Track a cargo train from Tacoma Washington

[DenverDTS]

Ordered a Mazda direct from Japan, and I was able to track the cargo ship it was on up to it's arrival to Tacoma, WA. Trying to find a way to track by train, from Tacoma to Denver. Any ideas if one can do this, and if so, how? I was able to track the cargo ship by knowing it was a vehicle carrying vessel, and then searched for boats departing Hiroshima and arriving in Tacoma within a 15 day radius. Anything similar, in the railroad world?

 

[Bob]

No way to track it, though your dealer certainly can. Tacoma handles thousands of autos. They all get put into auto rack cars. Picture a yard filled with hundreds of identical vehicles. They get loaded into railroad cars essentially at random. They all look alike, and don't have a license plate, though there is some kind of vehicle tag on the dashboard.
Even if you knew what car it was placed into, you can't track it unless you're the shipper or the consignee. That would be the dealer that's going to handle delivery, not you. Presumably it's going to an unload yard someplace near Denver, then be placed on an truck for the last bit of the journey. Even with access to railcar tracking, you'd need the car number and there's no way to find that for an outside party.
Short answer? Call Mazda.
Oh, and a side note? Your car will begin it's journey by travelling over tracks that the company I work for built.

 

[DenverDTS]

Thanks so much for your reply. Mazda was nice enough to tell me it was headed to Denver on a train, but that's as far as it goes.

Oh well...the trail ends here and the car will get to Denver....when it gets to Denver!!!

 

[Cliffs]

Prior to the security enhancements following the 9-11 incidents, the general public could track individual cars and locomotives. This was done by entering the car or locomotive's number into the RR's public access tracking system. Every piece of rolling stock is equipped with a permanently mounted RFID-type of device. As Bob has stated, that option is no longer available to the general public.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_equipment_identification

 

[Bob]

Prior to the security enhancements following the 9-11 incidents, the general public could track individual cars and locomotives.

That is correct. However, even then, he'd have no way to find out what railcar his auto was on, other than through the shipper. If you're talking to them, then you can also ask where it is.

 

[DenverDTS]

I was actually quite surprised by how easy it was to track vessels. Thought something similar might be in place for the railroad, but it sounds like since 911 that has been locked down.

Thanks for the input.