Search results

Decades ago when I drove for a small fleet owner in Cleveland, Ohio, I routinely hauled center cab switcher loco's from the General Electric facility off Harvard Avenue and Interstate 77 to various customers around the country.. mostly to large scrap yards where they used to to shuttle and spot...

When I was a little one growing up in west Cleveland, there was a set of tracks nearby and a companion set of tracks for the (at that time Cleveland Transit System) thay carried light rail cars, electric overhead line powered that took communers into downtown cleveland. Anyway, when a freight...

Keep in mind that maintenance crews do have to get underneath an engine or cars to perforn maintenance, even on newer units, so a pit would be necesary, especially in a car-engine shop. Brake shoes come to mind immediately. My late mom's 2nd husband (my dad passed earliy in life), lost his...

I see American Integrity came real close to hitting the wall on her outbound segment., I mean REAL CLOSE as in less than 2 feet. I guess it's not a 'hit' unless there is physical contact though her bow wash breached the edge of the wall and put water on the sidewalk adjacent to the ship. She...

The train always wins... Never understood people playing chicken with a moving train. Never in that big of a rush to play at getting dead. I see FEC (Florida East Coast) is having car train crash issues with their high speed Brightline passanger service in Florida. They have many grade...

That setup here would eliminate most of the crossing incidents.

The shop is still there, in fact that is where the 'Big Boy' shelters at.

restore time I'd say.

It's coming here, be patient. Sure was nice the last couple days down here in the lower but that changed last night. Got up this morning to 45 outside and the central furnace was on. I've had the PEX system running in the shop for a month now. I like to keep the slab temp stabilized at 72...

True but. UP keeps a diesel locomotive in the consist to power the cars. While 4014 has an onboard generator powered by steam, it's no where large enough for auxiliary car power.

Looks a lot better today than back then.

Only been there on a sled.

Wish them luck. Not a good time to sell anything I suspect.

Good video. You can actually see it (in the distance) when driving on Route 2 going west past Sandusky, Ohio.

Been past that before.

That is it and like I said, I look straight ahead when crossing it. Didn't know it was 450 feet deep. I for sure will keep looking straight ahead now... :rolleyes:

Used to be an interurban track that ran just south of me and you can still find tie plates and spikes in the farm field once in a while.

You could be right. When I cross that bridge, I look straight ahead. I'm scared of heights, always have been.

Been to the Lima Tank plant as well but that is for another time. Truck driving isn't at all boring when you get to go to places I've been to.

94 goes right over that quarry btw. The pictures bring back lots of memories too and my post was getting long so I didn't allude to everything. Spent a lot of time there, walking around and looking. The last picture where the smokestack is, just in front of it was where the resistor banks...

Cannot remember if I posted this or not but I used to contract haul the cranks and cam shafts for EMD in McCook, Illinois, 2 trips a week from Park-Ohio Industries off Harvard Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio to EMD on specially built trailers (that Park-Ohio) had built just for hauling them They were...

Kids with way too much idle time on their hands and probably bad parents as well.

I assume that 'housekeeping' is non existent. I hear Indian trains are the same way.. Filthy.

With that much steel wheels on steel trackage and frequency, I wonder about track maintainence.

Never been a huge follower of CN rolling stock. Motive power is not pretty (unlike short lines and UP). Least the Rocky Mountaineer is pleasing to the eye, but then that is a passenger only line. I'm into nice looking motive power, why I like the Florida based FEC (Florida East Coast) rail...

When I was a kid, I fondly remember taking the predecessor to RTA (CTS or Cleveland Transit System) to Public Square via light rail (was a station within walking distance from where we lived on the West Side of Cleveland) and transferring to the Shaker Rapid Transit (the light rail cars were...

Yes and no. AmTrak goes to Union Station (Public Square) and then towards Pittsburg so no stops in between so the only alternative besides Uber is RTA (Regional Transit surface busses). Went to East 100th Street at Euclid Avenue and being an out of towner, I had no idea about the frequency of...

I can do baby swiss actually. Not whining at all, just stating what is. You don't take the train on a trip that is under a couple hundred miles anyway unless you are commuting, which I was not. I will say that in general, Cleveland is a nice town, devoid of slums and ignorant people unlike...

Don't work. Not leaving at 3 in the morning to go to Cleveland and then have to take a Uber to my destination, plus have to drive to Toledo anyway to catch AmTrak. Only 2.5 hours by car and my car gets 40mpg at 70 per with the climate control on. Now, if you wanted to pick me up and drop me...

Not really. I'm retired and no longer do that, other than hauling grain to the elevator under contract for local growers with a 5 axle rig that comes under the Federal Bridge formula (20-20-34 and 12) on 5 axles with a 10-2 spread on air on the trailer.

