so we can get it to the shop for further repairs.

Regular sliding doors are sometimes seen open.  One customer regularly leaves them open when the car is unloaded. 

Our rules (GCOR) require plug

Our rules (GCOR) require plug doors to be closed and secured before they are moved. Not everyone complies with said rule, but it is the rule. There are no restrictions (yet) on sliding doors. However, seeing as the government is involved (FRA/GCOR), I figure there will eventually be rules on sliding doors, too.

FWIW: When I started learning railroading, you could carry the COMPANY rule book in your back pocket. It was a small black, hard cover book, comprising of 198 pages. (Just dug my old rule book out and checked!)

Today, there are a stack of books that we (train service guys) must have access to when on duty. My grip has something like 10+ pounds worth of RULE BOOKS therein, plus the other stuff I need to take with me. All of this has happened since about 1970. Once the government got involved, the rules grew exponentially and have literally reached absurd proportions. (Case in point: We received notification of a recent, Federally mandated, rule update that included office safety. As of recently, even a paper clip on the floor is now deemed a tripping hazard. No joke.)

Andre

Rules

In 1980 the hazmat rules were 2 pages in the timetable,     now they are their own pamphlet with 2 full color fold out charts.

Sliding doors

If I recall correctly, the cars were using sliding doors, although I could be wrong.

Grain boxcar doors were left open well into the 1980's on CN

I can recall seeing lots of open doors on unloaded CN grain cars heading back for loading into the mid 1980's.  I seem to recall that CN issued an order that all doors be closed on these cars in the early to mid '80s but it took a while to be implemented.  Not many open doors these days.

Marc Simpson

Open grain doors

.... are very dangerous.  One of the worst things for somebody on ground near the tracks or in a yard.  The metal grain door banding hanging out of a car is really bad.