It is a misnomer to call Shell a railroad in this operation. Shell is a non-railroad customer that has engine(s) and crew(s) to do the work of switching on the Shell OWNED tracks, switching that may include loading cars at one or more specific spots at the manufacturing plant as well as moving cars between the SIT Yard and Plant in both directions. The railroad allows the customer placement of a car at a single spot of the customers choosing, as a part of the normal freight rate. Any moves that a RAILROAD crew would make of that car would have a 'Intra-plant Switch Charge' applied for each move - at a facility such as Shell McKees Rocks and the SIT Yard - those charges would quickly become thousands of dollars a day in Intra-plant Switch Charges. Having Shell doing the switching with their own crew(s) and power(s) prevents the charges. Many companies that have involved railroad operations within the manufacturing facility have their own engine(s) and crew(s) so they don't incur intra-plant switch charges in keeping their operation running smoothly. Most any large plant - where multiple classes of employees are working on or around cars within the confines of the plant will have Railroad crews contact a specific party to get permission to enter the plant to do the railroad's work at the plant.
That's a very good summary @mmi16. We used contract switchers at all of our large facilities beginning in the mid-80s, with safety, reliability and cost all considered. Each of these plants had upwards of 15 miles of track and to manage the function efficiently, we worked out a daily switch schedule within each plant so that a crew wouldn't be expected to switch any spur at any time. We also insisted on having two locomotives on site to provide service in case one failed. My greatest fear surfaced when one area later wanted their own Trackmobile to switch their own area independent of the contract switch crew. I shared my concerns regarding shared track, track authority and collisions. Despite my best efforts to highlight the danger, I was ignored. Thankfully, the Trackmobile was far more expensive than thought and lacked the capacity to shove loaded cuts upgrade. The notion thankfully died and they had their car puller repaired.