One thing I find somewhat arcane and that is, with Michigan's extremely high GVW weight restrictions (165 thousand on 11 axles) and no Federal Bridge Formula applied (and yes, for years I piloted an 11 axle Michigan 'sled', delivering steel), road building and rebuilding here follows the other...

Had to drive to Cleveland the other day and I found it amazing that the roads here in Michigan suck as well as the rest area's. We pay huge taxes here and insurance and Ohio is night and day better. Took 23 (pothole city) to Ohio 23 south. Once we crossed the Ohio line, everything changed for...

FRC??? It's already there, like positive train control and electronic track monitoring but it has to be used properly to be effective.

Railroads are far from dead, however, the rail companies need to up the ante' far as ongoing maintenance is concerned and refrain from cutting employees. If that was the case, the disaster in Ohio would have never happened. Got a good friend who is an engineer on the Toledo to Chicago run and...

Trains keep the economy going.

Kind of surprised that being Kalifornia, they don't require Hulker to use T4 final diesels in any re-railing equipment used there. The side mounts are blowing a wad of visible particulates. Newsome is rolling over as it happens... The lead engine (which is a Siemens) really took a hit but...

Too bad most all that ore never comes here but instead is sold to China and the EU.

Very low participation from what I see.

Looks to me like a bridge failure.

If they aren't under steam and being pulled by a diesel electric locomotive, they hold little interest for me and looks as though the UP executive rolling stock is a bit ratty too. What is with the EM B unit with no A unit?

You'll still see plain bronze journals on steel mill bottle cars today. Of course they don't go that far or fast and all of them are on private trackage.

Let me guess, Norfolk Southern again???

I see N&W had another derailment in Ohio a few days ago and Toledo is up in arms about their trains going through town with haz mat tank cars. Same trains that derailed in East *********.

I was under the impression that automakers bagged new cars prior to loading.

oooops...

Not exactly correct. Michigan is 163,000 GCCW on 11 axles. So is Ohio and Indiana on special permits on designated routes. Michigan is any road unless there is a weight restriction on that road. Back when I was trucking, I hauled many loads out of Burns Harbor and Butler Indiana as well as...

Does anyone recognize the white haired fellow with the number of the only restored and operating Big Boy on the back of his safety vest? I do and you should if you follow their steam program. There are actually 5 non operating engines in the consist. The 2 steamers, the UP Mega Diesel and the...

deleted, duplicate

I see the piston rods were removed (for good reason) and I believe both engines had Timken rollers on the wheel drive rods but what I really like is the EMD A and B units. The one picture shows the crew checking the trunnions' for excessive heat and greasing the spring shackles. Some of the...

Probably had an extra refurbished smokebox door in the shop and the impact didn't cause any damage to the flue sheet so it was all superficial.

I bet they gutted it of all mechanicals before wrecking it.

He blew the horn.....lol

But what goes downhill has to go up at the bottom...lol Didn't look at the pictures close enough to see any pedals honestly.

Wonder what is gonna be hooked to the 'head end'? Certainly not a rail speeder. I don't believe they have the 'cajonies' to pull that. Maybe a Hi Rail truck?

Probably, it gets real cold up near Houghton-Hancock

Big derailment near downtown Sandusky, Ohio yesterday. In the Toledo Blade on the front page. Mainline N&W double track, about 12-15 tank cars carrying hot paraffin wax, two flipped off the bridge and landed on the roadway below and ruptured, sending hot wax down the road. Everything heading...

Where the heck is that at Mossy?

I doubt it. It's a Dash 8 Warbonnet. If you observe various engines, you'll see that the cowlings on many look burnt. That is because at one time they either had a turbo failure or were over fueling and the exhaust cooked the paint off. Years ago I watched one pulling the grade out of the...

Overfueling or a turbo charger issue. Problem with a DPU, the head end cannot see what the pusher or mid train engine is doing.

Gee, containers are offloaded and a raft of them get loaded on trains and then get pilfered while waiting to go somewhere... Many vids out there showing that.

Interestingly, the City on Monroe, Michigan (the closest large metropolitan city to us), removed all the parking meters. They did that because the meters were contributing adversely to people visiting and purchasing items and eating at beaneries in town. Now, all parking spaces on street are...

Honestly, I've never laid eyes on a meter maid.

Actually, the only time I 'chalk' the tires is to check wheel alignment or correct inflation.

?????

Don't forget that BNSF does the oil trains too. The tentative contract entered into yesterday will eat up some of that profit with a very substantial pay increase for all employees.

I'm not all that sure they have to be tied down in the first place in as much as the car bodies are just sitting on the trucks with a king pin that isn't attached to anything either. I would presume the parking brakes would secure them enough.

It's chocks, not chalks but we knew what you meant.

All I know is the hostelers loaded those jeeps pretty quick when I watched them from a distance.

