Working rail roads and their tracks.

[ArlyA]

Double loop track video made this spring. These coal cars are called extended walled gondolas with gravity dump, cars. They could be rotary dumps as well, but I did not note that when I watched the video.

 

[caver]

I smell creosote and it reminds me of the River King Runaway Mine Train at Six Flags Over Mid America (now Six Flags St Louis). That would have been back in the 70's.

 

[MoKelly]

I smell creosote and it reminds me of the River King Runaway Mine Train at Six Flags Over Mid America (now Six Flags St Louis). That would have been back in the 70's.

Small world. The runaway mine was the only “Roller coaster” I could handle as a kid. The others made me ill just watching!

MoKelly

 

[BravoXray]

The South Shore railroad here in town has about a mile of 2-track where their old station used to be. There are almost always a couple hundred cars sitting there in storage. They rent it out.

The east/west tracks running just north of Old US20 and McKinley had a couple hundred hopper cars stored there a couple of years ago. Property owners complained about them and eventually they were moved somewhere else.

Business for NS must be getting better. At the Elkhart yard there were over 70 locomotives (I stopped and counted them.) stored at the west end last summer and fall. Yesterday I went by the yard and there are only about 20 left.
A good sign for the economy?

 

[BravoXray]

We drove out to Oklahoma and back last week. From Indy to Tulsa was almost a continuous line of truck traffic. If there's a shortage of drivers, I think I know where they went.

When I sold my last two trucks in 2019, Transport Topics (Trade Magazine) was quoting numerous industry sources that there were 250-300,000 driving jobs unfilled.

 

[MossRoad]

The east/west tracks running just north of Old US20 and McKinley had a couple hundred hopper cars stored there a couple of years ago. Property owners complained about them and eventually they were moved somewhere else.

Business for NS must be getting better. At the Elkhart yard there were over 70 locomotives (I stopped and counted them.) stored at the west end last summer and fall. Yesterday I went by the yard and there are only about 20 left.
A good sign for the economy?

Yep. We've talked about that line before.

Elkhart and Western Railroad - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

He's limited to 10mph due to track conditions and size of railroad.

 

[RobS]

Yeah, the E & W goes right through where I used to work in Elkhart. I'd cross the tracks between the parking lot and the building. Always interesting watching the trains there.

 

[BravoXray]

He's limited to 10mph due to track conditions and size of railroad.

From the looks of the condition of some of those tracks, I wouldn't want to take a handcar over them, let alone those old Geeps they have and some of the loaded hopper cars I see them moving around.
I saw a crew doing some work on the tracks over around Ash/County Line road the other day. I saw a lot of orange paint marking ties in that area.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, it's something. He must have some decent customers if he can afford to keep the track in working condition.

 

[MossRoad]

I also like how he stores his engine in that fenced in cage.