Monday, August 26, 2024

HOW DO YOU DISPOSE OF OLD NYC SUBWAY CARS??

Norfolk Southern’s Triple Crown RoadRailers ride off into history

By Bill Stephens | August 26, 2024

The final RoadRailer departed Detroit at 1:50 a.m. on Sunday; Triple Crown domestic container service begins this week

Norfolk Southern C44-9W No. 9936 couples on to the first string of train 255’s

MELVINDALE, Mich. – Norfolk Southern hotshot 255 has a 2:20 a.m. date with destiny. It’s the last departure — ever — of a Triple Crown RoadRailer train. In the Detroit terminal at Oakwood Yard, crews have 95 of the bimodal trailers staged on three tracks, ready to be assembled into tonight’s train for the 715-mile run to Kansas City.

At half past midnight on this warm Sunday, Aug. 25, however, it’s looking like destiny may have to wait.

Things started off well enough. On terminal track 18, the last trailer was mounted and pinned onto its bogie at 11:40 p.m., an occasion that prompts fist bumps and handshakes among the terminal crew. Fifteen minutes later, nearly 24-year-old NS C44-9W No. 9936 couples onto the lead cut of 33 trailers on track 15. At 12:31 a.m. the old warhorse pulls forward to double the train over to track 17.

Crews position the final trailer added to the last RoadRailer train.

But there’s a problem on the shove move and the 255 comes to a stop.

The loud hiss coming from beneath TCSZ No. 468883 is a telltale sign of an air leak.

The terminal crew swarms the trailer, inspects the line, and tightens a connection

with a wrench—but to no avail. It’s still leaking. They swap out the offending

section of rubber hose. Nope, that doesn’t work either.

Inspecting a problem brake line are, from left,

No one wants a late departure. Not for the RoadRailer finale. And certainly not for the loads in those 95 trailers, which are scheduled to arrive at the Kansas City terminal at 2:45 a.m. today (Monday, Aug. 26). Among them: Auto parts bound for the Ford Kansas City Assembly Plant that builds F-150s and Transit Connect vans.

In nearly 39 years of building RoadRailer trains, the Road & Rail Services terminal crew has seen this before. They scramble off in their orange Kubota utility vehicle and return with the prize: A bypass hose. In the span of six minutes it’s unspooled, zip-tied to the bottom of the trailer, and snugly connected to air lines at either end of TCSZ No. 468883. The air flows again, pressure holds, and the train is deemed good to go at 1:05 a.m.

Norfolk Southern conductor N.A. Noftsger lines the switch to track 18.

Engineer P.G. Green pulls the 255 into the clear and waits for conductor N.A. Noftsger to

line the switch to track 18, where the last cut of 26 RoadRailers awaits. The hitch is made at

1:27 a.m., bringing the 255 to 5,176 feet and 2,817 tons. The brake test is a success.

And the 255 inches forward at 1:49 a.m., with its official departure time recorded as 1:50 p.m.

– precisely 30 minutes ahead of schedule.

Current and former terminal employees quietly watch 255 ease out of the yard,

with some using their phones to record the event for posterity.

Mike Theisen, Triple Crown’s director of terminal operations in Detroit, joined the company in 1992 and says the final RoadRailer departure was a bittersweet event. But the newest piece of RoadRailer equipment dates to 2010, and he says the air hose drama is an example of why the equipment needs to be retired.

The age of the equipment — and its increasing maintenance needs — prompted NS to pull the pin on RoadRailer before service reliability became an issue. As if to prove this point, the final 255 encountered brake issues en route at Bluffs, Ill. The train arrived in Kansas City 4 hours, 19 minutes behind schedule.

This week, and just in time, Norfolk Southern debuts new Triple Crown domestic container service to handle the freight previously carried in RoadRailers. The eastern terminal shifts to Toledo, Ohio. Trains 255 and 256 will operate on the same schedules but using conventional intermodal well cars and Triple Crown boxes double-stack service. For a few days or weeks, some Triple Crown RoadRailer trailers may ride along TOFC-style.

Retaining the RoadRailer freight is a turnabout. In 2015, NS decided not to update the RoadRailer fleet. The Triple Crown network was pruned from 13 terminals to just the two serving the Detroit-Kansas City lane. And nearly all of the RoadRailer freight in the closed lanes went back to the highway.

Now a growth-minded NS will not only hang onto the RoadRailer business — it aims to use Triple Crown to attract door-to-door auto parts business in other lanes.

“With great appreciation for the historical role that RoadRailers played in expanding our network, Norfolk Southern is planning to retire the equipment and launch a new service product with more utility that will enable growth for our railroad and our customers,” spokeswoman Katie Byrd says. “We will shift Triple Crown business into its TCZU 53 foot container fleet, unlock capacity on existing trains, and pave the way to expand Crown services across North America.”

Norfolk Southern’s final RoadRailer, train 255, rolls through CP Arnold,

The Road & Rail Services terminal crew poses with the final RoadRailer trailer

CSX Train At Sidney, OH 9/2019

An eastbound CSX freight train ducks under the residential area at Sidney, Ohio, and crosses over the CSX ex-B&O Toledo Sub. Note the connecting track on the right that runs down the steep grade.