It seems like the big issue with that port is, the Panamax container ships keep running aground there. Evergreen especially had bad luck. I can see the Pacific (California) ports getting less and less traffic. It's all wadded up out there, in the bay as well as portside. Loitering ships cost...

Good question, All I know is they fill them pretty quick so I don't see how they could be tying them down but then I've only watched from a distance. I know back when the chip shortage was going on, they were moving Jeeps from various holding lots back the the main yard next to the plant and...

If you saw the way the hostelers load the cars, anything is possible. I've watched them at Jeep in Toledo, it's amazing more don't get wrecked.

Actually the covered cars are to discourage vandals and provide a rolling billboard for the spray painters that like to cover them with graphics. Also why all locomotive windshields are made from bullet proof high impact resistant glass.

They have some amazing YT video's too.

That only applies if the trackage is owned by the railroad company. If privately owned, it don't matter because he (or she) covers the cost of maintaining everything from the switch to the car stop. Most sidings to private business are owned and maintained by that business. Case in point my...

Why he has most of it delivered by tractor trailer.

One issue with the rail is and has been timely delivery of product. Good friend owns and operates a large (26 10K bottle) propane storage facility west of here and he's always had delivery issues with the rail (has a siding off the main line into his facility). The rail's philosophy is, it...

I keep wondering with ever increasing cost of diesel fuel if the railroads are also increasing the length of their consists to offset the increasing cost of fuel? I'm sure they have a contract cost but it still has to be going up Diesel-electric locomotives aren't exactly 'economical' to operate.

Saw a video of a large train carrying pre built rail panels out there.

I see slowly but surely, America's railroads are getting away creosote coated wooden sleepers and going to pre cast concrete ones. Last longer, less maintenance and no disposal issues, plus the hold down hardware stays put.

They had something over by GR because I used to deliver to them, slit coils of HR steel. Cannot remember what it was though, other than the invoices said Pullman Corp on them.

Isn't the Pullman Company (or what is left of it) a Michigan based company? I seem to remember way back in the day when I delivered steel for the company I retired from, delivering to Pullman Corporation in Western Michigan. I used to deliver to Flexible Corporation in Lodenville, Ohio too...

Not sure how abundant it is but we seem to have enough presently. Interestingly, we heat with propane and bio mass and propane is made from NG in some sort of catalytic cracking operation. Don't know the particulars however. The bio mass is cheaper for now at least. Heating season is drawing...

What is that Mossy????

FEC has some interesting rolling stock and I believe they own the Bright Line high speed passenger rail too.

Interesting, They are usually pulled by one or a pair of Warbonnets.

If you listen, there was some noise just before they derailed. Seems as though that particular spot / area has it's share of derailments.

The skid had an enclosed cab and he probably had the stereo on and the heater blower too. I bet he never heard it and if he did, what could he do anyway except get on his radio and call the boss.

I see Amtrak shut down the Acela yesterday on the north-south trackage because of the heavy snow and curtailed other passenger service in the NE. Don't believe that have the snow removal equipment like Flangers or plows out east to remove it from the tracks. Kind of like salt shakers and plows...

Probably be way past our lifetimes before high speed rail becomes commonplace here. Guess for now, we have to be content with speeds under 125 mph and most times way under that. I think FEC runs a high speed consist in Florida but I could be wrong. FEC is an interesting railroad in itself.

There are a couple really good YT video's of the Acela and one from the operators station. I think it's neat how the cars lean into the curves to offset the effects of driving into a curve at high speed. Watch a lot of train video's on YT, especially like the European ones through the Alps in...

This summer, Amy and I are planning a rail trip from here (Toledo, Ohio) to mid state Maine and plan on riding on the Acela as part of the transit. The Acela is speed restricted on everything but 2 stretches of trackage north and south bound.

Reversing gear on a steam loco is a long word I'm not going to bugger up but you can reverse any engine that has it. Loco engines and stationary engines too.. 'Waterschield' I think???

Good video and keep in mind that the rail is crowned as well and not flat on top. The crown lends itself to the self centering effect as well plus it lowers the contact patch and the lower the square inch of contact patch there is, the lower the power requirement is/are to move the train wheel...

Has to go up the other side....lol

You love every minute of it and you know it.... :D

Certainly would be. I can envision a 1 foot diameter extension cord plugged into a substation that is getting it's juice from a power plant somewhere. That somewhere is fueled by what? Kind of like the electric car thing. Where does the power originate at?

Seems kind of 'bizzaro' to me. You close coal fired power plants, people against nuclear, all about wind and solar power which only works when the sun shines and the wind blows and the increase the grid load with electric cars and electrification of railroads... What is the tipping point??

Lou... are you implying that the rail is on par with USPS fpr 'timely delivery'???? :D

Good question, probably weeks with all the interchanges.

