On a trip a few weeks ago along 99, UP looked quite busy with both merchandise (loose-car) and intermodal trains. More of the former than the latter, though once out in the desert BNSF (around Boron) made up for UP's lack of intermodal. BNSF was running trains about every 20 minutes - did a number on truck traffic at that grade crossing on 58 between Boron and Kramer. UP's schedule was a tad more leisurely along 99, but with longer trains than BNSF. Also, a lot of the trains were running without DPUs on the rear; are UP & BNSF running them as helpers between Bakersfield & Mojave? Is there a locomotive shortage that would make the labor cost for adding/removing helpers less than just running them on everything?

UP in particular seemed to have a lot of TOFC, mostly from the big truck lines (Swift, Roadway, etc.). Some intermodal trains had more TOFC than container blocks. In both directions. It's been years since I've seen that much TOFC. Some blocks were even moving on the merchandisers. BNSF had some TOFC blocks, too, but not as much as UP.