Monday, August 19, 2024

Alco RS-1 at Danbury Railway Museum

Sunday, August 18, 2024

2 CSX ES44AC'S Pass KN Railroad Tower at Walkerton, IN 9/27/19

Exploring the railroad nostalgia of Walkerton, Indiana as CSX ES44AC's Conquer the OWLS Diamond.

Filmed on 9/27/19 =========================================================== 📸GoPro 360 MAX! https://geni.us/GoPro360 📹 🎥 📽 Pro Video Accessories! https://geni.us/jxUdLq2 🚗Dash Cam for Road Trips! https://geni.us/dashcamu 🔭 Scope For Train-spotting! https://geni.us/starscope 🗺️ Railroad Atlases! https://geni.us/rratlas =========================================================== 🚗 🧳 Travel Accessories Kit! https://kit.co/MR77100/travel-accesso... 📸 📽 Vlogging Kits! https://kit.co/MR77100/vlogging-kits 📹 🎥 📽 Video Camera Kits! https://kit.co/MR77100/video-cameras =============================================================== #RAILROADTOWER #RAILROADCROSSING #RAILROADJUNCTION #AC4400CWLOCOMOTIVE #GEVOLOCOMOTIVE

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Long Canadian National Train at Wellsboro 2011

Saturday, August 3, 2024

RAREAmtrak Heritage #156 on EMPIRE BUILDER!

A week after catching Amtrak's Heritage P42 #156 on the HIAWATHAS, I filmed her leading the northbound EMPIRE BUILDER through Morton Grove! I received a friendly greeting from the engineer.

#AMTRAKHERITAGELOCOMOTIVE #AMTRAKGENESISDIESEL #AMTRAKPHASEONEPAINTSCHEME #HERITAGEUNIT

#AMTRAKLOCOMOTIVE156

BNSF Auto Train at Holgate, OH

RUNAWAY TRAIN CAR STRIKES NORFOLK SOUTHERN TRAIN!

Runaway car on short line strikes Norfolk Southern train, causing derailment in Michigan

By Trains Staff | August 2, 2024

Ten cars on NS train derail; leaking tank car briefly leads to shelter-in-place order

Derailed freight cars at crossing — 10 cars of a Norfolk Southern train derailed Friday in Adrian, Mich., when struck by a car moving on a short line. Screen shot from WTVG video

ADRIAN, Mich. — A runaway freight car from a short line struck a Norfolk Southern train this morning in Adrian, derailing 10 cars of the NS train, the Class I railroad told a local TV station.

The incident occurred at about 8 a.m. at a crossing of the NS and the Adrian & Blissfield railroad. NS, in a statement to WTVG-TV, said its train “was occupying a crossing … when a railcar from another railroad improperly entered the crossing and struck the Norfolk Southern train, causing 10 railcars from the Norfolk Southern train and the short line’s railcar to derail.” The collision led to a leak of pressurized carbon dioxide from a tank car on the short line’s tracks, NS said; that venting briefly led to a shelter-in-place order in the vicinity of the derailment.

The Adrian & Blissfield declined comment to the station.

Officials said no one was injured and the carbon dioxide leak posed no threat to the community. NS said it was working with local first responders and had teams on site working to clear the scene.

The City of Adrian said in a news release this evening that the tank car had been righted and streets were expected to be reopened by 7:30 p.m. Police and fire agencies were concluding operations at the scene, while railroad crews asked thart residents stay out of the area through the weekend while cleanup work continues.

Adrian is approximately 30 miles northwest of Toledo, Ohio, and 60 miles southwest of downtown Detroit.

Single Unit CSX Auto Train at Water Street, Wellsboro, IN 8/11/18

South Deshler, OH Oct 16, 2017

CSX Leipsic Railroad Tower RIP

At Leipsic Junction, a southbound CSX train hits the diamonds with the Norfolk Southern Fostoria District. Power is a GE C40-8W and an AC4400CW. For the record, this was my final shot of RN Tower at Leipsic Junction. Decommissioned since 1984, it was demolished 31 days after this video on August 27th, 2018.

#RAILROADCROSSING #RAILROADJUNCTION #RAILROADTANKCARS #AC4400CWLOCOMOTIVE #CLASSICCSX #RAILROADTOWER #CSXT

#CSXLOCOMOTIVE

CSX Rail Train 6/18/17

Friday, August 2, 2024

Monon, Indiana Looking West 7/17/18

Horrible Railroad Tracks

Here is a brief tour of the Maumee & Western Railroad at Liberty Center, Ohio. This is a former Wabash line that once connected Fort Wayne, Indiana with Toledo. It was leased to Indiana Hi-Rail Corp in 1989 after the 10-mile segment from Liberty Center to Maumee was removed. Indiana H-Rail went backrupt in 1996, and Maumee & Western assumed operations in 1997. Note the poor condition of the 80-lb rail. The line ends just on the east end of town, and is the Wabash Cannonball Trail to Maumee, where the tracks pick up again. To see this line in operation in Defiance, click 👉🏻 • Battered GP35 and Bad Track on Maumee...