+ 1 on that Lou. One of my hunting buddies owns the local propane dealership (no I don't get a discount other than dryer gas which is tax exempt) and he has a rather large tank (bottle) farm in Adrian, Michigan with a siding. He usually fills them via truck because the rail is very...

It is amazing isn't it. Rail is still and always will be the least expensive mode of transportation. The issue is, there isn't a rail siding at every Walmart...lol

If memory serves me correctly, don't the South Shore rails pass right in front of the old US Steel now Mittal plant? Does it terminate right in downtown Chicago?

I kind of wish I had lived during the days of the Interurbans. There is an old abandoned interurban right of way just south of me. It's getting hard to see where it was but I know as does most everyone around here where the tracks were and in some places the wooden and steel bridges remain...

You learn something every day. I knew the parent company was Indian but I didn't know there was a Mr. Mittal. Shrewd dude.

Didn't know they had anything in Europe.

Master coils hauled in gondola's and coil cars with no lids are hot rolled coils that are destined for further processing like annealing or pickling. Don't matter if they get a coating of rust on them because the oxide will be removed with further processing. The cars with lids (and the tower...

One last trivia thing Mossy....Know why some master coils are loaded in gondola's and some on coil cars with no lids, while other have lids? ...and you do know wo owns Accelor Mittal right? Hint, not us....

Certainly with one exception, US Steel in Gary is now Accelor Mittal, least I believe they are. Been away from the industry for a while.

...lol What is brown and lays in the grass.... 'Gomers Pile'... :p

Been longer than that because I retired over 10 years ago and SDI was there at least 10 years before I retired SDI, Butler). reason why I know a bit about SDI is Bussey's son and I are friends and no, he don't work for his dad either. Gary mills are union btw. ASW. Right to work only means...

I will say the cafeteria in the 'Human Building' at SDI, Butler has good food. I've eaten there many times. I know a lot of the employees as well. Place is so clean inside ( production areas) you can eat off the floor. SDI prides itself on safety and productivity. That is Bussey's credo...

BINGO

You do know what the initial primary motivator for SDI to locate in Indiana was?

Bussey stays on top of emissions standards (He's the CEO btw). Don't see that happening. Steel Dynamics plants are state of the art in process and emissions. My old employer has one of their facilities located adjacent to the flat rolled mill in Butler, Indiana. That way, transportation...

Candidly speaking, I don't give a hoot. Rounds are at 50 per and I'm happy.

The RJ Corman documentary on You Tube is one of the best I've ever seen.

Lots of diesel fuel growing Algae...

Are you saying it was past his time?

There are a few around here as well. I'd love to have one with the trucks on a section of rail. Would make a nice getaway cabin.

Too dry for me out there. I find it amazing that out there people have 'water rights'. Here where we live (and you), water rights are totally alien.

Needs the weeds trimmed around it...

D8's twin stick, twin pedals, no joystick controls. Takes a skilled operator. Probably last forever (undercarriage) too as they aren't being used for their intended purpose, bulldozing and heavy excavating . Not much brake steer going on.

Stuff grows wild here too as does Asparagus. Problem is, the cultivated stuff is so much better (high THC) and you get to pay for it. It would take a bushel basket of the wild stuff to get a buzz I imagine. Don't do that stuff myself.

Care to substantiate that?

Shortages at Harbor Freight....lol I read that Fords will be shutting down a number of assembly plants due to parts shortages including, but not limited to Chinese chips.

That is usually OTM (Off track material), like tie plates, spikes and rail joint plates, not rail. Same here, scrap recyclers won't accept it.

Kind of surprised you don't have a chopper. When I worked at a scrap yard (ran a roll off for them), they had a rail chopper that chopped it into pieces for remelt. That machine would devour rail like no tomorrow.

As many times as I've been to Flint delivering steel to GM, I had no idea about the steam train, where is it exactly? Nice rolling stock and restored town too.

All working hard too.... Warren is making money on that move....

Interesting. Pulled by 2 A units, not the usual A and B units.

The cab reminds me of Groucho Mark's face....lol

What the Canadian cordless tool destroyer refers to as junk... Quit watching him, a bit to vulgar for my taste

Had to look twice, not at the train but the bailer. Not mine though. I don't have the net storage on the back. Won't be here too much longer, I have a Kubota on order.

You mean you could see them through the fogged up windows???:rolleyes:

AN don't work in a pipe far as I know....

...and you can shut a diesel electric off while you cannot a steam loco when it's idle. Only time they get shut down is a long period of inactivity or maintenance. I suspect with rising fuel prices, Idling diesel loco's will become less and less.

Nothing is built to last today. It's the 'throw away' society we live in.

I fid that stuff to get tedious after a while.

Buffet would never sell BNSF. He's making way too much on the oil trains.

All well and good when Canada allows you to cross the border. Right now no.

Not sure that is a good financial move. Time will tell.