Working rail roads and their tracks.

[ArlyA]

I see those little cars are limited to 220K GVW, and carry 175K payload. Interesting dump mechanism on the side, too.

I believe they are short or small so as be unloaded down dock shuts.

 

[bcp]

The first time I worked as a carman was at a retire army depot site located in SW South Dakota called Igoo. This is located along BNSF double main line. I looked for photos or drone views of the site and didn't come up with much of the rail yard there but here is a poor one. We worked within the buildings seen here. Its doesn't look that from this distance photo but those buildings are quite large.
View attachment 856130

Black Hills Ordnance Depot, Fort Igloo at DuckDuckGo

DuckDuckGo. Privacy, Simplified.

duckduckgo.com

 

[MossRoad]

The first time I worked as a carman was at a retire army depot site located in SW South Dakota called Igoo. This is located along BNSF double main line. I looked for photos or drone views of the site and didn't come up with much of the rail yard there but here is a poor one. We worked within the buildings seen here. Its doesn't look that from this distance photo but those buildings are quite large.
View attachment 856130

Igloo, South Dakota: The Utopia That War Built

Out among the rolling hills of Fall River County — a lost city.

www.sdpb.org

 

[ArlyA]

Guys, when I was searching for Igloo rail road pics I did note those sites but didn't post them since they weren't really showing rail yard pics. That was long ago I worked there and seeing those from Igloo sure brings back memories. We sometimes worked in coal hoppers and outside, in the summer and it was so hot, you couldn't pick up tools off the cars floor. Think of it being warm out and we're under them heating the center beams enough to twist the car back.

 

[ArlyA]

I just wrote this for another forum.----------------------
Not sure this is very exciting but I was fresh out of school and a car repair station had just set up shop in the retired Igloo rail yard and hiring carmen. I believe the company's name was something like Unitram. Some of he tracks had been pulled so new/used ones had been laid down and into the large buildings there. The company bid out general service and derailment crashed cars that were privately owned. Only spent a couple of years there but while there they were bought out by North American Car who at that time owned many thousands of cars and I occasionally would see some with NA still on them today. North American was owned by a air transportation company the Flying Tigers that was created by some of the pilots in China during WWII. In general it was grain and power basin coal hoppers we serviced there and some of Unibody design which seems are now gone. (failed design?) The company wasn't operating in Igloo very long, maybe 4 to 6 years but they had another plant west in Bill WY and other locations across the USA. Any question or comments?

 

[MossRoad]

If you have access to google earth/maps, there are still many scars of the rail lines, building and foundations, and the ammo bunkers to the west. Pretty neat.
(click to enlarge)

 

[ArlyA]

This is the buildings we worked within at Igloo. Thanks to Moss for reminding me to use google earth. All the buildings in the center and top had rails into them. When the army moved munitions they used rails, so maybe that is why they had a service yard like this.. The administration building seems to have been razed.

 

[MossRoad]

There's an old munitions plant to the SW of us. Kingsbury, IN. Similar setups.

Rails in, then rails branching out on each side at angles away from the mains. Many smaller buildings spread out, so if one blows up, they all don't blow up.

After WWII, my father had several jobs working on munitions plants designs and redesigns in Kentucky, Tenn, OH, and IN. He took me over to Kingsbury before many of the old buildings were demolished. There were pits in the floors and exit slides from the 2nd floors. If there was an incident, you were supposed to jump in the pit so the explosions would roll over you instead of through you, or jump onto the slide and hope you make it out.

While the ordinance factories are mostly gone, there are now many small businesses in the old warehouses. Some new construction, and the east half has been turned into a great fish and game area. There are still 'contaminated' areas where live ordinance can be found. Plenty of signage to keep out.

Of course, Boy Scouts that were camping there in the 70s ignored those signs, so I'm told.

 

[ArlyA]

Minntac loads with 145 new cars snakes through Iron Junction headed to Two Harbors MN. Iron, MN - March 4, 2024 Quite the photo....

 

[ArlyA]

A "news photo" type image showing CN's new ore cars along with veteran Missabe cars being scrapped. The DM&IR cars certainly have paid for themselves many times over. Proctor, MN - March 13, 2024

 

[bcp]

Old with raised brake hoses, new with conventional.

Bruce

 

[Hay Dude]

I am one of 3 bidders on a very very small “rails to trails” project.
SEPTA has condemned one of the 3 railroads in my tiny town. It was a freight line that originated at the Delaware River waterfront and made its’ way through Wawa and the rest of Delaware County.

The current land/easement owner put in a request to have 1,000 feet or rails removed to turn the rail berm into a raised walking trail.

I remember when freight cars stood proudly on these very rails!

I have submitted a bid for phase 1. Phase 1 is removal of rails (to be done by SEPTA). Bid includes removal of 60 medium sized trees, removal & disposal of RR ties and related track debris and environmentally responsible disposal of 1,000 feet of RR ties and digging out 60 tree stumps and their disposal.

There are 6 phases. This is just the clearing phase.
Submitting bid tomorrow. I do not have a high confidence level of getting the job, but I do a lot of work for them already, so you never know.
Larger, unionized companies are bidding against me, so I have my doubts.

Sadly, another rust belt railroad bites the dust, and America gets one step more wussified.

But hey, we still have active railroads here, too. lol

On edit: I hope this is deemed “on topic” by the OP. I realize it’s not copied & pasted photos of fancy railroads. Just let me know if I am “off topic” and I will delete the posts and start another thread.

 

[gstrom99]

A "news photo" type image showing CN's new ore cars along with veteran Missabe cars being scrapped. The DM&IR cars certainly have paid for themselves many times over. Proctor, MN - March 13, 2024 View attachment 857063

Nice. Do you know who built the new cars?

 

[ArlyA]

I was searching for video's or photos of the rail yard in Igloo and I came across this film taken of BNSF trains passing through Igloo and Edgemont SD where I lived. This is all double main libn ribbon rails here and when I lived there in 1980, there was a steel gang there laying down some. They came with they own train they lived in it. The guy who made the video does like his meadowlarks.

 

[ArlyA]

Nice. Do you know who built the new cars?

No I don't, but I did expand that photo hoping to see but could not make it out.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

I am not sure if anyone has posted thid yet but I always thought it would be cool to have one of these to explore RR tracks.

Maybe use an ebike for a bit of help. The problem with abandoned RR tracks around here is they VERY quickly get taken back by nature. There is a privately owned rail line along the Hiawassee river in TN that I think would be fun to explore with one of these things. Travel along the tracks and find some good fishing holes. There is actually a thing called the Hiawassee Loop where the RR track doubles back over itself. Here is a video about it.

 

[gstrom99]

That bike looks scary to me. Any "exploring" like that might be deemed as trespassing, if caught.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

That bike looks scary to me. Any "exploring" like that might be deemed as trespassing, if caught.

Yeah, I know. But I promise I will be long gone by the time the cops get there. You know what I say about that. Screw them! "Thier" RR track goes through MY national forest. They are going to give me passage on it whether they like it or not.

 

[Hay Dude]

That bike looks scary to me. Any "exploring" like that might be deemed as trespassing, if caught.

Also looks like a way to get your chicklets knocked out

 

[ArlyA]

On the cover of USS corp magazine. Back when railroads were essential in the ore mines as haul trucks were tiny. Here an Oliver Iron Mining steamer switches ore cars for loading with red ore at Hull-Rust.
USS kept its rail network at Minntac long after trucks dominated everywhere else!