Working rail roads and their tracks.

[wheelbuilder]

Sorry about the sidetrack. Pun intended
The former line behind my place was part of the Albany and Hudson Railroad. It ran from about 1901 until 1929ish. My Great Grandma described taking a ride on it from Hudson to 'Electric Park' for a nickle, round trip, admission included. Electric Park was an amusement park the railroad had set up to encourage passenger riders. Bit more detail here - Upstate Earth: Albany & Hudson Electric Railway
From what I've read, there was a whistle stop just south of my place, and another stop for the New York State Troopers.
The line ran north thru Nassau, which briefly had a greyhound track while the state figured out if betting was legal there.

 

[Hay Dude]

Love upstate NY. Hudson Valley is so picturesque.
My son was recruited to play college sports by Hobart, Sienna, Quinnipiac, etc. Got to make quite a few trips up there.
Aunt & Uncle lived in Lake Casanovia

 

[Peter 315]

Here is one of our sentimental lines with 3 engines and a double crossing in front of me a few weeks ago

Here you go.....Pictures of GMTX 28

 

[Hay Dude]

Here you go.....Pictures of GMTX 28

HAH! Thats my stompin grounds. I farm a lot of land in those areas.

 

[RobS]

I've never ever, seen the "banking" of a train. That is adding an extra engine or two to push trains. Could be the BN keeps there main lines at 3% so they don't need them. Someone with more knowledge than I might add somehtign to this.

I've seen quite often an engine in the middle of a train. Is that what you are referring to? What is the benefit of that?

 

[MossRoad]

Here is one of our sentimental lines with 3 engines and a double crossing in front of me a few weeks ago

Yeah, you got just a tad more hills in PA than us in northern Indiana. :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

I've seen quite often an engine in the middle of a train. Is that what you are referring to? What is the benefit of that?

I've seen that here a few times as well. My guess would be it's either going to the shop at Elkhart or being transported somewhere else. I've never seen the exhaust heat coming out of them like the lead engines.

 

[MossRoad]

I used to drive by the Elkhart yard twice a day back in 1986-87. I recall seeing a lot of slugs. From what I've read, they'd take the diesel engine out and put in concrete for weight. Then they'd power it's drive motors from the engine it was attached to. There were dozens of them back then. Haven't seen one in 20 years at least.

View attachment 647278

michiganrailroads.com - Conrail Elkhart Yard Switchers - Late 198's, early 199's

 

[caver]

On one of the railfan sites (YT) they sometimes upload really long trains with engines in the middle running. I tried to find one recent one but now can't find it.

Edit, I found it
5~1~2~1 Engines, 322 Cars! Kearney, NE 3/2/2 1:18cst - YouTube

 

[Cub 7274]

I was not really like that though.

What happened was, they had customers along the rails, but they might only kick out 10 cars in their siding, so the big railroads said, "Unless you have 100 cars, we are not going to service you." The problem was, you do not just add some more track to have 100 cares because now an elevator has to have more track, switches, track to switch on, and something to move 100 cars. In the end it was just cheaper to haul by truck instead of railroad to comply with the 100 car siding demand.

The customers were there, the railroads just had to send out a brakeman, conductor and engineer to gather up the (10) car loads to make a single 100 train consist, and the railroads did not want to be bothered.

It was pretty dumb of the railroads: they convinced themselves they were not making money, when a lot of smaller customers were adding up to a lot of freight.

You are correct sir.......Shareholders rule