Class I traffic isn't all common staples: There's a lot of unusual stuff, too
6/8/2026
By Jeff Stagl, Managing Editor
There are many common commodities that all the Class Is transport, such as grain, food, chemicals, coal, lumber, paper, metals, autos and minerals.
But the railroads also move some uncommon — and rather unique — types of freight.
Last year, CN carried 467 carloads of macaroni and noodles, 48 carloads of ice cream, 18 carloads of fortune cookies, nine carloads of chewing gum, four carloads of pianos, two carloads of fly or insect sticky paper and traps and one carload of toothbrushes.
BNSF Railway in 2025 moved 32.5 billion chocolate sandwich cookies, 427 fuselages and enough energy drinks to fill about 162 Olympic-size swimming pools.
For CSX, the unusual cargo snaking through its network at any given time includes beer, nuclear waste, kitty litter, roadway salt, large wind turbines and military equipment.
In July 2025, the Class I partnered with the Florida National Guard to move 1,265 military vehicles, systems and containers. It was the guard’s largest rail operation in 17 years and involved coordination with more than 179 U.S. Army personnel.
Last year, CSX transported 1,265 pieces of military equipment through a partnership with the Florida National Guard. It was the guard’s largest rail operation in 17 years. CSXThe military equipment was moved from Fort Stewart, Georgia, to Birmingham, Alabama, where it was interchanged for transport to the final destination in Fort Irwin, California.
In addition, CSX moves rocket fuel through its TRANSFLO subsidiary and space vehicles.
Rocket-related items are among the unusual freight handled by Union Pacific Railroad, too. The Class I recently began its first mission in transporting space launch system rocket motor segments for NASA’s Artemis III lunar exploration program.
Artemis III is NASA’s second planned crewed mission to test integrated operations between the Orion spacecraft and commercial landers from SpaceX and Blue Origin to lay the groundwork for future missions, including a potential lunar landing as early as 2028.
Earlier in June, UP moved eight solid-rocket motor segments from a shipping facility near Corinne, Utah, that were heading to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Artemis III will be the world’s largest and most powerful booster rocket ever flown, according to NASA. Each booster will weigh more than 1.6 million pounds, burn more than six pounds of solid propellant every second and generate a maximum thrust of 3.6 million tons. The five-segment rocket will be 17-stories high, or taller than the Statue of Liberty from its base to its torch.
Norfolk Southern Railway received the eight rocket components from UP in Memphis, Tennessee, and then transported them to Jacksonville to an interchange with Florida East Coast Railway, which completed the move to Cape Canaveral.
In 2023, NS also was involved in transporting rocket segments for NASA's Artemis II mission.
Beyond rocket parts, NS moves a number of unusual items that pets and their owners rely on every day. Among them: more than 60,000 tons of pet food (enough to feed more than 300,000 medium-sized dogs for a year); nearly 43,000 tons of peanuts (enough to help make more than 300 million peanut butter dog biscuits); more than 30 million tons of steel (enough to produce about 120 billion pet water bowls); over 496 tons of dog beds (enough to supply 165,000 of the beds); and more than 11,000 tons of cotton (enough to produce roughly 300 million lightweight dog bandanas).
NS moves heavy equipment used in the agriculture and construction industries, including John Deere tractors (shown). The equipment is considered a dimensional load, which typically weighs more than 150,000 pounds, is more than 10 feet wide and 15 feet high, and requires custom routing, special handling or certain clearances. Norfolk Southern RailwayAnd there’s other non-typical freight handled by the Class I. Last year, NS transported 1.1 billion bottles of beer, 182 million cans of soda and a number of transformers. The railroad also moved enough potatoes to make 3 billion servings of french fries and enough coffee to brew more than 19 million cups.
In a given year, the Class I transports more than 400,000 tons of potatoes, 8,700 tons of crab and lobster meat, and 5,400 tons of fresh or frozen meat, says NS spokesperson Katelyn Byrd.
How about in a much shorter time?
“In 10 minutes, we deliver the equivalent of 11,222 bottles of wine, enough flour to bake 79,870 loaves of bread and 41,400 jars worth of pasta sauce,” says Byrd.
